SPORT PALACE

This is the infamous Sport Palace, a pool-playing gambler's dream come true where all were fair game where no one remained unscathed.

The year was 1981. I had just returned from a 6 year sabbatical in Jackson, MS where I watched a very young Reid Pierce mature as a player into a U.S. OPen Champion.

The Sport Palace was a place where you were either a lamb waiting to be sheared or a wolf looking for a meal. You either learned the ways of the Green Felt Jungle and morphed into a wolf in sheep's clothing or you just stayed as their food source.

The pool rooms of today, coddle the customers, chasing away the hustlers, the gamblers and anyone else that might take a bite out of the pool room's customers wallet. The Sport Palace wasn't that way. I remember one day, after spending a couple of years at the Sport Palace learning my trade I was approached by the once famous road player Al Werlein for a game of one pocket. At that time, I didn't know Al from Adam but he wanted to play a race to 4 for $300. I was a little skeptical because I could always read people pretty well and I knew Al was a seasoned veteran that would do almost anything to win.

I stalled a while and made my way over to the owner, Earl Heisler who was a well known pool player himself and quietly asked, "Al wants to give me 9-7 playing one pocket for a race to 4 for $500, do you think that's a good game?" All Earl would do is he wrinkled his eye brows and looked deeply into my eyes and inquired, "Do you think it's a good game?" I replied that I didn't know how Al played but knew he wasn't anyone to take lightly. Earl suggested that if I was concerned about the game, that perhaps I should consider lowering the stakes. That way if I lost I wouldn't lose too much at one time and it wouldn't hurt as bad. If I won or broke even, well... I did this for a hobby, albeit a serious hobby, I could just be happy with a smaller win. This made PERFECT SENSE to me. If I lost, I could always ask for an adjustment on the spot and everyone always wanted a piece of "Joey with a Tie". That was a moniker that I had bestowed on me because I always entered the pool room wearing at least a tie and most often a coat as well.

This is the way the Sport Palace was. You either learned how to gamble or you simply lost more than you won. There was action in the Sport Palace EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE YEAR. It didn't matter if it was Christmas Day, you could get played for small or large stakes and from just about anyone. The casinos and video poker machines hadn't moved in yet and the only other competition for the gambler's dollars was at the local race track and not everyone liked to bet on the horses.

Old man Pete ran the BOILED SEAFOOD enterprise for Earl Heisler and Louie Knott. Pete was a "colored man" as he was called back in his day and everyone treated Pete with the respect of a Master Chef. Pete boiled the very best seafood I have ever eaten in my life and there are scores of people around that can attest to his culinary skills. Pet didn't cook anything but the freshest of seafood. I remember watching him boil crawfish and it was a sight to behold. Pete, would empty a sack of crawfish out onto a conveyer belt where the crawfish would have a chance to make an escape before being dumped into the wonderfully seasoned, boiling water. Those that didn't twitch a whisker were almost always snatched up and discarded as not being desirable. The crawdads that twitched even a whisker eventually made their way into a purging tank of extraordinary size where they were cleaned. Vegetation or other seafood that wasn't a crawfish were discarded with the rest of the dead crawfish. After the crawfish were purged and cleaned, they were sent to the boiling pot which could boil at least 50 lbs at a time. Pete never hurried with any of his seafood and no one, not even the owners, ever told him how to boil his seafood. Pete never gambled or even played pool, but his culinary skills made him a favorite person at the Sport Palace and when the fresh seafood was removed from the boiling pots, everyone knew it was time to take a break from the pool and only the most seriously occupied gamblers dared miss a hot meal from Pete the Seafood Man.

Another unique thing about the Sport Palace (there were many) was that Earl was not shy about matching up with a pool player from out of town for BIG MONEY $$$$ and then just as the match got underway, Pete would open the doors of the boiling room which (remained closed most of the time) and billows of seasoned steam would emerge filling the pool room with enormous amounts of moisture. Living in New Orleans surrounded by water and below sea level, we didn't need additional moisture but Earl liked to have an edge and the visiting pool players who didn't know the move were soon in for a shock of their lives. The tables would play so boingy many of them simply gave up, frustrated and angry but mostly befuddled at what had take place. They really couldn't be too angry. At least they had a chance to savor the most delicious seafood in the world even if they lost their dough.

The pool room was the feeding spot of all of the hustlers of the Greater New Orleans area and one could always get action small or large any day of the week including Sundays, which was just another day for the pool players.

The Sport Palace also had a little private card room in the back out of the way of the law and other nosey people. It was a private club and you supposedly had to be a member of the club. They even had a charter for the club but the only dues I paid to enter was the green backs that I brought with me.

I've attached a newspaper articled published July 23, 1981 that I thought you might like to see. My mom had seen the article and clipped it out of the paper, wrote the date on the article and kept it for me all these years and I just recently scanned it and thought you might like to peer into yesteryear at one of the finest player's room in the country. My mom has since passed away but this is one of the ways that I get to remember the love she had for me and all of her children.

Hope you enjoyed peering into yesteryear.
JoeyA