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Pool Checkers
History and Champions
Pool Checkers in New Orleans
During the early 20th century, the atmosphere
surrounding a good ole checkers game
was quite different from that which has evolved
during the second half of the century. Checkers
was played on street corners, back alleys,
barbershops, grocery stores, church basements,
or basically anywhere willing players could
congregate to face each other across the
checkerboard. The spirit of the checkers
game was to challenge each other to out maneuver,
out think, out wit, out talk, and out move
the checkers pieces to a final win.
Checkers players during that time would
readily travel from one part of the city
to another in order to satisfy their competitive
zeal at the checkerboard. These game enthusiasts
took real delight in "mugging" or
defeating their opponents by five straight
wins. Just as much fun was "hooding" the
challengers or beating their victims by
ten straight wins. However, though winning
the checkers game was an enjoyable endeavor,
it wasn't as much fun as when the loser
had to buy the winner a bottle of soda
and then personally bring it over to the
winner while indignities were shouted at
the loser when he sat down waiting for
his turn to get even. There was a real
sense of ‘fair
play’ and camaraderie in the
checkers arena in the early days of the game.
Nathaniel Leach and John Otis witnessed
how people loved to play checkers but in
so many different locations around the
city, which happened to be Detroit, Michigan
at that time. They quickly began to visualize
how these checkers enthusiasts could come
together as one body, one organization,
and play to their hearts’ content
because they saw that there really wasn't
any sense of organization to the game,
which was called "Spanish
Pool" Checkers during the
early days of the game. Also, this style
of checkers was played primarily by African
Americans throughout the United States. Classic or Straight
Checkers was considered too slow
a game and not as exciting in the play
making moves or jumping, and therefore,
it was not as appealing an activity as
Spanish Pool Checkers.
What this game needed was a system to
give it a set of distinctive rules and
a schedule of tournament matches that could
be played during different times of the
year and at various locations. Leach and
Otis noticed that this checkers format
did not have any written rules to govern
play nor were there any recorded accounts
of games or players. Generally speaking,
the checkers players simply agreed on local
rules or those accepted by majority rule.
Furthermore, no divisions, instructions,
or tournaments existed, and the streets
or locale where the checkers games were
played gave the group its name. It wasn't
just in Detroit that checkers was being
played in this manner, but rather this
format was also occurring in many other
major cities where checkerboards could
be found.
In order to change and improve on the method
of checkers play where this style of game
existed, Nathaniel and John had the vision
to devise a new format by creating a checkers
club at the YMCA in Detroit during the early
1930’s.
In 1938, the St Antoine Checkers Club held
its first citywide sanctioned checkers tournament,
and two years later, the club established
the Heavyweight and Light
Heavyweight Divisions for the checkers
tournament that same year.
However, though their idea held great merit
because it brought keen checkers players
together, it turned out that it was not easy
to collect dues from the club members, even
though these funds went against the cost
of light and heating expenses. So, many players
returned to their old ways of playing on
street corners because they didn't want to
take on the burden of some of these overhead
costs. Also, because these same players came
from all over, it was not easy to find them
again as there were no formal addresses or
names left behind; in fact, often what was
listed were merely the nicknames of these
checkers players.
However, faithful followers of the checkers
club congregated in different homes and in
local recreation centers. For many years
the checkers game continued in this vein,
though Leach and Otis still believed that
there was a better way to play the game than
in this unorganized fashion.
Still, the idea of ‘unorganized’ play
that was popular in the fashion of Spanish
Pool Checkers did not fit the vision of Leach
and Otis at all, so in 1960 they approached
Grandmaster checkers player, Newell Banks,
for some guidance as to where to take their
ideas for the game. Banks was a Grandmaster
and blindfold expert in American ‘straight’ or
regular checkers, who could offer John and
Nathaniel some instruction on how to form
an organization that would teach its members
the finer aspects of the checkers game and
show them how to maintain individual records
of the plays, or basically how to annotate
games at the checkerboard.
By the following year, Otis and Leach had
gathered the necessary support as well as
information on organizing a new membership,
and before long the American Pool Checker
Association was formed and subsequently registered
with city office. The newly devised organization
was granted a charter as a ‘non-profit’ membership
to organize all American Pool checkers players
in the U.S.
Four years later, the Association proudly held its
first major competition called the Midwest
Open Tournament. In 1965, the organization
also published the Point
Manual and Rules, which clearly laid out the
philosophy and game rules behind the new American
Pool Checker Association, or A.P.C.A.
Finally, in 1966, the dream behind Leach and Otis
began to materialize when the A.P.C.A. sponsored
the first national Pool Checkers tournament in Detroit.
For this competition, checker players were brought
together in one locale to play organized games of
American Pool Checkers.
It didn't take long before the concept spread to
Pool Checkers players across the country, and Nathaniel’s
and John’s dream was finally realized in December
1976 when the state of Georgia joined in full membership
by organizing the Georgia Pool Checker Association
as an affiliation to the American national association.
However, over the years, as the organizations grew,
modifications and some adaptations to meet the needs
of the membership were made. With time, it was clear
that there were checkers players playing the game at
different levels of expertise and experience. Therefore,
divisions were established to accommodate the various
levels of play: Top Master,
Master, Junior Master, Gold Bar and Blue Ribbon. Subsequently,
rules and regulations were adopted to govern the organization
and tournament play. The 21st century has witnessed
a growth in the membership of American Pool Checkers
in much the same way Straight Checkers is growing once
more. The American Pool Checkers Association currently
holds annual tournaments in various cities throughout
the United States.
The one major difference in the membership of this
checkers association is that more African American
players are involved in this mind sport than in regular
American checkers because this style of game is where
their roots were firmly established generations ago
in front of the grocery store or in the alley down
the street. Loyalty to this game has not wavered with
time, and many ‘old
time’ African American players got with
the new program of organized play. American Pool Checkers
is a timeless part of the American ‘Black’ culture.
The question that has been posed throughout the years
is why Pool Checkers primarily became a sport of the
Black population. Some have speculated that it derived
from a European variant of the game of Spanish Checkers
that slaves had played in the Caribbean and then brought
it into New Orleans generations ago in the 18th or
early 19th centuries. As Ervin Smith, head of the National
Pool Checkers Association, has commented: "I
think it's for the same reason you see these kids wearing
baggy pants down to their knees. It's the desire to
have something different. Look at our name: American
Pool Checker Association."
From where did the ‘pool checkers’ component
in the name come? Any guess is viable. In all
likelihood, the name pool checkers may have
something to do with the way in which the checkers
pieces are moved around the checkerboard like
billiard balls on a pool table.
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