The L. A. Pool League was organized in the Spring of 1974. The concept was to establish a League wherein the players would vote for their officials and the team captains for League policies. The original members of the Board of Governors: Austin Griffin, Lee Petrovich, Jerry Kuder, Larry Ehmpke and Jay Belleville acting as the first League Secretary (later to be called President). Participating bars that first season were: Bunkhouse, 1170, Outcast, Detour, Falcon's Lair, Griff's, Rusty Nail and Stud.

The League was originally intended to be a once-a-year happening, but such great enthusiasm was generated during the first season of play that the captains immediately voted to have both a ten-week Spring tournament and an eight-week Fall tournament. Austin Griffin's communication with San Francisco produced the first Inter-City Challenge in August 1978. Lee Petrovich prepared the first League logo which adorned our stationery in Fall 1978. As_the_League_grew, we were thirty-two teams strong in the Spring of '79, so did the job of scheduling. For the convenience of all the players, wallet-sized schedules were introduced in the Spring of 1979 by Marvin Beisel. The current L. A. Pool League logo was also introduced during that season. The Fall 1979 season introduced the first major change in our score sheets. Prior to that season, one player in the playing sequence had a seven-game delay during the match. Larry Ehmpke revised the grid and eliminated that problem.

In the Spring of 1980, the new and still-used score sheets were welcomed by everyone. The League has always voted to elect its members to the Board of Governors. Prior to Spring 1980, however, members would submit their friends' names for consideration. All to often those members receiving the most votes declined to serve. The policy was changed in Spring 1980. The "BOARD RUNNERS CLUB" was then established when League members willing and able to serve could nominate themselves. In the Summer of 1980, to aid all future Boards in scheduling play for a season, Lee Petrovich prepared schedules for as few as fourteen teams and as many as sixty. The hardest League task, scheduling, was now made much easier. The Inter-City Challenge, now to include San Diego as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles, became known via a conference of Board members from each city as the West Coast Challenge (W.C.C.). The first W.C.C. was held in Los Angeles in 1980. Fund raising events were now needed to augment our treasury. For many seasons Don Carrier held pool seminars,  donating all fees collected to the League treasury. Roy Hutchison introduced the popular Broomstick Tournament in the Fall of 1980 to generate still more funds. Up to this point, the League had operated with a four division structure, but it became necessary that Fall to schedule six divisions when our team total reached forty-eight. In keeping with that growth, Board Secretary Keith Clements designed and introduced the Division Certificates which are awarded to the top team and top individual in each Division. Also that Fall, the captains voted to increase the eight-week Fall season to ten-weeks, thus matching the Spring season.

The L. A. Pool League was organized in the Spring of 1974. The concept was to establish a League wherein the players would vote for their officials and the team captains for League policies. The original members of the Board of Governors: Austin Griffin, Lee Petrovich, Jerry Kuder, Larry Ehmpke and Jay Belleville acting as the first League Secretary (later to be called President). Participating bars that first season were: Bunkhouse, 1170, Outcast, Detour, Falcon's Lair, Griff's, Rusty Nail and Stud.

The League was originally intended to be a once-a-year happening, but such great enthusiasm was generated during the first season of play that the captains immediately voted to have both a ten-week Spring tournament and an eight-week Fall tournament. Austin Griffin's communication with San Francisco produced the first Inter-City Challenge in August 1978. Lee Petrovich prepared the first League logo which adorned our stationery in Fall 1978. As_the_League_grew, we were thirty-two teams strong in the Spring of '79, so did the job of scheduling. For the convenience of all the players, wallet-sized schedules were introduced in the Spring of 1979 by Marvin Beisel. The current L. A. Pool League logo was also introduced during that season. The Fall 1979 season introduced the first major change in our score sheets. Prior to that season, one player in the playing sequence had a seven-game delay during the match. Larry Ehmpke revised the grid and eliminated that problem.

In the Spring of 1980, the new and still-used score sheets were welcomed by everyone. The League has always voted to elect its members to the Board of Governors. Prior to Spring 1980, however, members would submit their friends' names for consideration. All to often those members receiving the most votes declined to serve. The policy was changed in Spring 1980. The "BOARD RUNNERS CLUB" was then established when League members willing and able to serve could nominate themselves. In the Summer of 1980, to aid all future Boards in scheduling play for a season, Lee Petrovich prepared schedules for as few as fourteen teams and as many as sixty. The hardest League task, scheduling, was now made much easier. The Inter-City Challenge, now to include San Diego as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles, became known via a conference of Board members from each city as the West Coast Challenge (W.C.C.). The first W.C.C. was held in Los Angeles in 1980. Fund raising events were now needed to augment our treasury. For many seasons Don Carrier held pool seminars,  donating all fees collected to the League treasury. Roy Hutchison introduced the popular Broomstick Tournament in the Fall of 1980 to generate still more funds. Up to this point, the League had operated with a four division structure, but it became necessary that Fall to schedule six divisions when our team total reached forty-eight. In keeping with that growth, Board Secretary Keith Clements designed and introduced the Division Certificates which are awarded to the top team and top individual in each Division. Also that Fall, the captains voted to increase the eight-week Fall season to ten-weeks, thus matching the Spring season.

In Spring 1981, a new base was added to our team Traveling Trophy. The new base, now containing our logo, gave us another eight years of usage. This same season a new plate was made for the Mike Lavoie Award and our logo was added to this award as well. Still another important policy change took place. Dues, which had been originally collected on a weekly basis, were now to be collected in full in advance of play. At a mid-season meeting, the captains agreed that dues should be collected at the time of the registering of teams in a season-beginning Captains' Meeting. Consequently, in the Fall of '81 the Captains' Registration Meeting became policy. Our first W.C.C. Individuals First Place trophy was won by Frank Bustamante. During the Fall of 1981, Roy Hutchison encouraged Don Carrier and Jim Taube to build and provide the League with two two-foot by six-foot pool tables to be used at events such as Pioneer Days, Christopher Street West and other fund-raising events. This carny-type attraction was a productive contributor to our Fundraising Committee. Roy, continuing to be our Chief Fundraiser, introduced several new things to the League in the Fall of 1981, including the purchase of League T-shirts and jackets. That same season saw the birth of the first Alternates Tournament. What better way to disseminate our history and seasonal data than a seasonal "GUIDE"?

The Spring 1982 "GUIDE," the first of its kind, was introduced by Marvin Beisel at a time when League teams had reached a record high number of fifty-eight! Wanting to be prepared in case the League grew beyond the sixty-team schedule already on hand, Lee Petrovich went to work and extended our scheduling file. The League was now prepared to schedule up to and including seventy teams, although that number was never to be reached. "CHALK TALK" came into use during this Spring 1982 season, when Secretary Bill Dehn used it as a weekly newsletter to accompany the weekly standings. Marvin Beisel used the "CHALK TALK" (later changed and called "CUES/NUES") as a vehicle in Data Boy magazine to write about pool-in-general and the Pool League in particular. His first column appeared in the March 4, 1982 issue. Spring 1982 was the start of still another fund-raising event to be called The Bar Owners/Managers Tournament. In the Summer of 1982, Bob Holden and Roy Hutchison organized the League's first Nine-Ball Tournament. This was a five week season with eleven teams participating. The bars represented were: Bunkhouse, Four Star, Gregís, Griffís, One, Pits, Nail, Spike, Westside and Woody's. Since its founding, the Nine-Ball organization operates financially independent of the regular Eight-Ball League. Its logo was devised at this time. Eight-Ball League captains, eager as they were to watch the Alternates and the Bar Owners/Managers Tournaments, felt left out. By popular demand, Fall 1982 saw the beginning of the Captains' Cartel. Prior to the Fall 1982 season, Secretary Bill Dehn had completely rewritten our Organization/Playing Rules which had become extremely wordy through the years. That same season, our fundraisers introduced the first League pin which contained our logo and the words "Since Spring '74." And, for the third time in our history a mid-season vote by the captains became necessary. The Recording Secretary Steve McGuire, with assistance from Don Carrier, Bill Dehn and Wayne Babin, was determined to change the play-off eligibility number for individual players. The captains quickly approved the change allowing the top thirty-two players to compete in the final rounds of the season. Paul Bussiere went on to win the W.C.C. top individual trophy. The League jumped from forty-six teams in the season before to fifty-eight teams in Spring of 1982. That number was reached again in Fall of '83, both seasons coming during Bill Dehn's service as Secretary.

Team participation stayed above fifty teams for eight seasons (Spring '82 - Fall '85), but except for the two 1988 seasons never again exceeded that number. Just prior to the Spring 1983 season, a Long Beach Pool Team challenged our top team and top individuals (winners of the Fall '82 season). In a best of three matches, our Pits team won the first and second matches with nine-to-four victories. Paul Bussiere, Pits member and West Coast Challenge Individuals champion, protected his title by repeating his recent victory in San Diego. Other Individual trophies went to Doug Hedland (Four Star), second place: Dwight from Long Beach, third place: Frank Bustamante (Greg's) placing fourth. At the W.C.C. following the Fall '83 season, Dan O'Neill placed first in the Individual Tourney. An important event happened for the first time immediately following the Spring '83 Pool Party, the first CSW Festival Games which included Tennis, Swimming, Billiards, and Bowling. The Games, scheduled one week prior to Gay Pride Weekend, found many League members entering the Billiards competition. Regulation tables were used for the Eight-Ball and Nine-Ball events which were won by Jeffrey Hersh and Paul Bussiere respectively. Once again, an L.A. player, Wally Sutherland, won the Individuals competition at the W.C.C. We celebrated our Tenth Anniversary (and twentieth season of play) in the Fall of 1983, by renting Trouper's Hall in Hollywood for our Anniversary party. Caps were given to all that attended bearing our League logo. Entertainment was provided by Jo Ann Deering and the highlight of the evening came from Wayne Babin and George O'Hara as they presented the representative from AID for A.I.D.S a check from our League in the amount of $4,793.

By a vote at the Fall '90 Captains' Registration Meeting, the "John E. Isakson Memorial Award" was established. The trophy is awarded to a league sponsor for their support and dedication to the Los Angeles Pool League. Mr. Harry Wiles, the proprietor of Mr. Mike's was honored with the first presentation of the trophy at the Fall 1990 Pool Party held at the Connection. The captains also voted during the Fall '90 meeting to increase league dues to $120, effective with the Spring '91 season. Al Ballesteros took over the production of the "GUIDE" for the Spring '91 and Fall '91 seasons. A major change in our "Rules of Play" was voted in by the captains in Fall '91. Slop-Shot was out and Call-Shot (Pocket) was in. The distinguished John E. Isakson Memorial Award was presented to the Spike. Accepting on behalf of the Spike was partner and General Manager, Mr. Vince Gioielli. The seasonal Awards Banquet was delayed to coincide with the playing of the Twenty-fifth West Coast Challenge, where Paul Bussiere was to win his second top individuals trophy.

In Spring 1992, the production of the "GUIDE" returned to Marvin Beisel, and Jeffrey Hersh served an unprecedented seventh term as President of our league. The Spring '92 season featured more pool seminars conducted by Don Carrier and Don Lee, and another "first" entered into our records of winners of our seasonal Hi/Lo tournament would for the first time play against their counterparts from the other cities at the West Coast Challenge. The Challenge was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on July 9, 1992, and led to a victory by our Lodge team (Bussiere, Holecek, Calderone, Dreibus, and Kelly). At that time, the John E. Isakson Memorial Award honored the Bunkhouse for their thirty-seven seasons of solid support to our League. Accepting for the Bunkhouse was Richard Griffin, owner and long-time League supporter. That same evening, Special Recognition Awards were presented to Mr. Donald Cerf and Mr. Joe Dreibus. Fall '92 started with a change of pace. The Captains' Meeting was held at the Rawhide on a Monday night instead of the traditional Tuesday. Jeffrey Hersh passed the "CUES/NUES" pen to then President Bill Hoover. Jeffrey's first "CUES/NUES" column, as noted within this history, was March 28, 1985. With very few exceptions, this informative column kept us and the community advised of all league happenings for seven years. At the W.C.C. in San Francisco, Dan Klapp fought back after an early round defeat in Individuals play to win it all!

Spring '93 marked an end to an era for the L.A. Pool League. Marvin Beisel said goodbye to the League he had served so well since 1977, and moved east to Las Vegas. Over his tenure with us he had variably served as a six-term President (actually "Secretary" at the time), League Historian, and the first and long time-thereafter publisher of our "GUIDE" (Spring '82), in addition to pleasing us with his humorous accounts of League and activities in many issues of "CHALK TALK" and "Cues/News". Don Carrier and others began work on designing and producing several AIDS quilts to honor and remember former League members who had been taken from us. The season ended on a positive note at the summer West Coast Challenge in San Diego where Paul Bussiere took the Individual Challenge Trophy (his third). We celebrated the start of our fortieth Season in the Fall of 1993, with a healthy thirty-eight teams from nineteen participating bars. Although losing teams from the Rawhide, the Hyperion and the Boulevard, we added teams from the Pub, the Motherlode, Gauntlet II, and the Detour. Such changes symbolized the evolution of a healthy organization. Glenda Davis, pinch-hitting for Marvin, put together a special anniversary issue of the "GUIDE," the first to appear in an eight-and-one-half by eleven inch format. The highlight of the season was our fabulous Twentieth Anniversary banquet at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown L.A.! Amidst a glorious decor orchestrated by John Cochran we celebrated forty seasons of League accomplishments. Special events of that evening were the awarding of the Beisel Award to Doug Heaney, the Sportsmanship Award to Frank Bustamante, and the presentation to the League by Don Carrier of two memorial quilts in honor of those former members with us only in spirit. Joe Dreibus and Don Lee, our Hi-Lo team, placed first at the Long Beach-held West Coast Challenge.

1994 started with a BANG! The magnitude six-point-eight Northridge earthquake on January 17th shook us all awake early (four-thirty-one) in the morning, and left behind a condemned Hollywood Billiards building and a severely damaged Club 22. Griffs and the Driveshaft joined the Hollywood Billiards in leaving us, but we were joined by the new bars Oasis and Catch One. We hosted the Forty-First West Coast Challenge in July. The event, held at the Burbank Hilton, was a great success, and was made even more so by the first place victory of our In Touch East team: Don Carrier, Don Lee, Dan Klapp, Frank Bustamante, Rick Ayres, and Jack Frohman. Club participation remained the same in the Fall of '94, but for the first time after seven seasons of Jeffrey Hersh and Bill Hoover presidencies, we had a new President, Dale Correll. This season was also the first when members of the League walked as a group in the Tenth Annual AIDS WALK. Seventeen League members raised over $3,500 for APLA in completing their ten kilometer hike. Fall season brought an interesting first in League history: two women, Doreen Federoff and Chris Yamagata, won the first place finish in a special tournament doubles competition "Lucky Draw". Lauren Ward, newly migrated from arch-rival San Francisco, took first place Individual honors at the West Coast Challenge held, appropriately enough, in San Francisco. Scott Holecek and Paul Bussiere presented to us the first of several complimentary League banners that were hung in the Challenge hall.

We began the new millennium, 2000, with continuing shifts in team membership. Bananas slipped away, Catch One became "Catch 22" by closing on Tuesdays (with a shift of its players to Mavericks), the Boulevard returned to our ranks after an extended absence, and Chico's joined us for the first time from Montebello. For the first time, the Board allowed two single teams  from Motherlode and Escapades to pair together as sister teams to insure the loss of two bars which could only field one team each. Total teams, thirty-two; total participating clubs, seventeen. Two important changes in League policies were voted in at the January Captains' meeting. By a vote of twenty-two to zero with three abstentions, the Captains endorsed a Board recommendation that team dues be increased to $160 per team, a long delayed action necessitated by rising costs for all League activities. The Captains also voted to hold team play-offs prior to Individuals' play-offs, so that winning team members would not dilute the Individuals' competition. Janell McKane was welcomed to the Board as League statistician. At the L.A.-sponsored Forty-First W.C.C., team championship returned to the League courtesy of the W.C.C. host-Shooters team Ward, Bailey, Bustamante, Jose Bermudez and Gibbi Tkatch. Season number fifty-four, Fall 2000, began with the return to League leadership of Jeffrey Hersh, elected in the Spring along with other ex-presidents Dale Correll, John Cochran, and Bill Dehn. Unfortunately, health reasons prevented Dale from assuming his Board duties before the season began. Despite losing Chico's and Mavericks, team membership jumped to a surprising thirty-eight teams with the addition of new teams from Lil' Wonder Bar (L.A.) and Encounters (Pasadena), full sister teams from Motherlode and Escapades, and eight (8!) teams from Stevan Bailey's Rawhide-Shooters. For the first team in League history, voting rights at our startup Captains' Meeting were given to any member in attendance, not just the team Captains. A Hersh goal was to strengthen the League's financial status. Under his guidance and with his financial support the "Weekly Standings" were mailed to all League members. Better publicity for our special fund-raising tournaments  including a new special tournament for "New Players and Under Five-Hundred" greatly increased member participation and the balance of our League treasury (watched carefully by Treasurer Bill Dehn and auditor Terry Irwin). Fall season brought with it the efforts of a Hersh-inspired Rules Committee that simplified, condensed, and clarified League rules of play. In October, League stalwart Bob Holden passed away leaving more than twenty years of League participation and contributions behind him; among those contributions, Bob was a winner of "The Mike LaVoie Award" in 1981, and co-founder of the summer Nine-Ball League in 1982. The highlight of our W.C.C. competition in San Francisco was the first place finish of Mele De Victoria in the Women's Tournament, her third such title and tying her with Angie Costa (L.A.) and Jonnie LeMaster of Long Beach.

Spring, 2001 was a season of change. It began with the retirements from the Board of Governors of Glenda Davis, Lauren Ward and, most notably, Chris Yamagata. Before stepping down Chris had completed sixteen straight seasons of service, by far the longest Board tenure of any woman in League history. The team count dropped from thirty-six to thirty-two, not counting Rafters change-of-name to Fubar for "F ---- d Up Beyond All Recognition." In May, the League lost two of its foremost citizens: Paul Bussiere and Dale Correll. Paul, a League member since the early 1970's, was one of its very finest shooters in both League and W.C.C. competition in the subsequent decades. More importantly, he had no equal in caring for the League's principles of fair play, fine sportsmanship, and the love of the Eight-Ball game. Beisel awardee Dale Correll, after years of Board service, including one as League president, passed away peacefully following a lengthy illness.The happiest note of the season was the accomplishment of Prez Jeffrey Hersh and Stevan Bailey of Rawhide-Shooters in achieving an agreement with Miller Lite for their sponsorship and financial support of League activities. The season ended on other positive notes. Glenda Davis was given a Special Recognition Award for her past service as League Historian, long-term board member, and three term League president, and once again a Lauren Ward-Stevan Bailey-Frank Bustamante team, this time with Jose Bermudez, Gibbi Tkatch, and Frank Novelo, won the team title at the Forty-Third W.C.C. in San Diego. Fall Season started with some League firsts! Janell McKane became the first woman president in the League's fifty-sixth season. The League's fledgling website came of age thanks to the efforts of Bill Hoover and James Prather, and for the first time in decades the League adopted a new logo designed by member Angelo Pacella. For the first time, Jeffrey Hersh and Bill Hoover combined talents to produce a season "GUIDE" together, and for the first time in twenty-three straight seasons Bill announced that he would not be returning to the Board of Governors in the coming season (he had had eleven other Board membership seasons before starting the string of twenty-three). For his many accomplishments, including a record breaking eleven seasons as League leader between 1983 and 2000, Bill was the recipient of a Special Recognition Award. January, 2002 the Forty-Fourth W.C.C. competition in Long Beach was unusually tough, but our Hi/Lo team of Jon Bourgault and Ricardo Man prevailed to capture a first place trophy.

Spring '02: Janell McKane concluded her six terms on the Board with two seasons of outstanding service as our first female President. Gay Games VI:  Summer -Sydney, Australia - two medal winners from our league! Jon Bourgault wins the Bronze and Jeff Lee won the Silver medal in 9 - ball. Fall '02: Jay Belleville, our first President and one of our five founders passes away on October 1st. January '03 - SF WCC XLVI - Rick Ayres and Kerri Frasca win the HI/LO. 

Coming Soon!

The Lucky Draw was held on Sunday,  September the 8th at Trunks. A big smooch to the winners.

• First Place: Cory Sweat and Vince Cartelli
• Second Place: Jeff Lee and Rick Ayres
• Third Place: Pietro Gamino and Roger Morrison
• Fourth Place: Tony Barnes and John Cochran

John Cochran held a 50/50 Raffle (won by Bill Hoover) which raised $217 for the League. Thanks to Trunks owner Bill for his donations. Also thanks to Jeremy and Vince for bartending. Below is pictured everyone who took part. Thanks to all.

(Simply click on the first picture and ten in the upper right area of the picture to see the next one.)