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Maureen Finn
Lafayette, CO
Cue:  Josswest

I must have started playing pool when I was a freshman in high school. It was about that time when my parents purchased an 8' pool table. The pool table was a joint Christmas gift for all 7 kids. The house was new, as we kept out-growing houses; the climate (Chicago area) was humid, and the basement/pool room was the coolest room in the house (no air-conditioning) during the summer. I started playing pool with my brothers. We were all primarily self-taught, but would receive some instruction from our grandfather, who was a 3-cushion billiard player. During the hot, humid summer months, we would start a game of 14:1 on one day and continue the same game the next day. Occasionally we would play our own version of billiards that we called 38 (3 object balls lined up on: the foot spot, head spot and center spot - cue ball must contact two balls for billiard = 3 points, pocketing an object ball while making a billiard = 4 points, cue ball contacting all 3 obj!ect balls = 9 points, etc., when you reached 38, you had to execute a billiard and call a scratch on the cue ball - if you missed, you had to drop back to 21....) Our 14:1 rules were that you always had to call something (of course, not safe) on the break, and whenever there was a cluster, you had to figure out a shot from the cluster. I never played pool in pool halls or bars, and I didn't compete until I went to college.

Most of my life I've followed a non-traditional path and college wasn't any different. I entered the University of Colorado at Boulder in January, 1979. I was 23 and knew one person in Boulder. During my first month here, I saw an ad for a women^Òs pool tournament. The entry fee was $3. I thought this would be a good way to meet some new people. After reading the ad probably 100 times, I entered the event. It was a 14:1 format. At some point in the tournament, I found myself in the finals. My opponent was flabbergasted when I broke the opening rack and called the head ball in the side pocket (it didn't drop). At the end of the game, my opponent told me to "go tell them you won." 'Them' was the games area manager here at CU, Mike. Mike's eyes nearly fell out of his head "you beat her?".... "you'll be leaving in two weeks to play for CU in Arizona." Turns out my opponent had previously won the 5 state regional collegiate (American College Unions-International) competition. I continued to competcollegiately for 4 years, but after expending my collegiate eligibility, and not knowing about organized pool leagues, etc., I basically stopped playing and intensified the partying level.

I really didn't play again until fall of 1988. At that time, I met a young, promising player from Boulder, Kevin Satterfield. Kevin and I went to Colorado Springs together to play in a tournament. He was like a surrogate son. There we met up with some great supporters of pool from Denver, who asked us if we would be interested in playing in their in-house league on the big tables. We started playing in league and I started getting some help with my game from Terry (McFadden) who, before the advent of video cameras, would take Polaroid shots of my cue ball address, and still shots of my stroke. In 1988 most of my free time was dedicated to practice, reading about pool, leagues and competition. That year I won the state women's 8-ball championship, placed 16th in the WPBA nationals, and went to my first BCA team tournament. In 1990 I had my best finish in the BCA's finishing 3rd in the women's individuals. Since the early 1990's, I've put the cue down a couple of times ranging from 8 months to twoears. The recent Albuquerque Hunter Classic event was my third competition since May, 1996. I'm really excited about the Hunter Classic Tour. The level of competition and quality of play, the low entry fees and the added money, the friendly faces, the wonderful web page that makes it possible to stay in touch with new found friends!! Thank you all!!! I hope to be able to compete in possibly three events this year.