DOUBLE GOLD MEDAL TRIP TO CHICAGO 2006

One of my most pleasant memories is our trip to Chicago in July 2006 to participate in Gay Games VII. Both Dennis and I had signed up for Men's Recreational 8-Ball and 9-Ball, mostly because we wanted to be in the same tournament so we'd be around for each other during the competition.


Gay Games VII was held in Chicago July 15-22, 2006, with over 12,000 athletes competing for gold, silver and bronze medals. The opening ceremonies were held in historic Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League. The procession of athletes into the stadium was led by the San Francisco contingent, more than 500 strong. This honor is awarded to San Francisco because they are the founding city of the event. Once the procession was finished, the large crowd gave the athletes a standing ovation for over five minutes. The crowd was not aware of the surprise that was headed their way.

Suddenly, the lights of the stadium were extinguished. That was the signal for the athletes to hit the button on the light wands they held. Soldier Field was turned into a moving, light-filled rainbow flag as 12,000 athletes waved their light wands. The spectators went wild. Speeches and entertainment filled the opening ceremonies’ agenda, as the show went on for three hours.

The competition for men’s 8-ball and 9-ball was slated to begin on Monday July 17^th at the upscale billiard club called G Cue Billiards on Chicago’s near-west side. The tournament directors had placed all participants into groups of four or five, creating “pools” of competitors. During “pool play” each person played all the other people in their group twice, with a scoring system set up to reward the winner. The formula would allow the tournament directors to determine how well each shooter plays the game and would allow them to set up seeding for the various divisions (both competitive and recreational).

My “pool” consisted of Tatsuga Nagashima (“Tat”) of Akron, Ohio, Joe Durczak of Chicago and John Zambrano (who was a no show), in addition to me. I played Joe first and shot fairly well. Joe had two balls left on the table after I pocketed the 8-ball, earning five points (three for winning the game, two more for the number of balls left on the table by Joe). I next played Tat; we both shot well but I prevailed, earning four points. After Tat and Joe played, I played my second game with Joe. Unfortunately, Joe played very poorly and I won, earning nine points as Joe had only managed to pocket one ball during the game. My last game of the day against Tat was my best-played game of the day. Tat broke but scratched, giving me ball-in-hand behind the headstring. I pocketed my first six balls before getting blocked by one of Tat’s balls. After numerous innings, I finally pocketed the 8-ball on a thinly sliced shot to go undefeated in “pool play” for the day. My 28 points earned me the #3 seed for the Men’s Recreational 8-ball tournament.

In the 8-ball tournament held on Wednesday, I played steadily all day, and was never behind in any of my matches. I beat Tom Mitchell and Abraham Kupfer of Houston in my first two matches by identical 2/0 scores before meeting up with Marshall Berra of Sarasota, Florida. After winning the first game, Marshall rebounded and won the second game (my only loss of the day), forcing the tie-breaking game. I prevailed and moved into the winner’s bracket final, where I beat Mac Griswold of Houston by a 2/0 score and claim the “hot seat” (the nickname given to the person who goes through the winner’s side without losing). Mac and Marshall battled in the loser’s bracket final to determine which player would come across to face me again. Both players had only lost to me throughout the day, so both were equally salivating to get another crack at me.

L to R: Mac, Rick, Marshall

Mac prevailed in his match with Marshall. I proved to be up to the challenge, and held off Mac 2/0 to claim the Men’s Recreational 8-ball gold medal by going undefeated in my matches. Mac claimed the silver medal, with Marshall capturing the bronze.

The Men’s Recreational 9-ball was held on Friday July 21^st, with the same cast of characters that had participated in the 8-ball tournament vying for the 9-ball title. While I wasn’t as sharp as I had been during the 8-ball tournament, my steady play rewarded me yet again. I started my day with a 4/1 win against Martin Milner of Chicago, then another 4/1 victory over David Steeves of Phoenix, and a 4/1 win against Gregory Killips of Kansas City. Once I reached the winner’s bracket final, Mac Griswold from Houston was once again awaiting a chance to knock me off, but I prevailed 4/2 to grab the “hot seat” once again. In a quirk of fate, Mac and Marshall once again played each other to determine who would advance from the loser’s round to take me on for the gold medal. This time, Marshall prevailed, beating Mac 3/2 and leaving Mac with the Bronze (the tournament directors had reduced the medal rounds to a race to three instead of the race to four that had been in effect all day long, as it was becoming late in the day and everyone was tired). Marshall played real well, grabbing the first game of the match, and getting back ahead 2/1, but I came back to win the last two games and capture the 9-ball gold medal to go along with my 8-ball gold medal. I went undefeated in matches during 9-ball as well.

9-ball Gold Medal-winning shot

The entire experience of participating at Gay Games VII was magical. The people of Chicago are to be commended for staging a fantastic event. As an indication of the warmth of the people of Chicago, two strangers were sitting in their car waiting for a traffic light to change. They started applauding me as I crossed the intersection on our way to a restaurant because I was wearing the medal I had just won. While at the restaurant, another person stopped by the table where we were seated and asked what I had won the medal for; she then offered her congratulations. Moments like this made the trip memorable. And not to leave Dennis out of the story, he played reasonably well all week too, but did not get a medal. It was the first time he had participated in the Games and he really enjoyed himself.

After the Games were over, we skipped the closing ceremonies and drove to Detroit to spend the following week with his family. It was a wonderful two week vacation and was actually the last time Dennis was able to participate in events like this because the following year is when his ALS first manifested itself, though we didn't know it at the time. Overall though, a very fond memory of a fantastic trip.