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’Tiff' Denton Plays Regularly at 90Billiards Champ Retains Form(EDITOR’S NOTE - The following article about a former resident — ‘Tiff’of 16526 Sepulveda, published California1iiieseefneaDenton, now Ballinger St.,Calif., was recently in a newspaper.)By THOM McGRAHAM “I reckon I’ve played at three-cushion billiards longer than anyone in the world ever has,” chuckled the elderly gentleman as we walked out of Harry’s billiard parlor in Van Nuys.Tilford “Tiff” S. Denton of Sepulveda is not the kind of man who exaggerates. In 1896, during the administration of President Grover Cleveland, Denton picked up his first billiard cue and has not set one down since.He was born in Jesse James country near the Missouri-Arkansas border in 1882, only two months after the legendary outlaw was murdered by his cousin Bob Ford.Took Long Hours While still in his mid-teens, Denton ran away from his grandfather’s farm in Harrison, Ark., and made his way to Kansas City where in a few short years he learned the rudiments of geometry in motion. He fell in love with billiards.In 1907 at the age of 25, he was introduced to three-cushion billiards, a game that demands not only a keen eye and steady nerves, but long hours of intense practice.Within a decade he had mastered the game enough to compete in world class tournaments. In 1919, Denton set a world record with a high run of 17 three-cushion shots in a row without a miss, a feat considered extraordinary even by today’s standards.Ties Own Record The next highlight of his career came in 1923 when he won the world championship title and an elegantly designed gold medal made specially for the best billiard player in the world.There were other peak moments in Denton’s long career. In 1940 during a world tournament that boasted such opponents as Willie Hoppe, Joe Chamaco, and Jay N. Bozeman, a 58-year-old Denton accomplished a remarkable taskby tying his own high run recordof 17 perfect shots in a singleinning (turn).Ripley, in Believe It or Not,under an illustration of the leanArkansan, wrote in hischaracteristic style that Tiff“established the world’s recordrun of*17 in 1919 — and on March25, 1940, he equaled this recordmade more than 20 years ago.”Still on TopDenton’s career in billiardshas gathered as much publicityas it has color over the years. Aslate as 1952, at the age of 70, hewas still making headlines.During a world tournament that year,a New York World-Telegram article announced ‘Billiard Match Still Old Champ’s Cue.” A Chicago news headline proclaimed that Tiff “Still Ranks With the Best.”For all his fame and fortune in • »a fruitful 90 years, Denton has never let billiards compete with his family life. He and his wife of 54 years have a son, daughter and two grandsons.Young at Heart As a profession, billiardscushion billiards.Occasionally, he will play a game but more for exercise than for competition, because his eyes have lost their visual acuity fo* seeing the finite edge of a ball ten feet away.Indelible Moments Horseless carriages that backfired and drew curses from the Kansas City onlookers of his youth have disappeared with the chug-and-sputter era of automation.Three-masted schooners and clipper ships Denton once saw anchored in San Francisco circa ’05 sail only across the pages of history books now, and vast yellow prairies that stretched from Los Angeles to Long Beach 67 years ago are but indelible moments in the memory of a man who remains triumphant over life’s unrelenting competitor, which is time.The days of wooden ships and iron men are irretrievably gone, ! but every now and then, a man like Tilford S. Denton emerges out of the forgotten past to prove that the self-made man is not an altogether vanishing breed.provided him with enough Iftfiodes to Headmoney to give his children thebest educational opportunities, and a coinfortable living for hiswife, Martha and himself.Three-cushion billards as apastime has kept the singularlyhandsome nonagenarian youngat heart.At 90 he is healthy, vigorousand surprisingly active. He is analert conversationalist who canrecall reading about thenotorious Dalton gang in papersof his day, reminisce aboutthings he saw at the great 1904St. Louis Fair, or even tell of theJeffries-Johnston heavyweightbattle he witnessed in 1910. Characteristics of the pastcentury still persist in Tiff’s speech and manner. Hepronounces today’s date“nineteen and seventy-two,” and during the summer he wears a straw hat which was the vogue for men in the 1890s.He is a frequent visitor at Harry’s billiard parlor in Van Nuys where he has made many Eriends who share a common love for the game of three-bv V. T. HamlinFund-Raising forEconomic EducationRabie Rhodes, chairman of board, First National Bank, Harrison, has accepted the chairmanship in Boone County for the annual fund-raising campaign of the Arkansas State Council on Economic Education.Reeves. Ritchie, the Council’s chairman of the board and president of Arkansas Power Light Company, Little Rock, made the announcement. He said, “All of us involved in our stale’s economic education program are happy that Mr. Rhodes is serving as fundraising chairman for his area. We know he will receive the fine cooperation that will enable the Council to reach its 1971-72 goals.”Ritchie has announced that the campaign goal is $100,000. “I’m sure we will go over the top if all segments of the business community will put economic
Newspaper Details
Harrison Daily Times
Harrison, Arkansas, US
Tue, Sep 05, 1972
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
B S.
NA, 15 Feb 2020
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