BCA HONORS BOB JEWETT WITH PRESIDENT’S AWARD By Keith Loria In his home, Bob Jewett has 2,000 different books about billiards on a few hundred feet of shelf space, so he can reference just about anything having to do with the sport. Some of the books are even in Russian or Portuguese, and he enjoys looking through them and gaining nuances from each – even if he can’t exactly understand them! His love for the sport is almost unparalleled, and he’s been involved with pool for most of his life as a player, writer and instructor. That’s why the Billiard Congress of America has awarded Jewett the BCA’s President’s Award for this year. “I was surprised but very happy,” Jewett shares about being informed he won the award. “I have done a lot of things over the years, but it’s just a little bit at a time, but I guess it built up over the years.” Among his myriad of accomplishments are winning the ACUI National Pool championship in 1975; writing the first-ever English-language book on artistic billiards in 1987; organizing an artistic billiard instructional clinic in Miami with European champion Hans de Jager in 1995; and arranging the “Jacksonville Experiments,” in which slow motion video of ball-ball, cuestick-ball and ball-cushion impacts were studied for the first time. He became a BCA/PBIA Certified Instructor in 1993, and is presently an Advanced Instructor. He even had success as a player, being a past ACUI collegiate champion and defeating some top pros – including Shane Van Boening and Ronnie Allen – in tournament matches. Jewett started playing pool when his friend in high school got a table for his birthday and the kids in the neighborhood would spend their days learning and competing against one another. “I think I played on it more than he did, and eventually got to the point where I really couldn’t play with my friends anymore,” Jewett says. “I enjoyed playing. I was lucky enough to be at a university where the student union had all three types of tables, so I learned all the different games – pool, carom and snooker. I found them all interesting.” 34 | BCA INSIDER • HOLIDAY ISSUE 2020
He went into the Air Force during the Vietnam War and had the opportunity to play a lot there because the day rooms all had pool tables and it was free to play. “I gradually improved because I was playing all the time,” Jewett says. “When I got out of the Air Force and went back to school, I entered the Collegiate Championship. Dan Louie was going to school at the time, so it was pretty much impossible to win. I outlasted him though and the third year I managed to win the thing.”
