Courtesy of Tim Boggan Bill Hodge came to the Game late—in 1958, at age 22. While working at a supply company warehouse, he began spending his lunch hour playing t.t. That led him to join the Columbus, Ohio Club and to begin playing seriously in tournaments. At the 1968 Ohio Closed, for example, he and…

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Courtesy of Tim Boggan More than a quarter of a century ago, a friend of Bernie Hock’s, Dave Russell, wrote a letter to the USTTA’s Topics to say that this “old buzzard” Hock, “a number-one-class character,” just had to be remembered in the magazine. “You can’t let a champion, a fine man, and a person…

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Courtesy of Tim Boggan Sanford “Sandy” Gross, then reportedly out of Toledo, Ohio, was known to have participated in a USTTA tournament as early as the 1939-40 season, and was said to have remembered playing the 1937 and ‘38 U.S. Open Champion, Laszlo “Laci” Bellak, 25- cents a game at Harry Piser’s 91st and Broadway…

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