American Foosball Alumni Player Memorial Site

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COOL STUFF from one of ours sports GOATS.

Johnny , I’m saddened to write that another foosball pioneer passed away late Saturday night/early Sunday morning.His name is Kenny Reeves ,whom I’ve known for almost 5 decades .
Kenny and his friend Ed “Toby” Todd won the 1977 Semi- Pro National Championship on Tornado 🌪️. You may remember Kenny from your visit to Alabama on the TS promotion tour .
Believe it or not, Kenny and my last conversation was about Steve Simon .
Kenny was a true student of the sport of foosball . In the Tournaments he attended, he was always the last to leave the venue. He studied those who were in the finals , if he wasn’t in there himself.
Kenny and I were competitors for years. Back in the 1990’s ,we teamed up for a while. I have to admit , I learned a lot from the guy during that time . He was as much a teacher as much as a student.
The big guy had a big heart . The people of the South will miss this foosball icon !
Maybe,if you remember him, you may give this Alabama legend a mention. Maybe there’s still some old foosers who remember this fine gentleman of the South!
Sincerely,
Robert (RobbieO) Owen
[email protected]

THE LEGEND OF STEVE SIMON

CIRCA Early 70’s
In 1973-74 I was an 18 year old kid from rough West Texas with an itch for foosball. Abandoning Lubbock I was already traveling the southwest gambling and playing in regional foosball tournaments before there was a tour.

I first saw Steve Simon in a bar hanging around after a regional Dynamo glass top tournament in San Marcos Texas.

A peculiar player Steve had skipped the doubles tournament and was quietly looking for some money action on his game of choice “singles.”

Almost nobody played singles back then and Steve realizing that was out to make it his specialty. And good at it he was, especially for an unknown never seen before bar player from San Antonio.

But that night a wiley Lynn Leflore from Garland Texas would best Steve. You see Lynn owned an electric biz and had pockets full of money to burn. Steve was playing with his last dollar and would learn a tough lesson that night.

Undaunted Steve was a gifted athlete with genius IQ, and a one of a kind WINNER! Very good at anything he chose to do. He was a talented baseball pitcher with a shot at the big leagues till an injury sidelined him. A professional chess and table tennis player. A computer programmer a blues and classical guitarist, a master plumber and contractor builder who remodeled many Austin hotspots downtown and was building a rare unique custom home he had personally designed on his death. He worked for me on several Dynamo and Striker table soccer manufacturing jobs and he had designed his own personal table XFOOS I hope to bring out as part of our WSOF as a dedication to SS.

1974
I digress…
But Steve has also caught the itch. The foosball bug or whatever you want to call it and he had no dreams short of being the best!

He would venture out across Texas to Houston to play already well tuned machines like Hyatt, Skelton, Navarro (Kemo) Gilbert and the boys in back rooms of places the little hut and Damian’s extreme foosball sports bar!

On to Dallas to take on Pfeil, Lori, Scott Moreland, and Mario Almendrez Lane Reggie Jolly. Real tough boys on and off the table.

Get his but kicked in Austin from Mario Garcia and Eddie Whitesides.

But Steve was smart. He knew he had to pay his dues to get to the top!

Meanwhile while introducing myself to Steve in San Marcos and taking note of scrappy singles player I was on my on mission towards the top of the crowded foosball heap and many miles lay ahead of me. (1.7 million players in USA at that time)

Fast-forward those many miles later to the end of 75?

1975
I had traveled the tournament soccer tour paid my dues and I was right near the top of the players on the first pro tour. Number 3 on the money list!

It’s Vegas baby at the STARDUST (old mafia Vegas) and TS is having its 10K warmup.

I had heard of how Steve Simon had taken down the MONSTER singles player Eddie Whitesides meat nut ball in the prestigious Tornado Nationals!

Despite going out in two in OS in Vegas I knew Steve Simon was on a course with destiny.

TS was famous for the pro players party suite. The great Tom Hansen asked me “Johnny I trust you opinion more than anyone’s, let get your take on who’s going to win the TS international OS championship next week in Denver? “

To Tom’s Surprise, I told him, “this unknown kid from Texas Steve Simon who had just taken down Eddie Whitesides out at the tornado nationals Steve Simon, a complete darkhorse was gonna take it! “

He thought I was crazy. “Surely Johnny no one that has not played on this years inaugural pro foosball tour and paid his dues like you Bowers Lane Whitesides would have even a chance?”

In one of the best Predictions in foosball history the great Steve Simon, relatively unknown darkhorse, stormed through one of the hardest fields ever, people like Lane Honeycutt Furry the singles legend Mike Bowers and Eddie Whitesides surviving several match ball pit matches to come out on top of the OS WC field of TS players to capture the prestigious culmination of the first table soccer pro tour WC OS without having participated in much of the prior 18 someodd tour events.

At the young age of 18 Steve Simon had captured the 75 Tornado Nationals and the 75 Tournament Soccer International Championships only 2 weeks apart!

Easily one of the greatest feats in professional table soccer history!

But this was just the beginning…

1976
Only 19 yrs old and on the 1976 TS Pro Tour I would go on to battle for the top two or three spots in the Money list, and Steve Simon would go on a wild spree of 16 major tournament in singles on tour where he was the finals of like 14 events in and won 8 of them Amazing with the likes of greats like Bowers Kaiser and Furry to deal with.

1977
In 1977 we decided to team up. Steve was friends with M&M promoter Joe McCarthy and suggested we move to St Louis Missouri where the action was.

I agreed and it was the perfect storm for us. Great volumes of competition but young yet not seasoned like Dallas or say Denver.

This allowed us to play locally prepare for tour and we rarely (if ever) lost!

We won St Louis (our first tour event) beating the team that had taken third in the 76 TS WC OD 15 -1 in the pits!

We stormed the tour Seattle Kickoff and majors in Columbus and Los Angeles! Majors w 1st place $ the modern cash equivalent of about 20k first place! (in fact we made in to the finals in the Columbus major without Steve ever scoring one long)

Steve had sprained his wrist in the hollow rod Dynamo Nationals and yet Steve had such a fierce-some reputation at the time, he just bluffed and dinked his way through the tough field to the finals … where I picked up the slack scoring 14of 15 from the back in the second set of finals!

Steve went on to win the 1977 national tournament soccer mixed doubles title in St. Louis with Gayle Harding.

1977
Tornado Nationals
TS top pros rarely played on Tornado, there was simple no money to speak of. but this was an exception and a few of the top tournament soccer players myself Wiswell Lori & Simon descended on the tornado 77 nationals and dominated it. Marianne Koehler Burkett and I won the winners bracket in mixed. Wiswell and Lori won the winners, in open doubles. And Simon won the winners bracket in open singles.

Steve went on to have a 2 SET/10 game/match ball/final game - one for the ages - with the great Steve Murray.

Just one more piece of mythical lore for the young (already a fooball legend) Steve Simon! Simon was a finisher. He played under pressure as good as anybody who ever touched a rod.

1979
After this Steve seems to have gotten a bit distracted. He was a great blue guitarist And had many other naturals incredible talents, and he started backing away from the game and not practicing. I got him back in the game practicing enough to really focus for the 79 tournament soccer, huge nationals in Minnesota and we took fifth.

But now, his passion, for the game of foosball was really waning. At least to practice at the top level. So he went to work for Ed McLeod for a year on tornado. He worked for me a couple of different positions at Dynamo and striker. He went on to develop his own table XFOOS and do a lot of things in the local scene in Austin as a builder and remodeler of all the bars downtown.

He had plans at his death to build a custom house which he had designed. Yes, he had architecture skills too but that will have to wait and be built in heaven.
____________
1988
In Steves own words…

“TABLE TENNIS...Before I got into foosball I used to go to this place in the Ft. Sam Houston GI service club. This is where the army guys go to chill out. They let the SA Table Tennis club use their facility 3 days a week. When it was not my turn to play table tennis, since there may be a wait, I would sign my name then go to the back where they had a Vulcan foosball table. We are talking around 1968-69 time.”

“Many of the GIs had played foosball overseas and knew how to play. I learned there. (Then in 72 a Tornado table game room opened 1/2 mile from my house and that became my hangout while in high school.)”

“However, I was nationally ranked in the US in Table Tennis in the top 200 by 1974-75. I used to travel to Dallas, Little Rock, Salt Lake City, Houston, etc. to play table tennis tournaments.”

“As fate would have it in 1975 foosball took over and as they say "the rest is history". Table tennis got put on the back burner. I mean I never thought I would be a part of what was happening in foosball, but most of you know that when foosball gets in your blood there is nothing else you can do and nothing else matters so foosball it was! 🙂 And besides, people were putting up lots of money for foosball and table tennis was never about the money (same as Chess for that matter).”
______________

How good was Steve Simon?
Well let me put it this way. There was nobody in the world then or since much better than Steve Simon. He could play with anybody then and he could today if he practiced. That’s how good he was.

STEVE SIMON PASSED ON
Circa January 4 2024

His legacy in foosball will live on as long as pro foosball exists! As he was truly at the very ground level 1st pro tour pioneer championship, world champion level, an American National Hall of Famer, a TEXAS LEGEND, a Texas Hall of Famer, Table Designer and one of the most influential persons to ever perfect and shoot a push kick, play the game of singles, or doubles at the top level of professional!!!

Proudly
Steve Simons partner, student, mentor, fan, Professional foosball peer,

Friend,

Johnny Lott

We need several individuals to act as adminsitrators of the American Foosball Alumni Player Memorial Site. If you have time to help post content on the site email me at [email protected]
thanks,
Johnny Lott

Testing. Testing. 1, 2, 3… is this thing on?

Michigan Hall of Famer Rolfe Schwerin, probably the greatest Michigan promoter of Foosball ever. Rolfe was known for his no nonsense way of running events, all players were treated equally weather you were a world champ or beginner everyone was treated equally. Rolfe ran and promoted tournaments throughout the Tournament Soccer, Pro-bilt and Dynamo eras. Also a player he was always interested in getting new players and teaching the game. He went on to be tournament director at various World Championships and is truly missed by the foos community and his friends

Rolfe ran DC Action the home of many TS and Dynamo tour events, it was one of the longest running events on either tour The Mt. Pleasant Open many world champs played there including Furry, Wiswell, Bacon, Chalifoux, Gummeson and many others Wiswell played his last tournament there shortly before his death. Dolphin Coin had over 150 tables on location throughout Michigan.

You are missed buddy,

Mike Bade

A song dedication, to all those great players that have gone on. I cannot begin to describe all the emotions this draws out. Thinking of Gary Pfeil, Tony Turner, Guy Volgelbacher, Rick Martin, Tim "Zeek" Burns, Tina Rhoton, Moya Teilens Regan, Billy Sumption, Tom Hansen, Bill Fisher, and so so many more.

Foosball has meant more to many of us than even our schools of learning. And these people, our "foos friends," have become brothers and sisters, both on and off the table. Such special relationships, through thick and thin; the exhilaration of winning, and the agony of defeat.

I will get the settings fixed today, so we all can post memories of all the players we miss so much. When I do please participate, and take the time to comment and or create a online living tribute, that will live on and keep their memory alive in the forefront of our thoughts.

May God Bless us all, to live life fully, and be thankful for the opportunity foosball has provided us, to meet and briefly experience, knowing so many great foosers!

Tom "Wally" Hudson
OHIO - Great Player, Friend, Father !