David “the Godfather” Mork
Willie “the Wizard” Foster, Consigliore to the Godfather
Willie and David were playing pool in 2009 as part of a group which played 8 and 9 Ball for money. Later that year, they joined the Lucky Shot Pool Club. After one season, they both came back to the IronOaks Pool Room and decided to have our own league. After marketing through the Activity Fairs and word of mouth, they met many pool aficionados, who, for the most part, had not played pool in more than 20 years. By enhancing the concept of a league for IronOaks HOA No. 3 members only, they designed a system for all types of pool skill sets to play on a regular, competitive basis with others of their skill level. They had both men and women and held our first tournament in 2011. At that time, they had 12 members and through continued efforts and publicity, today the league has grown to almost 50 members.
David was the force that put the league’s by-laws together, provided all members a right to vote on affairs of the league, combined with long term board membership to provide the leadership well into the future. In the event of premature departure from the place, David was determined to make sure the membership was taken care of. This, with his continuing efforts and the need for pool nicknames, Willie Foster came up with the nickname of “the Godfather” for David. As in the movie The Godfather took care of his own and looked out for his family and others. David has done so for our pool league.
Why play pool? In 1958, three years before the movie The Hustler was made, David was playing pool at Silk’s Pool Hall in Duluth, and later, played pool in the U.S. Army when he was stationed in Anchorage, Alaska. Years later, in Woodbury, Minnesota, David purchased a pool table and played on it until 1994 when he and Sandy moved to Arizona. After retirement, looking for a place to hang out, the poolroom seemed like the natural place. David says it is a fun place to while away the hours and stay out of trouble, while enjoying the camaraderie that he was used to during the day.
Why only HOA No.3 members? With four tables and 4,100 households, can you imagine if there was a bigger demand for pool time? We cannot host all the members now in the morning slots, so we do not have room for outsiders who do not pay HOA#3 dues to support the facilities. To date, the league has improved the poolroom by either in kind or paid over $2000 for poolroom improvements.
Without David “the Godfather’s” lead and running the numbers of the league’s operations, there would be chaos and possibly pool room justice would be dispensed. Because of the transparency of the financial and competition operations, there are no horse heads showing up in anyone’s bed. Come join us on Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday at the times shown in this month’s Splash. Now, as the Godfather says, “Let’s play pool!”