She Got Game

Elaine Brown, 82, says playing pool with the guys at the Glendale Adult Recreation Center keeps her mind sharp.

Elaine Brown squints, draws back the pool cue, strikes the ball and squeals with delight as it rolls into a corner pocket.

“When you shoot, you try to make the shot or leave the ball in a good position for your partner. You want your opponent in the worse position,” Brown says, sounding as if she is giving away a trade secret. “That’s the name of the game.”

Brown, 82, is the only woman pool player at the Glendale Adult Recreation Center--and she clearly enjoys giving her male opponents a run for their money.

“It is really competitive. You have to really concentrate,” said the retired hotel hostess and apartment manager. “If you don’t, you will never be a good pool player.”

Brown apparently knows what she’s talking about. She has championship gold medals from tournaments played at the Glendale center and the Joslyn Adult Center in Burbank to prove it.

Brown’s late husband, Charles, first encouraged her to take up pool in 1975. An active sportswoman, she added pool to her regular games of golf, bowling and shuffleboard.

As she grew older, she was less able to participate in the more physical sports and turned her attention to pool.

Nearly every morning, Brown catches the bus from her home in Burbank and rides to the Glendale center where she plays pool with the men until lunchtime.

“The men are very nice to me,” she said.

“Elaine is nice and she knows everything,” said Yegnazar Patatanyan, who runs the pool games at the center. “She’s a real champion.”

Brown said she tries to encourage other women to play, but they are either not interested or feel uncomfortable being alone among men. There used to be a lot of women players, but they all died off,” she said.

While she thrives on the competition, Brown says she plays mainly to keep her mind sharp.

“I think that a lot of people forget a lot when they get 82 like I am,” she said. “It helps me to be sharper. A lot of people my age don’t remember too well because they don’t exercise their minds.”