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SA principal taught Barbara Bush how to play pool, making national news in 1992

One fateful day 26 years ago, pool mixed with presidential politics to make national news in San Antonio as a now-high school principal taught a lesson to First Lady Barbara Bush.

SAN ANTONIO — Inside the Eastside San Antonio Boys & Girls Club, Tyrone Darden used to rip the pool table up. The 38-year-old school principal doesn’t have much time for the skill game anymore, but he’s thankful that his expertise gave him the opportunity of a lifetime.

On February 26, 1992, he disobeyed his mother and went to the Boys & Girls Club. The place was packed with people waiting to see First Lady Barbara Bush.

Credit: Joe Barrera, Jr., Custom
First Lady Barbara Bush shoots pool with San Antonio kids at the Eastside Boys & Girls Club on February 26, 1992. Photo by San Antonio Express-News/ZUMA Wire

The children stood by her side to take pictures. One child even touched Bush’s iconic pearls. Meanwhile, destiny pushed Darden from a game of foosball to a pool stick.

“I had the right shoes on, my shirt was the right shirt, I was ready. I had the pool stick in my hand,” Darden recalled. “At the end of my day, the story I shared with my students today was be ready, because you never know when your opportunity is going to come.”

At 12 years old, an inner-city kid found himself playing pool with the First Lady of the United States, on a side of San Antonio where there was more hope on the pool table than on the streets.

“Back then, in the 90’s, you know, they were labeling San Antonio’s east side the drive-by capital of the world,” Darden recalled.

Darden is embarrassed to admit it, but for a few years when he would tell this story, he got his politicians mixed up. He thought he was playing with Ann Richards. The white hair made him think he was playing pool with the governor of Texas.

Credit: Joe Barrera, Jr., Custom
First Lady Barbara Bush shoots pool with San Antonio kids at the Eastside Boys & Girls Club on February 26, 1992. Photo by San Antonio Express-News/ZUMA Wire

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But what he does remember is a relaxed, worldly figure taking pool lessons from a kid. Of course, he says that he intentionally gave Mrs. Bush the victory.

“When she made her first shot, you would’ve thought she was a basketball player because she jumped about 20 feet off the ground,” Darden said laughing.

Credit: Joe Barrera, Jr., Custom
First Lady Barbara Bush shoots pool with San Antonio kids at the Eastside Boys & Girls Club on February 26, 1992. Photo by San Antonio Express-News/ZUMA Wire

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That day in February, he gave her the win but she gave him a memory he could pocket forever.

“It was phenomenal, it was impactful,” Darden said. “And it’s something I will always remember.”

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