Jose Parica is a professional pool player of Filipino descent. Born in La Puente, California, Parica is known by the monikers, Amang, which means father in Tagalog and ‘the Giant Killer.’ Parica has not only played the game well over the course of his career, but he has broken ground. He has been given credit for starting the ‘Filipino invasion.’ This ‘invasion’ was led by Parica with Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante eventually falling. These three men would all dominate the game at one time or another. Parica would become one of the first Philippine billiards superstars but certainly not the last. The Filipino invasion is especially noted in the game of nine-ball.
Jose Parica is one of the most dominant Philippine pool players to ever play the game. He is a legend amongst Philippine players and deservingly so. He was World Player of the Year in 1997 and the winner of more than 100 tournaments during his career. He was also the first and only player to ever to play a perfect game of nine-ball in a match.
Parica was first introduced to the game of pool in the Philippines when he began playing at the billiards hall his father owned in Blumentritt, at the age of 7. He would quickly improve and before long, he was beating people much older then himself. Parica soon began to dominate in the Philippines, however, his struggled to get his game the notoriety warranted it. That would change in 1975.
At the age of 25, Parica played in his first international tournament, the Tokyo International Open. He would finish fourth and in the process started to develop a reputation for himself outside of the Philippines. Soon after, to organize the billiard players in the Philippines, Parica would establish the Philippine Pocket Billiards Association. He was the organization’s first president.
Three years after he left the Philippines to compete in an international billiards tournament, he made his way to the United States, by way of sponsors, to compete in the World Open Straight Pool Championship. He tied for places 9th through 12th.
Parica would go on and dominate until the latter part of the 1980s, accumulating lots of tiles and money along the way. Reyes, a fellow Filipino would soon take over where Parica left off. A conversation overheard by Parica’s wife, concerning the dominance of Reyes over Parica, helped once again stoke Parica’s competitive fire and just like that, he was back in the game. Parica re-joined the U.S. circuit in 1996. That year, Reyes bested him twice but Parica was still able to pull out four tournament wins, one more that Reyes that year.
Today, Parica still players. Over the course of his career, he has won more than 100 tournaments, cementing himself as one of the best billiards players to ever play the game, of any nationality.