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Member Profile: Orner Billiards
SO MANY STORIES TO TELL
ORNER BILLIARDS CONTINUES A FAMILY TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE IN INDIANAPOLIS
Steve and Tom Orner grew up around pool tables – literally.
As their parents grew their business, which today is known as Jay Orner and Sons Billiard Co., the family’s home served as a showroom, and tables could be found throughout the house, including in sleeping quarters.
“And in our bedroom, where my brother and I slept, there was a pool table in the room, and we had bunkbeds and in order to sleep on top, the only way to get down was to get on the pool table,” Steve Orner says.
More than 80 years after the brothers’ father, Jay, and grandfather, Hugh, took their first steps in the billiard industry,
By Anthony Stoeckert
the family enterprise is still thriving as Orner Billiards provides Indianapolis and its surrounding areas with the best American-made pool tables, shuffleboards, foosball, air hockey, bars and barstools, lighting and more.
“It’s just been one heck of a ride and we still love it, we still enjoy it,” Steve says. “The fact that we have employees that have been with us for 20 or 40 years, that says a lot.”
IT ALL STARTED WITH ONE TABLE
In 1939, Jay and Hugh decided they wanted a pool table, so they spent $100 on an old, beat-up model and got to work restoring it.
“They spent months sanding it down and fixing it up, and they took the table up and some people saw it and wanted to buy it for $200,” Steve says. “That started a chain reaction that is still going on to this day.”
Jay and Hugh kept on restoring tables, building an outstanding reputation in the process, and after about 10 years, they opened a pool room with six tables, and they also refurbished old Brunswick tables in the back, selling about 40 to 50 a year.
“That was pretty good back in those days,” Steve says. “When my dad met my
mom, the house that they bought became a showroom. So before my brother and I were born, they were selling tables out of the bedrooms in the house. They would have a couple of tables in each bedroom, one in the garage, and one in a little barn out in the back.”
AN EARLY INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS
Steve and Tom began helping out when they were very young and learned how to sand down tables and install diamond sights.
“We were probably doing some dangerous stuff with the chemicals and the varnish and all that kind of stuff,” Steve says. “But I just remember the doorbell ringing and people knocking on the door and coming over in the middle of the night and looking at pool tables because everyone worked and the only time to look at a pool table was after dark when they got off work.”
Some of those folks who visited the house were legends. It wasn’t unusual for Steve and Tom to wake up in the middle of the night and see Jay talking with Willie Mosconi or Danny Gartner.
“Jimmy Caras was a longtime family friend,” Steve says. “They would spend the night at our house, and to me and my brother they were just normal people who would stay over when they came to town.”
One of the most memorable of these houseguests was Norm Webber, who carried a suitcase that Steve says was as big as a car, and had clothes sticking out, like something from an old movie.
“It had stamps of all the cities he’d been to, and I go, ‘Mr. Webber,’ and he said, ‘Call me Norm!’ And I said, ‘That’s an awful big suitcase, what’s in it?” Steve says. “And he goes, ‘Well, I put on different costumes to be different people and I play pool, and I might go play as a farmer one day and the next I’ll put a wig on and go as a businessman.
“He would put wigs and mustaches on. And he’d play the same people three or four different times as difference characters. You talk about a big hustle, that was a big hustle. We lived that life, it was very normal for us to go to the pool room Sunday mornings and clean up, and there’d be nickels and dimes on the floor.”
BRANCHING OUT
Steve and Tom’s increased involvement with the business coincided with the growing trend of malls being built around the country, and that created a big opportunity for Orner Billiards.
“The malls all had fountains and we would rent space around the fountain and set up pool tables around Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Steve says. “We would work there at night and set up pool tables during the day, but we got a lot of business and got our names out there by doing that.”
Both brothers also had talents for other sports – Steve played baseball and Tom
starred on the basketball court for Butler University. Steve had aspirations to play professionally and was offered a scholarship at Ohio University, but injuries cut into his playing time and he focused on his other passion, that being the family business.
“As bad as it was for me at the time, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” he says.
Then Tom decided he wanted to join the business full time.
“That was when things really jumped,” Steve says.
MOVING OUT OF THE HOUSE
Orner Billiards moved into its current location on Rockville Road in Indianapolis in the early 1980s.
“We got so lucky,” Steve says. “My dad and I were coming home from setting up a couple of tables one day, and we get off the Interstate, we lived maybe a mile off the Interstate back then, in a house that he built actually.”
They stopped to get gas at a station that was owned by a friend of theirs, who told them that one day, the Interstate would get bigger and that homes would be built in nearby towns like Avon and Danville. A year later as they were looking for space for a store, they got word about a building that was for sale right near that station.
“We got the call at nine, and by noon it was ours,” he says.
They started out by displaying about 20 to 25 tables, some bars, and maybe a shuffleboard, and they rented out part of the building.
Now, Orner Billiards takes up the whole building, which has been added onto four times and offers 25,000 square feet of warehouse space with huge showrooms. And their reputation is so strong that people travel from as far as 200 miles to head to Orner Billiards for their game room needs.
And it remains a family endeavor as Tom’s wife, Cindy, runs the office; Steve’s daughter, Danielle, handles the books; and Tom’s sister-in-law, Diana, also works there.
“We’re a very close-knit family, and one store is more than enough,” Steve says. “We have thought about opening another store or two the way some of the other dealers around the country have. But the
majority of those didn’t work out, so I’m so glad we’ve kept it the way we did.”
ADDING TO THE LINE
For many years Orner Billiards sold mostly pool tables, though Steve remembers his father selling bars while the business was still based out of the family home. Then they started selling poker tables and three-way tables that could be used for poker, dining, and playing bumper pool.
One of the most popular items these days is shuffleboard, as the store now showcases about 20 shuffleboard tables and 45 pool tables.
“The shuffleboard business has skyrocketed for two reasons. First Donny Olhausen had the foresight to be the first one to make matching pieces where you could buy any pool table and get a matching shuffleboard,” Steve says, adding that about half of the store’s customers are buying matching shuffleboard and pool tables.
The second factor that has led to the growth of shuffleboard sales is the popularity of curling, which is one of the most popular events during the Winter Olympics.
“Curling is a very similar game to shuffleboard,” he says. “And curling is on TV, even during the off years of the Winter Olympics, people watch it, and I think that is a big reason why people are into it. People will play shuffleboard all night and kids stay in the game room and aren’t watching TV all day, they’re playing and participating.”
All of that has led to Orner Billiards selling about 200 shuffleboards every year, 10 times the amount they were selling just a few years ago.
“It’s a monster success,” Steve says.
One recent shuffleboard sale came when a man and his young son entered
the store, looking for something they could do together that doesn’t involve a screen. They were shown a shuffleboard that was set up in a backroom.
“The son starts playing shuffleboard and I put the bowling pins on, and we couldn’t get him away from it,” Steve says. “He said, ‘Daddy I want one of these.’ Well, they left buying a shuffleboard. They bought their pool table two or three years ago and I had a record of it, and they’re going to make a shuffleboard that matches it.”
Also popular are arcade games, multigame units that offer such favorites as Pac-Man that come in various styles.
“Customers want that old-time video game,” Steve says. “The one that we sell the most has 412 of the most popular games, and we even now have a virtual pinball game that has all the most popular pinball games on it. It’s another game for the game room, and it’s a tough world out there and keeps kids home in the game room.”
IT TAKES A TEAM
Orner Billards also installs, maintains, and repairs tables, with its installation team led by Mike Meads, who has worked for the Orner brothers for years, and Joe Gulledge and Tim Know, who have been the lead installers for almost 25 years. Roger Reece, who has worked for Orner Billiards for more than 30 years, runs the warehouse, and Fred Wood has been handling rail covering and touch-up work for more than 25 years. Dave Bear, has been there for 40 years and does installations.
And while the business got its start with a restoration, that isn’t a big part of what the family does these days. However, they continue to work with Randy Burke, a nationally renowned restorer of antique tables, who recently restored a table they bought about 10 years ago, because a customer was looking for an antique table.
“I almost forgot we had it,” Steve says. “I told him we had it, and my guy said, ‘I’ve been tinkering with it for the past 10 years, I can bring it back to life but I need a few months.’ We restored that table, it was spectacular, built in 1882, and we brought it back.”
But Steve and Tom also know that the success of this family business depends on other people throughout the industry, and that’s why when a delivery comes in from a company like Olhausen or Legacy, he sends an email thanking them for their hard work.
“Everything they did, from entering a log number to putting it on the truck to shipping it to me, unloading it, putting it in my warehouse, taking it out and installing it, we’re all in that together,” he says. “That’s not just Orner Billiards, it’s a whole bunch of people.”
A TRUE FAMILY BUSINESS
The brothers are proud to continue the legacy started by Jay, who passed away 12 years ago, and Lorraine who passed away in 1999. But their impact on the business is still felt.
“My mom and dad made a great team,” Steve says. “My dad was the risk taker and my mom was the one who kept everything calm. So many people come in and remember my mom and dad, and it’s so rewarding because they made friends with the customers. That’s what you’re supposed to do, and it’s a lost art in today’s world.”
His parents set a standard by caring about what they made and sold and for treating customers with respect.
“They were so influential, not only to me and my brother but to all our employees,” Steve says. “Customers still come in with stories about my mom and dad. We’re selling pool tables not only to the children of their customers but now to the grandkids and the great-grandkids. It’s unbelievable. For someone to say to me, ‘My great-grandfather bought a table from you,’ I get goosebumps, I’m talking to you and the hair is standing on my arms. When it comes to word of mouth, you can’t get better than that.”
Recently, Steve’s grandchildren started helping out at the store, continuing the family tradition. And even though Steve and Tom work long hours seven days a week, he says they’re still going strong and feel younger than their years.
“People always ask, ‘Isn’t it tough being in a family business?’ I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world,” he says.
ENCOURAGING WORDS DURING A PANDEMIC
The hard work of the Orner brothers and the legacy of their store have helped them thrive during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our athletic backgrounds help us in all forms of life – that’s what I tell my grandkids, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be a ballplayer but it makes you competitive, it makes you want to do whatever it takes to get things done,” Orner says.
Lockdown regulations required Orner Billiards to close in March, and though customers weren’t allowed in, the business’ website was updated to let people know certain products could be delivered or picked up, and Steve and Tom were in the store every day answering phones and responding to emails. They also posted their cell phone numbers on the website and Facebook pages.
“We were somewhat surprised, we thought we’d get some calls here and there, but every night, those phones were ringing until 10 or 11 at night,” Steve says. “We have been around so long that I think people trust us, they know we’re big on American-made stuff and our Facebook page has thousands of pictures of installs we’ve done. People are home, they can’t do anything and now they want something to do inside.”
Orner Billiards sold a good amount of ping-pong tables in the early days of the quarantine because customers can set those up themselves. After a few weeks, pool table installations were allowed under certain regulations, including installers wearing masks and not being near the customers, and products and rooms were thoroughly cleaned with Clorox wipes. The store re-opened its doors for regular hours, again with certain restrictions, on May 18.
“We had a great April and May might be record-breaking, which is unheard of,” Orner says. “And for the last few weeks, we’ve been available to install full time, our guys are setting up seven days a week, it’s like Christmas.”
And Orner expects Christmas to be like Christmas, as he thinks the home recreation industry is positioned for a boom for the rest of this year.
“This a time where I think if people stay positive, they’ll be successful,” Orner says. “I see the writing on the wall because less people are going on vacation and they’re going to spend more time at home, whether it’s around the pool or whether it’s in the basement or game room, and the game room is a family thing.”
MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN PEOPLE’S LIVES
His father had another motivation in opening his pool room, and that was to help kids. Jay would invite kids into the pool room, tell them to pick up a cue and play against them – using a broomstick as his cue. That simple gesture of goodwill made a lifetime effect on some of those kids, who aren’t kids anymore.
“They still come in and still play,” Steve says. “So they get their cues worked on, and this one guy, named Fritz, every time he comes in, he comes over and gives me a hug and he goes, ‘I know I tell you this every time but your dad saved my life.’ And I say, ‘Fritzy, you cheer me up every time you say that.’ My dad took him off the road and gave him a job, made sure he got home, and told his parents what a good kid he was. I hear those stories all the time but that one sticks out.”
Steve and Tom have been running Orner Billiards for a long time, and they plan on continuing to do so for quite a while for the simple fact that they love what they do, and they love their customers.
“I’ve always said we keep getting better and better as the years go by,” Steve says. “And today, we’re the best we’ve ever been.”
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