Billiards gained an unusually strong Tippecanoe County following at the turn of the century. That's because of a Lafayette player with a national reputation.

He was Parker A. Byers (1852-1915), who kept the sport in the public eye in the early 20th century three ways. He operated a Fourth Street "billiards academy" for open play, lessons and exhibitions; played occasional show matches although crippled by rheumatism in his last years; and invited top stars to play in Lafayette. One such event took place on Feb. 3, 1905.

Newspapers predicted that day that Byers' hall would be the scene of a "dazzling exhibition by a young phenom named Willie Hoppe." The 17-year-old Hoppe and Jacob Schaefer, 50, of Indianapolis, billed as "billiard champion of the world," were touring at the time. They had played on Feb. 2 in Chicago, and were booked for Feb. 4 at Indianapolis, when Byers invited them for a match, which he would referee in Lafayette. He was well qualified to do so.

Three-cushion champ

Born near Delphi in Carroll County, Byers came to Lafayette at age 16 and for four years ran a billiards parlor for an owner named Comstock. When Byers was 17, in 1869, he entered a three-cushion billiards tournament at Indianapolis and placed second. In 1871, he won the state championship. The following year, at age 20, he opened his own hall at Fifth and Columbia streets, later moving it into the Bramble House, a hotel at Third and South streets.

In 1875, Byers won the state three-cushion title again. After that he was challenged by Jack Garrett, of Indianapolis. When Byers and Garrett played for 400 points in June 1875, Byers won 400 to 201. He soon moved his billiards parlor to larger space near Fourth and Ferry streets. In 1878, he again won the state title, a gold medal that was to pass from one champion to another. But, as the Lafayette Journal later put it, "the player never developed who was able to wrest his laurels from him in the three-cushion game."

Jacob Schaefer had played Byers when both were young talents - on June 9, 1873. It was the first time Byers had played three-ball billiards, the old game having been with four balls. Schaefer, then 18, who had come to Indianapolis from Kansas, won that match 400-283, and steadily rose to become a noted champion.

Another rising star

Now in 1905, Byers was president of the Merchants Electric Light Association he had helped start, and with brother William ran what they advertised as a "billiard and reading room." The Lafayette Courier reported that Byers, 53, "has had rheumatism for a long time" but in a match with Clay Daly of Frankfort on Feb. 2 he "showed flashes of the brilliant form that won for him the state championship in 1878."

The 1905 crowd did get to see Hoppe. But Schaefer, trying to stop a cold from turning into pneumonia, stayed in bed. Hoppe played an exhibition match against the amateur from Frankfort, Daly, in a game of "18-inch balk line," and won 400-83 with runs of 120, 67, 56, 49 and 45, averaging 26.6 points per turn.

In 1898, when Hoppe was only 10 and traveling with his mother, father and brother, he had stopped in Lafayette to play three-cushion against Byers. Byers had predicted even then that Hoppe would become the premier player of the world. (Byers had discovered, coached and led to stardom his own protege in Ora Morningstar before 1900).

Indeed, William Frederick "Willie" Hoppe (1887-1959), from Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., became world champion of the 18.1 balkline game from 1906 almost continuously through 1927; champion of the 18.2 balkline game 15 times starting in 1907; and of the three-cushion game 12 times starting in 1936. He retired from competition in 1952, with 51 world titles in all.

Byers' reputation remained such that upon his death in 1915 the Lafayette Journal considered him "one of the best known and highly esteemed men" in town.

About the series:

Each week, the Journal & Courier is reprinting some of the best of Bob Kriebel's Old Lafayette columns. Today recalls billiards champion Parker A. Byers. This is taken from a column published Aug. 24, 1997