Billiard table

The Craig Connelly Story

Craig Connelly, founder of Connelly Billiard Manufacturing and CRAIG BILLIARDS, grew up sharing a passion for woodworking with his father, Lee Connelly an accomplished industrial arts professor. Growing up Craig always had a pocket full of nuts, bolts and nails as he was always building something. Building a quality product was in Craig’s blood. “Do it right or don’t do it at all.”

Craig was president of his high school industrial organization, where he was known as possessing a keen eye for design and a love of muscle cars and motorcycles. While growing up in Midwestern town where hard work was a community value, Craig showed a love for playing billiards and a talking shop with local blue collar folks and craftsmen.

In 1976 Craig took a job while attending Arizona State University manufacturing and delivering pool tables for a one man shop in Phoenix Arizona. Upon graduation in 1980 instead of accepting a corporate job Craig decided to put his natural entrepreneurial skills to use and build superior pool tables and a quality company.

Craig founded Connelly Billiard Manufacturing in 1980 in Tucson, Arizona. He rented a small industrial space where he manufactured, sold and sometimes slept on the billiard tables. From the start Craig’s vision was to build a better table than his competition. He researched tables being produced around the world, visited high quality factories in Europe. As other companies were cutting corners, cutting costs, and reducing material expenses Craig did just the opposite. Thicker, wider, heavier was Craig’s motto. Building a table that was structurally and aesthetically superior was the goal at Connelly Billiards.

Under Craig’s leadership Connelly Billiards established over 150 dealerships across North America and abroad. Craig’s Tucson factory sold, produced and shipped over 10,000 quality billiard tables annually at its peak. Connelly Billiards changed hands in 2009 and is now run by a conglomerate in Texas.

Craig Connelly’s roots are in Arizona. CRAIG BILLIARDS is Arizona based. Craig has sold more pool tables by far than all of the existing game room furniture stores combined. Honesty, hard work and quality workmanship has put over 50,000 in Arizona homes and far more nationally and globally.

Today CRAIG BILLIARDS represents America’s finest quality Billiard and Game Room furniture companies. All products manufactured in the USA.

Let CRAIG BILLIARDS take care of all of your pool table and game room needs.

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