-
Elmer F. Cinnater
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Ping-pong play “with a twenty-five cent set”: kitchen table, makeshift net, sandpaper rackets, and balls “so light they almost floated in the air.” Who would think because Elmer Cinnater (“sin-AH-ter”) enjoyed, really enjoyed, such a casual diversion he’d be a VIP visiting in the not too distant future some of Europe’s…
-
Robert “Bud” Blattner
Courtesy of Tim Boggan The Aug. 31, 128-entry Cleveland Great Lakes Open that started the USTTA’s ’34-35 season marked the first appearance in Topics of Robert “Bud” Blattner (who’d come east that summer with two of his teenage St. Louis buddies, Garrett Nash and Bill Price, players also destined for table tennis stardom). This Great…
-
Abe Berenbaum
Courtesy of Tim Boggan As early as Sept., 1931, two years before the formation of the USTTA, the NYTTA had split from the Parker Brothers-promoted American Ping-Pong Association (APPA), had then begun conducting its own tournaments, and in the fall of 1933 joined the USTTA. In the spring of 1934, prior to the imminent merging…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States