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Carl Zeisberg
Courtesy of Tim Boggan No official in the history of our Sport ever tried harder to organize the USTTA than did Carl Zeisberg, an authoritarian and consequently controversial figure. Throughout the 1930’s, his name–both as President of the Association and as Editor of Topics–is synonymous with Law and Order. We first see him, and his…
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Marty Reisman
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Given his long and from time to time almost magically resuscitated table tennis life, and being blessed, or damned, as he is with an insatiable urge to promote himself, Reisman has to be the most hyped player in our esteemed Hall. So how separate fact from fiction, the man from the…
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P. Becker and Co.
Coutesy of Tim Boggan Originally, William V. Schnur’s Becker Company started out in the luggage manufacturing business, but the hard times of the ending 1920’s and early ’30’s increasingly turned him to table tennis. And for a time his daughter too. Gertrude (“Trudie” or “Trude”) Schnur, played in the first (1933) American Ping-Pong Association (APPA)…
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Reba Monness
Reba Kirson Monness, a former U.S. Women’s Singles Champion, died unexpectedly in her bed, May 10, 1980, at her home in New York City. She was a dynamic and controversial figure up to the end–having attended the 1979 U.S. Open not as a player but as a still quite voluble spectator, just getting over, she…
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Erwin Klein
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Unexpectedly Bobby Gusikoff called me and, in the throes of uncontrollable tears and spasmed speech, gasped out that his long-time friend Erwin Klein had just been shot to death in Los Angeles–killed in an argument on Sept. 30, 1992 by a business partner who then fatally turned the gun on himself.…
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Tibor Hazi
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Tibor Hazi, the Hungarian International who became a U.S. Hall of Famer, was born Feb. 9, 1912. His real name was Hoffman, but as Hungarian society was anti-Semitic (hence Braun became Barna, Klein became Kelen), he used the name Hazi. Thus he was “in compliance with a Hungarian law requiring Hungarian…
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Harvard Table Tennis Company
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Harvard—Harvard Specialty Manufacturing Company—out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, began advertising in Topics with the Oct. and Nov., 1937 issues (“We manufacture Table Tennis equipment of a quality that has never been excelled”). Then they abruptly stopped advertising, only to start up again in the Feb., 1938 issue. Unlike other manufacturers, Harvard tried…
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Otto F. J. EK
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Surely no USTTA President was ever so anonymous to the general membership as he’s about to take office as Otto Ek was. Not a word had been written about him in Topics, only the line in the monthly list of “Affiliates” indicating he was President of the Ohio TTA—and even that…
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Bernard Bukiet
Courtesy of Tim Boggan (Note: Bernie’s Profile, his life, will follow this remembrance of the day of his death.) “A Day To Remember”by Bernie Bukiet“My name is Bernie Bukiet.”…“My name is Bernie Bukiet.”…“My name is Bernie Bukiet.”… It’s as if I have to keep reminding myself of that now–things are so different. To Tell the…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States