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39th US Table Tennis Hall of Fame Annual Awards Induction Banquet
Thanks to the generousity of Major League Table Tennis for Sponsoring the event and the Houston International Table Tennis Academy for hosting. Flint Lane of MLTT welcomed the evening. Inductions The Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Patty Martinez-Wasserman by Scott Gordan.
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Stellan Bengtsson
Courtesy of Christian Lillieroos Ladies and gentlemen, Table Tennis Hall of Famers, future national team members, esteemed guests, and fellow table tennis enthusiasts. It is with great honor and immense pride that we gather here today to induct a true legend of our beloved sport into the United States Table Tennis Hall of Fame. As…
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Dennis Taylor
2024 Hall of Fame Induction Speech October 10, 2024 at Houston International TTA By Larry Hodges Many years ago, Dennis Taylor joined my Intermediate Training group sessions in Maryland. We worked on his forehand, his backhand, his footwork, his serve and receive, everything, and his rating went over 1600. And he could really rip the…
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Si Wasserman
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Si first met his good friend and soon-to-be doubles partner Austin Finkenbinder in 1948 at the downtown Los Angeles YMCA table tennis club. (Next to Austin and Si, far right, is Ragnar “Ray” Fahlstrom, still playing in tournaments today.) It was Austin who introduced Si to the “mecca” of table tennis…
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Bill Walk
Courtesy of Tim Boggan The South Park (Pittsburgh) Club, still in existence today (the oldest continually USATT affiliated club?), was formed in the 1957-58 season under the leadership of Lillian Guyer. Lillian was a Vice-President of the USTTA and also the Courts, Clubs, and League Chair—in fact, through the years she chaired five different committees…
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John Varga
Courtesy of Tim Boggan At an historic 1937 meeting in Kokomo, a number of players and officials forever important to Indiana table tennis gathered together to reorganize the State Association and to elect South Bend’s W. B. Hester (the W. stood for Weldon) as their President. A selected Who’s Who at this meeting would include,…
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Tamasu Company
Courtesy of Tim Boggan One can find out much about Japan’s Hikosuke Tamasu, founder of the famous Tokyo-based Butterfly Company, from his (1993) Songs of International Friendship. In 1945, Tamasu as a young soldier was only two kilometers away when the atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. In caring for the injured, he first began to feel…
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Y.C. Lee
Courtesy of Tim Boggan There’s a photo of an obviously serious-minded, not to say worried, four-year-old Ying Chow Lee, sitting in a park in Shanghai as if hoping the outdoor air will clear his head, looking for all the world like, “How am I gonna engineer a city-wide Kindergarten tournament when I’m six tables short?”…
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Neil Smyth
Before Cornelius “Neil” Smyth became Vice President and Treasurer of Caesars Palace and so was in a position to make his Hall of Fame contribution to the Sport he loved, he’d had a varied and accomplished background outside of Table Tennis. From Eugene Wilson’s “Senior of the Month” interview with Neil (Topics, Jan., 1980), we…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States