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Dolores Probert Kuenz
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Dolores (originally Delores?) Probert’s first National’s was the Parker Brothers-sponsored American Ping-Pong Association’s last one–at the Hotel Carter in Cleveland, Apr. 6-8, 1934. She lost in the 2nd round, badly, to Chicago veteran Helen Ovenden, and was ranked APPA #12 for the ’33-34 season. At the Apr. 5-7, 1935 unifying USTTA…
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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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Alice Green Kimble
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Aug. 28, 1951–that’s Alice’s birth date. Which means that in the spring of 1963 Alice is 11 years old when she and father/coach Hal (U.S. #8 for the ’51-’52 season) are runner-ups in Mixed Doubles in the Long Island Closed. Two years later, 13-year-old Alice won the Women’s Singles in that…
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Barbara Chaimson Kaminsky
Courtesy of Tim Boggan It’s 1957, and Cherry Blossom time in Washington, D.C.—Cherry Blossom Open, that’s the name of the tournament at which, for the first time, DCTTA V.P. Robert Chaimson’s daughters, Barbara (later Kaminsky) and Donna (later Sakai), future USTTA Hall of Famers, are mentioned in Topics. At the time, the best women players…
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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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Jennifer Johnson
Courtesy of Tim Boggan “Play Ping-Pong and see the world”—that’s a mantra many of us have taken to heart, and few more so than 2012 U.S. Hall of Fame inductee Jennifer Brown Johnson. The Ping-Pong, er, Table Tennis, we’ll get to in a moment, but Jennifer’s peripatetic sports life began not in the U.S. representing…
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Jimmy Jacobson
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Jimmy Jacobson played in the Parker Brothers-sponsored American Ping-Pong Association’s first annual Metropolitan Ping-Pong Championship, held Mar. 24-28, 1930, at New York City’s Pennsylvania Hotel, and was beaten in an early round by one, Dave Pressberg, of the N. Y. Hakoah Club. However, by the next 1930-31 season, Westchester County’s New…
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Peggy Ichkoff
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Peggy Widmier (not yet Ichkoff) is first mentioned in Topics when, unranked the previous season, she improved quickly to play a strong match at the Jan. 19-20, 1946 Illinois Open—falling –13, -20, -20 in the 8th’s to U.S. #12 Carrol Blank. Although Peggy apparently hadn’t played in the most important tournaments…
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William C. Holzrichter
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Billy Holzrichter, born New Year’s Day, 1922, began playing at the Larabee Y in Chicago in 1934. Two years later, in the Illinois Open, he had a sensational win over Ralph Muchow (MUCK-ow), U.S. #9 for the ’36-37 season. This prompted Yoshio Fushimi, Coleman Clark’s exhibition partner and one of the…
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Judy Bochenski Hoarfrost
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Judy Bochenski played in her first U.S. Open when she was 11. At the 1969 San Francisco U.S. Open, she won her first major–the Girls U-13–by defeating her perennial rival Angelita Rosal. A few months later, at the Toronto CNE, Judy’s later acclaimed flat forehand is still something of an awkward…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States