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Bobby Gusikoff
Courtesy of Tim Boggan “Bobby, let’s go and watch your cousin Leon play ping-pong tonight.” From that casual suggestion, made by a father to his son on an evening in the late 1940’s, comes Bobby Gusikoff’s half-century recollection that, “As we climbed the stairs to those fabled Herwald Lawrence Broadway Courts, there was no way…
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Ray Guillen
Courtesy of Tim Boggan (PHOTO #1) The ball, the racket, the player—somethin’s gonna fly. Talk about flamboyance, talk about a player who might be just a little wild, who IS this guy? Why, our next inductee of course (PHOTO #2)—Ray Guillen, a..k.a. “character”/actor “Ray Hollywood.” He’d rehearsed and sharpened his table tennis act at Milla…
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Lisa Gee
Courtesy of Tim Boggan “The doctors didn’t know Betty was expecting twins,” said Yim Gee, Lisa’s father. (Lisa is the elder sister by one minute.) “And,” he continued, “like the first baby, Diana, too, was in good health. So we thanked God for that. But I went into shock—half my face was paralyzed for eight…
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Jun Gao
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Gao Jun was born Jan. 25, 1969 in Baoding, Hebei, China (not far from Beijing). Her father introduced her to table tennis when she was five and he was serious enough to see that she had a coach. This led to her going off to an athletic boarding school for potential…
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Emily Fuller
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Emily Fuller first surfaced as a player with high hopes when she beat Chicago star Helen Ovenden in straight games in the Rainbow Room of the Hotel Carter in the quarter’s of the 1934 Cleveland APPA National’s. She’d had no chance in the semi’s against the emerging superstar Ruth Aarons, but–give…
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Chartchai “Hank” Teekaveerakit
Dec, 18, 2008 Chartchai’s Acceptance Speech Thank you, Sean. It is with great honor for me to be inducted into this prestigious group….the USTT Hall of Fame. First and foremost, I would like to thank Hall of Fame committee members for their support. My journey into America would not be made possible without the help…
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Diana Gee
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Since Californians Diana Gee and her twin sister Lisa, encouraged by their parents Yim and Betty, were playing at age nine not just in local tournaments but in both the 1978 Oklahoma City U.S. Open and Las Vegas Closed, you can tell the family was taking tournament table tennis seriously. An…
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Peggy McLean Folke
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Margaret “Peggy” McLean Folke first comes to our notice as a 13-year-old from Hollis, Long Island, N.Y. participating in the 1940 Eastern’s held in Reading, Pennsylvania. When she next catches our eye, it’s a year later, Wednesday, Feb. 12, and she’s playing in the one-day New York Open. Obviously she’s been…
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Bobby Fields
Courtesy of Tim Boggan The mid-January 1954 Los Angeles Championships, I believe, marked the first time the names, Mike Ralston, Leonard Cooperman, and Bobby Fields appeared in print together. Both Bobby and his well-known father, Stan Fields (formerly Feitelson), the long-time famous Tournament and Exhibition Player and former Club Manager of the Washington, D.C. Ice…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States