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George Hendry
Courtesy of Tim Boggan More than 40 years ago, at about the same time that Japan’s Hiroji Satoh was astonishing everyone by winning the World Championship with his strange sponge racket, George Hendry married Marilyn Schuessler and soon thereafter gave up playing table tennis to establish his own accounting practice. Then, after an absence of…
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Sydney Heitner
Courtesy of Tim Boggan The only extant photo of the 1933 New York Table Tennis Association National Champion Sidney Heitner is a sedate, pipe-smoking, suit,-tie,-and-vest one that bespeaks him as a serious fellow, old beyond his years. It appears in the beginning of Table Tennis Tactics, a 100-page, softcover book published in 1933 by the…
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Davida Hawthorn
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Davida Hawthorn, 1945 U.S. Women’s Singles Champion, learned her table tennis at what is probably, historically, the most famous Club in U.S. table tennis–Herwald Lawrence’s Broadway Courts in midtown Manhattan, New York City. Lawrence, a West Indian, had infinite patience as a teacher, and his number one protege was David Hawthorn,…
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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…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States