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Quang Bui
Courtesy of Tim Boggan On Mercer Island—that’s east of Seattle across Lake Washington—“the parishioners of Emmanuel Episcopal Church decided they were going to sponsor a Vietnamese family.” So they picked the Buis. Why them? Because Lam Bui and his wife had nine children—six daughters (ages 8-21) and three sons (ages 12-22)—and, as the family had…
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George Braithwaite
Courtesy of Tim Boggan “The Chief”—that’s a perfect appellative for Hall of Famer George Braithwaite’s four-decade sense of responsibility to self and to Table Tennis. It’s little known, though, that George first feathered his cap in another country and in a different kind of competition. Before coming to the U.S., he represented Guyana in the…
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Scott Boggan
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Scott Boggan’s involvement in table tennis began–as my wife Sally, Scott’s mother, said in her acceptance speech for him at his induction–when we bought our home in Merrick, Long Island in 1964. For, said Sally, “we found there was a makeshift table in the basement—a board sitting on two sawhorses. Tim’s…
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Eric Boggan
Courtesy of Tim Boggan My son, Eric, begins playing in tournaments when he’s 6-years-old. When he’s 7, I enter him in the Men’s at the Toronto Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Fairgrounds venue the players share with the animals. During his match with nice-guy Benny Hull Eric spends some of the time fuming under the table.…
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Robert “Bud” Blattner
Courtesy of Tim Boggan The Aug. 31, 128-entry Cleveland Great Lakes Open that started the USTTA’s ’34-35 season marked the first appearance in Topics of Robert “Bud” Blattner (who’d come east that summer with two of his teenage St. Louis buddies, Garrett Nash and Bill Price, players also destined for table tennis stardom). This Great…
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Insook Bhushan
Courtesy of Tim Boggan From her beginning triumph in North America–when she won the Women’s Singles at the 1974 Toronto CNE–Insook showed the remarkable poise that anyone watching her for the next two decades would have to admire. And what a game she had–she varied the spin so beautifully, and, to complement her near impregnable…
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Abe Berenbaum
Courtesy of Tim Boggan As early as Sept., 1931, two years before the formation of the USTTA, the NYTTA had split from the Parker Brothers-promoted American Ping-Pong Association (APPA), had then begun conducting its own tournaments, and in the fall of 1933 joined the USTTA. In the spring of 1934, prior to the imminent merging…
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Angelita Rosal Bengtsson
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Angie’s always been proud of her ethnic heritage. Her father was Filipino, her mother Sioux Indian. She comes from a family of seven siblings–sister Monica and, for a time, brother Chris were good tournament players. Angie named her first child Suco after Angie’s Filipino grandmother, Suco Li. Her father, Monico, was…
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Valleri Smith Bellini
Courtesy of Tim Boggan When Valleri Green (later Smith for a short time and later Bellini for 48 years) appeared on the California tournament scene, it was clear from her position in the Jan 28-29, 1956 Golden State Open draw that not much was expected of her. Up against the eventual winner, Sharon Acton, in…
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Jack Howard
Courtesy of Tim Boggan Yep, you could read about it in the morning paper: “‘It was definitely an upset,’ Bobby Gusikoff, 26, said, still sweating and breathing hard after trying to keep up with Jack Howard’s bustling-type running game. ‘And a surprise. I’ve played him hundreds of times and he’s never beaten me. He sure…
US Table Tennis Hall of Fame
Recognizing athletes and contributors in the sport of Table Tennis in the United States