History of U.S. Table Tennis VOLUME X 
As we’ve seen in Volume IX, our Association’s History owes a debt to Fred Danner who had the foresight and the know-how to enable the USTTA to be “officially accepted as the first Group C member of the United States Olympic Committee.” This was a necessary start for us on our way to getting Table Tennis into the Olympic Games—which would happen in Seoul in 1988. Providing all went well, the participation of a U.S. Team in the Pan American Games—first in 1979 as a “Demonstration” Sport with minor status, then in 1983 as a Sport with full status—met the Pan Am participation requirement for consideration as a full-fledged Olympic member. And for the most part things did go well, very well.
Although the Pan Am organizers were ridiculously unprepared (almost to the point where they literally couldn’t put on the tournament), readers will note that, though the U.S. didn’t win an event, we came very close to doing so, and so received compliments on our play and on our sportsmanship. You’ve heard the expression, “No sweat” regarding a match? Think just the opposite here in Puerto Rico. The highlight of perhaps the entire Games was the thrilling Men’s Team final—a five-hour, 26-game tie with the Dominican Republic, played in a non-air-conditioned arena where the temperature was a consistent 95%. You’ll read how everyone had to try to adjust to that.
But never mind—not only preliminary but primary objective achieved. For, as Fred Danner tells us (TTT, May-June, 1980, 1; 4), “History was made at the Olympic House of Delegates Meeting the Apr. 12th weekend, 1980, when (by a unanimous vote) the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) decided to give the United States Table Tennis Association its “full status” Group A membership in their organization.”
At the 1979 Pyongyang World’s, Fred, USTTA President Sol Schiff, and our International Chair Gus Kennedy had been unhappy with North Korea’s intransigence in not allowing ITTF-affiliated South Korea and Israel to participate, and also with ABC’s Wide World of Sports coverage. So following such controversies they were very pleased to get some good news. In May, 1979 in Peking, they had a very important meeting with China’s Sung Chung, Secretary General of the All China Sports Federation. The talk there was quite significant, for China, paving the way for its own entry into the Olympics, revealed for the first time that it would agree “to participate in direct competition with athletes from Taiwan”—a concession which Fred quickly made sure U.S. Olympic Committee Executive Director Colonel F. Don Miller knew about. So, as I said in my last volume, with China’s now assumed entry into the Olympics, can table tennis be far behind?
It followed, then—with Caesars Palace Tournament Director Paul Therrio’s Cycling connections with the USOC, and the fact that he was renting a house just across the street from Olympic Headquarters in Colorado Springs, renting it from Bob Mathias, Director of the U.S. Olympic Training Center there—that Mathias “would establish at this Center a suitable place to run USOC table tennis training programs.” Further, in the near future, with Dick Butler as Chair, the USTTA would begin sending players to the AAU/USA Junior Olympics.
The USTTA would also profit from President Schiff’s Aug.-Sept., 1980 trip to South Korea (TTT, May-June, 1980, 1; 4) where the sports facilities he visited “were the best I’ve ever seen.” Although Sol received a special invitation to come to Korea, and was treated royally, he said, “No pressure was put on me for any reciprocal ‘favors.’ However, he lamented loud and clear that, “since the 1973 Sarajevo World’s, South Korea has been victimized by ITTF member countries who under the leadership of China had formed the Asian Table Tennis Union and ever since, abetted strongly by North Korea, have steadfastly refused to allow South Korea to become a member.”
They can deny South Korea because the Asian Union Constitution “bans admission of any new member if just one member country vetoes it.” This is terribly wrong, says Sol—“I mean, South Korea’s a country like any other, the people in it human beings like you and me.” The ITTF needs to be pressured to get South Korea admitted to the Asian Union. Sol feels a kinship with these South Koreans, is moved to tears, he says, by “the dedication and sincerity that I saw in their players and officials.” And they feel a kinship with him—so invited our U.S. Men’s and Women’s Teams to an international tournament in Seoul in Aug., 1980. Schiff is to be commended for involving himself in trying to right an injustice to South Korea. When, in their Swaythling Cup match at the ’81 World’s, South Korea defeated North Korea in that deciding 9th match, Sol, I’m sure, was all smiles at the result.
Also winning praise from both players and officials was the 1979 Benihana U.S. Open, played on Long Island June 27-July 1. But there were disappointments too. Danner in his work-in-progress Memoirs blames U.S. President Jimmy Carter:
“…He [Carter] had met with world leaders at a big economic summit and promised them he would cut gasoline consumption in the U.S. at a time when most workers took their summer vacation.
How did he plan to reduce the use of gasoline? He stopped the distribution of gas almost completely for the Metropolitan New York area, so that 80% of all Long Island gas stations could not get fuel and the 20% that opened for business could pump gas for only a few hours until they ran out. Motorists could get only five gallons after waiting hours in long lines. Travel for anything but going to and from work was almost eliminated.
For the 1979 U.S. Open it meant no spectators, no ticket sales and no way to financially break even. Expenses for the required union help precluded the use of volunteers. The gates were left open because it would cost more to hire union workers to take the few tickets sold. We had some of the top world players participating with almost no one there to watch.”
But the gasoline shortage was only part of the problem—after all, the tournament drew a reported 600 U.S. entries. If the players could get there, the spectators could too—that is, if they wanted to come and were welcome to come. Bizarrely, on the first three days of the five-day tournament—namely when the great majority of those entered would be playing his or her matches—no spectators at all, no non-players, relatives, or friends would be admitted to the venue! This you could read (and take heed of?) in the local morning paper. True, this policy was so outrageous (and so misjudged in light of weak advance ticket sales), that it was eventually decided that if spectators accompanied players they could go in—but otherwise they couldn’t even buy their way in. If they couldn’t align themselves with a player they’d have to go home.
Those responsible for the tournament had the innovative but perverse idea of keeping all the prospective spectators from watching the many amateur age/class matches and bring them in on Saturday and Sunday when the professionals, the internationalists, would be playing. But by Friday night the tournament had practically played itself out for many of the entrants, most of whom were only abstractly interested in the foreign players. Some who’d played in the tournament packed up and left—and almost unbelievably some longtime New York aficionados didn’t even come to watch any of the late-stage weekend matches. The top foreigners, they felt, were really on vacation, the others were clearly lesser lights incapable of putting up a fight, much of the play was doubles, so how interesting could the team matches and the semi’s and finals of the major events really be?
One fellow, Baltimore’s Fred Tepper, answered that question this way:
“I would like to express sincere, appreciative congratulations to those responsible for this year’s version of the ‘Open’—the promoters, the sponsors, and the individual workers. This was the first time that I have ever seen a tournament on any level presented with flair, imagination, and style, and one that was geared towards the spectator. Regardless of what others may think, with the right kind of presentation this can be and is a spectator sport!”
At this point I can’t resist showing the companion photo to my Vol. I cover. To some, these 1935 photos reflect nothing more than a novelty act (“Hungarian World Table Tennis Champions have come to the U.S.!”); to others they show ideally what a properly publicized table tennis match could still be. The debate as to whether table tennis is a spectator sport, or not, continues.
One foreign representative who wanted to voice his criticisms of this 1979 U.S. Open felt he could talk frankly with me. He began:
“It’s just absurd to have a world-ranked star play an 1800 player,” he said. “It’s unheard of. Just not professional. Any good player shouldn’t have to play till the round of 32. And to ask him to play—what he’s never played in his professional life—Mixed Doubles, well.…If it’s understood he’s to be nice, then can you expect him to be serious too? Also, to ask an international to concentrate for four days at this summer tournament—that’s quite unreasonable. Two days, yes—but not four. And why run your Open so late in the season—in July? That’s idiotic. Now the players are relaxing. They play only for fun—at least most of them do. Yes, they’re polite. They’re not insulting, they try some. But if you want to make the U.S. Open a really serious event, perhaps a Grand Prix event, you have to keep an eye on the International Calendar. Many players in Europe would like to come to the States and play seriously—for whatever the ITTF allows in prize money or fringe benefits.
You could also improve on the ordinary courtesies. Teams ought to get a complete list of scheduling, and after each day’s play a complete summary of the results. And why not a sightseeing tour? Many of the foreigners have never really had a chance to see New York City. Would it be so hard to do this? And, my god, the bus system you’re supposed to have here! From 8-12 in the morning, then from 8-12 in the evening. Is everyone to stay in the playing area all afternoon? And on Saturday morning the buses didn’t even come. And on Sunday, when the finals are going on, to have all your shops and stalls open—that’s terribly distracting and cheapening to the event.
If you like I’ll send you a Program from the European Championships. Believe me, I don’t want to sound ungrateful or arrogant, but, quite seriously, why doesn’t your Mr. Elmore invite a European expert to manage his Open? Surely you could have had some TV? Not for the money, just for the exposure. You know what I heard? Someone only half jokingly said you ought to run your U.S. Open abroad. That sounds rather far-fetched to me—because after all you have a marvelous table tennis potential in this country. But the very suggestion is so remarkable, so imaginative, that, if ever followed up on, it would really hit the news media and make manufacturers and sponsors get together and talk. Anyway, enough, Mr. Boggan. Forgive me, but you encouraged me to be frank. And now, if you print what I say, perhaps in the future even the best of your tournaments will be better.”
Indeed, many believed that our 1980 U.S. Open in Fort Worth, though suffocatingly hot outside (113 degrees) and even inside in the non-air-conditioned (!) Blackstone tournament hotel, was an improvement. Certainly with Japanese and South Korean players in attendance we confirmed our reciprocal good relations with those countries.
Obviously, though, not everything’s perfect for those caught up in U.S. table tennis. An ongoing debate—conflict, really, escalating to such hurt feelings among serious players that some leave the Sport disgusted, embittered—began to surface with the coming of sponge and sandwich rubber (rubber over sponge) in the 1950’s. Now, a quarter-century later with the proliferation of different kinds of rubber, so-called “junk” rubber often seen in combination rackets (one kind of rubber on one side, another kind on the other side), not only the spectators but sometimes the players themselves don’t understand what kind of spin is on the ball.
When former USTTA Coaching Committee Chair Jeff Smart, speaks of “ridiculous kinds of equipment and player behavior” he echoes one side of the controversy raised over the ever-increasing use of so-called “junk” rubber. From one point of view, the use of Phantom, Feint, or any pips-out variant rubber is “trickery”—“playing dirty,” a win-at-all-costs attitude, characterized by racket deception that causes tense arguments on court and off. The opposing point of view is that the way one fairly plays the “modern” game—and the emphasis is on “modern”—is to learn the game anew, study how the new rubbers affect speed and spin. And to realize, too, how deception is deliberately built into today’s play, and that in fact it’s a boon to the no longer young and agile, for it allows an older or weaker player to craftily make use of the new equipment to equalize play. This junk rubber controversy will remain, month after month, a “hot” topic with those writing in to Topics.
New technology is taking over the Sport, and with it comes ESPN’s interest in filming the action, committing to no less than 52 ninety-minute showings of U.S. tournaments. USTTA Executive Director Bill Haid is more than optimistic, he’s ecstatic:
“…It doesn’t take any imagination to realize the impact this weekly programming will have on club attendance, additional tournaments, league demands, new blood for potential members and a consuming sales boom on table tennis equipment.
Clubs will have to gear up for more open play, more available tables, more local tournaments, and more league play.
Regional tournament directors must be prepared to sanction more tournaments.
Regional club chairmen must be prepared to help more new clubs become affiliated.
Coaching clinics are going to be in demand.
Our USTTA membership has been on the increase; now, however, with the explosion of national weekly television coverage, table tennis membership will soon skyrocket.
Manufacturers and distributors of table tennis equipment will also reap rewards of this TV coverage to 18,000,000 viewers with a surge of increase in sales. Their support of table tennis and cooperation with the USTTA for years will soon pay off and the USTTA can look for an even more enthusiastic support from all manufacturers and representatives….”
Under Triple T Enterprises, President Dorsett Gant will be the USTTA’s TV agent, and Vice President Bill Addison the Executive Producer for these ESPN showings. Hope for the best, huh? Maybe it’ll happen. Actually, as you’ll see, it will and it won’t happen. Addison will report, “After completing 38 shows, and losing money numbering into the hundreds of thousands of dollars [why? what happened, or didn’t happen?], we had to cancel coverage, including the production of the 1980 U.S. Closed from Las Vegas.” Haid is no longer ecstatic.
. Technology aside, all is not focused on the new. Old Champions are now being remembered with the establishment of the first Hall of Fame Banquet, Dec. 16th, 1979, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Over the next thirty years, 120 or so players and contributors (their Profiles on the USATT web site—www.usatt.org) will have been honored at such banquets.
Regardless of, or because of, the evolution in “junk” racket technology, U.S. players were more and more going abroad to improve their games. In 1979 older boys Dean Wong and Quang Bui spent six weeks at Japanese table tennis-oriented universities—prompting a Topics reader to write in that, “We sure as hell aren’t going to develop the sport for American-born youths by sending foreign-born youths on these expensive trips year after year.” These teenagers shouldn’t settle here—should respectively, if not respectfully, go back and play for Burma and Vietnam?
Then in 1980 Dean, Quang, Brian Masters, Captain Roger Sverdlik, and President Schiff would travel to Peru for a Guayaquil Invitational Tournament. Junior Miss players Cheryl Dadian, Jaime Medvene, Tina Smilkstein, and Jackie Heyman were in Japan too, as were Erwin Hom and Kurt Jensen…while the Wu sisters trained in Taiwan. Younger boys Scott Butler, Sean O’Neill, John Stillions, and Brandon Olson went off to Sweden for practice and competitive play—as did juniors Eric Boggan, Ben Nisbet, and Jim Downy. And, hey, what’s it like to train in China? Ask Faan Yeen Liu, or read her account in the Feb., 1981 issue of Topics.
Scott Boggan, Mike Bush, and Charles Butler, joining D-J and He-ja Lee, began their multi-year league life in Germany, while Danny Seemiller and Mike Lardon would also play and train there, though Mike would stay only for a short time. Topics would appear 10 times a year, not six, and the write-ups—Bush’s especially—of our overseas players’ experiences and the world’s major tournaments helped readers better understand what world-class table tennis was all about. Here’s an excerpt from a tournament Mike attended in France:
“The Chinese service, which is practiced three-four hours a day, is mostly forehand, with no bat flipping. They twist their bodies around so that their backs fake out their opponent, and, contacting the ball just off their left kidney (assuming they’re left-handed), they spin all their body weight into the ball for the wickedest, stickiest, juiced-to-the-max serves you’ve ever seen. Sometimes you saw the top Europeans looping the ball into their own side of the table! The serves were loaded and short, loaded and bullet-fast, or without any spin whatsoever. Because they contact the ball behind their bodies, the opposing player can’t see what’s coming until the last split-second, if even then. Not being able to see the ball was the European’s No. 1 gripe.”
So many different views are constantly being voiced in the magazine, whatever the topic—and to me that’s how it should be. Brooklyn, N,Y,’s Jimmie Lee likes Topics (“a very informative and worthwhile publication which reflects favorably on the Editor”) but offers what he hopes is “constructive criticism.” He and his friends are tired of reading Mike Bush’s “three or four page verbose articles on his wonderful experiences in Europe. Is TOPICS a USA or European publication?”
Naturally comes a reply—from Concord, CA’s Kurt Jensen. “…I became incensed at the suggestion that Mike Bush’s articles from Europe be put on the shelf instead of in Topics. The quote, “Is Topics a USA or European publication” is how the letter write put it. Personally, I find Mike’s articles well written and informative. I really enjoy reading the blow by blow descriptions of the action between the top stars and the foreign teams that compete there. I believe it’s the duty of our national publication to let us know what’s going on in the world of table tennis….It seems to me that we should be welcoming any information about world table tennis, because that is where the action is. We should be doing all we can to learn about other countries’ styles and training techniques….[Lee would like Topics to be brought up to the standard of the Japanese magazines by presenting “time sequence photos of the world’s top players in action with explanations of their strokes and footwork.”]
Two very different views about the contents of the USTTA magazine are inevitable given the parties involved. One is reflected in the language of the well-intentioned but ever protocol-minded USTTA Executive Director Bill Haid (mindful always that the Association’s Headquarters and his own life center primarily on USTTA/USOC activities). The other viewpoint may be seen in an analysis of Haid’s language by Editor Boggan who (check it out) prints as much positive material about the sport as is realistically or unrealistically given him. Here’s Haid (TTT, May, 1981, 17):
“…How easy it is to write articles for publication that exploit someone else for what the writer feels are important reasons to air to all.
How sad it is that a publication should print issue after issue of articles written by members who hang their dirty clothes on the line for all to see. A publication that is read nationally and internationally should not degrade its own organization. Personal viewpoints must be restricted to ‘Letters to the Editor’ not articles to the public.
If you have a complaint, ideas, or constructive criticism, write to the Chairman [the Chairman of what?], Executive Committee, or Executive Director personally, but, remember, most readers could care less about your personal problems as they all have a few of their own.”
And here’s Boggan, involving Haid, because Tim feels he has important reasons to air to all—reasons that are intertwined with Bill’s presentation. It’s not simply sad or sick that an Executive Director doesn’t want any controversy during his tenure—it’s all too understandable. But you can’t have transparency—can’t level with the membership by pretending there aren’t diverse views on topics people feel strongly about, while all the while being intent on silencing the vitality of voice after voice. That’s degrading. Bill says, No personal viewpoints are wanted in articles to the public. Ridiculous—how keep them out? But personal viewpoints can be hazarded in Letters to the Editor because they aren’t articles to the public. Also ridiculous—who else but the public reads them, if they get the chance. Of course I grant that hiding complaints, ideas, and criticism by submitting them to select individuals in power who may well have no bent for them or no intention of busying themselves following up on them is undeniably convenient. For, as Haid’s last sentence suggests, these would be considered by him as USTTA members’ “personal problems”—which, perhaps reminding him too much of his own, he wouldn’t be interested in. With the result that members, getting no feedback, understanding that what they think and feel is not being heard by others, will go into hiding themselves.
For better or worse, or both perhaps, there’s no hiding the outspoken Boggan and his sons. They’ll be drawing Letters to the Editor, pro and con, as controversial “offensive conduct” objects of the new USTTA Point Penalty Rule. You’ll see how and why at the 1980 U.S. Closed this Rule was still in the experimental stage. Meanwhile, 1978 U.S. Closed Champ Eric Boggan will begin his world-wide Invitational play with a Benson and Hedges/Lovebird tournament in Jamaica, later follow with an Invitational in Barbados, and in between will participate as the North American representative in the first World Cup, held in Aug., 1980 in Hong Kong. Eric’s 7th-Place finish there—a 17th birthday present as it were, will be worth $1,700 to him (17 one-hundred-dollar bills—a heady sum for the young professional).
In Feb., 1980, Danny and Ricky Seemiller spent three weeks in Japan, promoting their Butterfly sponsor in various ways. One way was to see Danny win the Western Japan Open (a confidence builder after his loss in the ’79 Closed to Attila Malek); another was to see the Seemiller brothers best 267 other teams to win the Men’s Doubles. Later in the year Ricky would return to Japan for six weeks, during which time he’d be trained not to hit a stand-up cigarette like Reisman but little coins or markers positioned about the table. In between, with Dave Sakai as mentor, he’d go to Seoul as part of a U.S. Team, and, as the result of a “Rock Seemiller” misprint in the tournament Program, would acquire the short-lived nickname “Rick the Rock.”
Despite Bill Steinle’s infamous criticism that, were Danny not so hard on Ricky, they’d win more Championships, the Seemiller brothers continued to prove that year-in, year-out, they were the greatest long-time Doubles partnership in U.S. table tennis history. At the May, 1980 Norwich Union Canadian Open, they beat a good South Korean team in five in the quarter’s, then downed former Yugoslav International Zoran “Zoki” Kosanovic and Canadian Joe Ng in the semi’s, and then Malek and Eric Boggan in the final.
At the 1980 U.S. Open, Danny, Eric, and Ray Guillen won the Team’s from the Swedes and Koreans—but, ohh, not a dime in prize money did they get. Then Danny and Ricky took the Men’s Doubles, just getting by Kosanovic/Guillen, 25-23 in the 5th.
For the fifth straight year, the Seemiller brothers were our Men’s Doubles Champions—at the 1980 U.S. Closed, they defeated Malek and D-J Lee. Ricky won the Mixed Doubles too—with Cheryl Dadian over Mike Bush/Judy Bochenski. In 1980, Cheryl, after spending five weeks in Japan with Hasegawa and Itoh, will be our first National Women’s Amateur Champion, Judy Bochenski will become Judy Hoarfrost, and new mother He-ja Lee will successfully defend her U.S. Closed Championship. Also—stop all the presses—how did Ricky solidify his place on the ’81 Team to the World’s? In the Trials he beat #! finisher Danny, fresh from regaining his National Men’s title, for the first (though not for the last) time. And to think it wasn’t long ago that Danny was lamenting in a final, “If I were playing someone else, spectators would watch, but not when I play Ricky.”
The forced distinction being made in the table tennis world as to who’s an “amateur” and who’s a “professional” was more and more being blurred. Accommodations were being made by the IOC/ITTF. Would the Paddle Palace’s Dean Doyle and Mike Bochenski, off for 21 days in Saudi Arabia to give clinics and exhibitions, be considered professionals? Just as now new U.S. Men’s and U.S. Women’s Amateur events were being held at our National’s, so was prize money in tournaments flourishing—$16,500 at our Caesars U.S. Closed; $5,500 at the Duneland Open; $5,000 at the Norwich Union Canadian Open and Detroiter Team’s; $4,500 at the Louisiana Open, $4,000 at the Nittaku Southern Open, Butterfly Open, and Eastern Open; $2,500 at the Concord, NY Open; and $2,000 at the Chateauguay Open.
Teams from both the ROC (Republic of China) and PRC (People’s Republic of China) played matches in the U.S. Not at the same place at the same time—but with Taiwan having changed its name in table tennis events to Chinese Taipei, it was finding an accommodation with the PRC. Would that the two Koreas could follow suit—at least this year they’d both be playing at the Novi Sad World’s. After our ’79 fall from First Division play in Pyongyang, it was good to see a photo of our 1981 U.S. World Team members—the Seemillers, Scott and Eric Boggan, and Mike Bush, with their perennial Captain Houshang Bozorgzadeh—smiling in Novi Sad after regaining our position among the world’s top teams.
No question but that Table Tennis in the U.S. continues to progress. As readers of these volumes know, much has been accomplished in the last ten years.