Houshang Bozorgzadeh Selected as State Games 2002 Male Athlete of the Year

By Paul Lewis, Iowa Games Table Tennis Commissioner

Houshang (right) and cyclist Renee Coppock (left) receive award from Tom Osborne, Executive Director of the National Congress of State Games

The National Congress of State Games (NCSG) announced on October 5 the male and female athletes of the year at an awards dinner held in conjunction with the NCSG Annual National Symposium.

Houshang Bozorgzadeh, of Independence, Iowa was selected as the male athlete of the year, and cyclist Renee Coppock was the female athlete of the year. The award winners were chosen from more than 500,000 athletes who competed in one of 37 recognized State Games programs in 2002.

The award is by nomination and recognizes an athlete who best personifies the ideals of the State Games: participation, sportsmanship, effort, and positive attitude. Houshang was the first table tennis player and only the second Iowan to ever receive the recognition.

The awards dinner, held at the Bahia Resort Hotel in San Diego, California, featured two-time Olympic bronze medallist Dwight Stones as the keynote speaker. Stones set the world record in the high jump 10 times during his career. Preceding the awards dinner, Houshang and former U.S. Men’s Singles Champion Attila Malek dazzled the crowd with a table tennis exhibition.

Houshang, 66, won gold medals at the 2002 Iowa Summer Games in championship singles, over 40 singles, and championship doubles (paired with 2297 Michael Liu). Houshang’s table tennis career began at age 10, and he has been involved in table tennis as a player, coach, and promoter ever since. Among his accomplishments: 

• National men’s singles champion of Iran in 1957, 1958 and 1960.

• 1958 – Captain of the Iranian team that finished 3rd at the Asian Games.

• He competed as a player in seven World Championships: 1957, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, and 1971. In six of those years, his team finished no lower than 17th, and in 1963 they finished 9th.

• 1958 – First Iranian sportsman/athlete for any sport to receive an invitation to come to the United States by invitation of a USA governing sports body (in this case, the U.S. Table Tennis Association). Houshang, as part of this opportunity, appeared on the national-wide Ed Sullivan show with U.S. national champion and future Hall-of-Famer Bernie Bukiet.

• 1959 – Houshang won the World Consolation Championships in Dortmund, Germany. He finished the year ranked #6 in the world, which would prove to be his highest ranking as a player.

• At the U.S. Open Team Championships in 1962, he was voted “Outstanding Player.”

• 1962, 1963, 1964 – National (ACUI) Collegiate Champion.

• In 1958 and 1966 he was a Men’s Singles Bronze Medallist at the Asian Games.

• 3-time U.S. National Champion, Men’s Over 40 Singles.

• He coached five Iowan’s (John Stillions, Scott Butler, Jim Butler, Dhiren Narotam, Michael Liu) that eventually became national junior champions and one (Jim Butler) an Olympian

• He was elected to the USATT Hall of Fame in 1987. (See www.usatt.org/organization/halloffame.)

• 1977-1993 (15 consecutive years). USA national team captain and coach. During this span, he coached at

• 6 World Championships

• 3 Pan American Games

• 4 Olympic Sports Festivals

• The first World Cup appearance by the USA team (1978)

• 1980 and 1983 U.S. Open, where the USA team won the team championships

• 1990 French Open Championships, where USA won multiple senior national championship titles

• Dozens of USA-Canada team matches at the Canadian National Exhibition tournament in Toronto

Houshang retired as an Activities Specialist in August of 2002 after 32 years of service at the Mental Health Institute in Independence, Iowa. He has two daughters, one son, and four grandchildren.

Left: Bronze medalist Houshang at the 1966 Asian Games, with fellow bronze medalist Koji Kimura of Japan, Silver medalist Nobuhiko Hasegawa of Japan, and gold medalist Chung Yong Kim of South Korea.

Right: Bronze medalist Houshang at the 1958 Asian Games, with gold medalist Van Tiet Le of Vietnam and silver medalist Ichiro Ogimura of Japan.