Table Tennis at Texas Wesleyan University: A Great Fit

Dr. Harold Jeffcoat

By Dr. Harold G. Jeffcoat, President

Our decision to add table tennis to our competitive athletic program at Texas Wesleyan University stunned the local sporting community as well as the coaching staff.  Texas is a football state, and we are adding ping-pong!  Well table tennis is not your father’s ping-pong! Our brand of table tennis requires strength, endurance, agility, extraordinary balance and lightening reflexes.  Competition is fierce and character counts! 

For over fifty years TWU (then Texas Wesleyan College) competed and won as a member of the NAIA. In the late 1990s TWU departed the NAIA for NCAA Division II.  Teams were less competitive and costs, especially required increases in unfunded student athletic scholarships, exceeded reasonable investment for a small college with many greater and more urgent needs than sustaining costly and less competitive NCAA Division II programs.  In 2001 our administration decided to return to the NAIA.  In 2003 over 224 student athletes studied and competed at TWU; every team participated in post-season play; student-athlete grade point averages increased; attendance increased; news coverage increased; all at one-third the cost of play.  But something was missing. 

TWU needed something different, something unique for the sporting public in Ft. Worth. We needed something new and exciting, fast-paced, and where for a modest investment we could be very competitive.  The idea came from our assistant men’s golf coach and avid table tennis player, Bobby Cornett.  “I know a coach, a great coach, good recruiter, who we can get to start our program,” he said.  “Christian Lillieroos is his name. He is known all over the world.”  “But why table tennis?” I asked.  Bobby responded as if he anticipated my question.  “One, it’s a great international individual and team sport. Two, it’s not expensive. Three, we can recruit all over the world.”  “Hal, I know you want to capture the imagination of the community and gain some publicity for the university.  With table tennis we would be the leader, no one else provides scholarship support for these kids.”  And, finally, the clincher, “Think of it,” he glowed, “soon Texas Wesleyan University will have a student on the U.S. Olympic Team.”  That was it for me.  Costs we could handle as a short-term experiment.  We prepared a business plan, which I require for all start-up academic and support initiatives. We hired Christian with the challenge of building the program according to the business plan. Since table tennis is not yet an NAIA sport, operating support would be provided through the student services budget. The university would provide scholarship assistance at the rate of fifteen percent of the net tuition revenue generated by the program.  This is the same discount rate we use to fund scholarships for academic programs and all other athletic teams without permanent endowment.

Three years and three national championships later the decision seems less bewildering. Per student operating costs for table tennis do not exceed those of other sports.  We award scholarships and other financial assistance to table tennis student-athletes on the same basis as we do scholarships for all other students: athletes and non-athletes. Retention among the table tennis team exceeds those of many traditional team sports.  The team grade point average exceeds the university student grade point average. Players serve as campus leaders in various organizations; represent the university well at national venues, and act as ambassadors at international competitions. The men’s national collegiate singles champion, Eric Owens, is off to medical school after graduation, and his teammates, men and women, are eager to challenge him for his number one spot on the roster.  Even the local newspaper carries stories about our success as our students play against teams from some of the great and larger American universities, and win.  Indeed we are delighted to host for the second consecutive year the National Collegiate Table Tennis Championships on our historic Ft. Worth campus.

Today we proudly display three national table tennis championship banners in our basketball arena immediately next to five national NAIA men’s golf champions banners, final four banners for men’s basketball, elite eight women’s volleyball, conference champions in baseball, women’s basketball, women’s softball, and postseason honors for men’s and women’s soccer.  In 2004 all our NAIA team sports participated in post-season play, but only table tennis returned with the national team championship and multiple individual and doubles national titles.  The next generation of table tennis recruits arrived on campus this fall semester, some from the United States, others from Barbados, Romania, Mexico and China.  Now Coach Lillieroos wants a new arena to house his table tennis team. And he wants the funds needed to expand the table tennis program. I asked him for a revised business plan with a more profitable scenario. I bet that by Christmas he will have it on my desk with endorsements from not only the Executive Vice President for Budget and Finance but faculty leaders as well.

Bobby Cornett was right.  Table tennis fits very well at Texas Wesleyan University, and yes, we will soon see members of our team representing not only the USA, but also other countries at the next summer Olympics.  Stay tuned!