Senior Corner

March/April 2009
By Olga & Stan Kahan,

Co-Chairs, USATT Senior Committee

949-830-6699 (ph) • 949-240-7167 (fax)

natashafeingold@gmail.com

GREAT SENIOR GAMES IN CALIFORNIA

Summer 2009 has heated up hot and hectic in the field of senior table tennis. After a super successful Meiklejohn Memorial North American Senior Table Tennis Tournament (with 264 avid players competing for a perennial goal of winning during all those long days June 4 - 7) many of those senior players have joined in with a great number of other athletes - young and old - to participate in the 2009 U.S. Open and the 2009 USA International Veterans Championships, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, July 1- 4. (See reports in the next issue of Sept/Oct USATT Magazine by Tim Boggan). Moreover, the lucky ones, all those who have qualified for the 2009 Summer National Senior Games, will be flocking in the venues of Stanford University, San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, and everywhere around the Bay in late summer. Table Tennis Players will be located in the Ford center, Stanford Campus, from August 9 to August 15.
National Senior Games Association (NSGA) and it’s President and CEO, Philip Godfry, along with Anne Warner Cribbs, 2009 Senior Games Local Organizing Committee President and CEO have secured support for the games from virtually every corner of the San Francisco Bay area. They each hope that the participants will enjoy not only a national championship experience , but also a great Northern California cultural experience. The contact information (2009 National Senior Games) is:
Event Information (650) 323-9400
info @ 2009 seniorgames.org
www. 2009seniorgames.org.

UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS

Two officials from the 2009 Meiklejohn Memorial North American Senior Table Tennis Committee-- Tournament Director, Ray Kunze, and the Tournament Committee Secretary, Stan Kahan-- have had a similar experience not only among table tennis seniors, but also in the world of academia -- both have been full professors in their professional
lives (like Julius Margolis, Meiklejohn Committee member and the professor of Economics Emeritus, whom we wrote about in the last issue of USATT Magazine May/June/2009).

RAY KUNZE was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 7, 1928. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Ray’s father began teaching at the Milwaukee extention of the University of Wisconsin.
“When I was about nine years old, my father and I began playing ping
pong on a table that barely fit into a room in our basement; so I had some early experience hitting the ball and playing close to the table, the paddles being of the sandpaper variety. At that time we were living in Elm Grove, a small village in Waukesha county. I am often amused by parents who seem to worry extensively about the schools their children get into; the school I attended, until I finished eighth grade, had four grades in a room, and there were about five students per grade. It was not such a great school, being more than a bit chaotic, but on the other hand it was not too bad.

“In high school, I took the usual academic courses, including science and math, and played a clarinet in the orchestra, and band; I also played
an alto sax in a small dance band and played after football games. At this point table tennis was not part of my activities, and it was only after I retired at age sixty eight that I took it seriously; however, in high school, I was on the tennis team for three years, eventually ending up as captain. I also went out for the swimming team for three years without much success.
“Later on, I was on the tennis team at the University of Chicago, where I received a PH.D. in mathematics in 1957. From that point on my main game was mathematics which I did at a number of universities and research institutions including the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ, Washington University in St. Louis MO, the University of California at Irvine CA, and the University of Georgia at Athens GA. At each of the last three of these I attained the rank of full professor.
“After retiring in 1996, we moved to Leisure World where I started to
play table tennis again. A couple of years later, my wife Valerie, gave me a christmas present of some lessons with Wei Wang; so I finally started to learn something about the game. A short time after that, Julius Margolis got me interested in the Meiklejohn Tournament by asking whether I could make sense out of a computer program that the USATT used or tried to use. He also got me involved with the work of putting the tournament on by hand, which I found was very tiresome. Our present day solution gradually arose, during the time I was director and after I met Craig Krum while playing the High Desert Tournament at Victorville.”

STAN KAHAN first began playing table tennis while he was an underrgraduate student in New York. A friend invited him to play some evenings at the famous Lawrence’s Table Tennis Parlor in Manhattan.
“In the early 50’s it was inhabited by the likes of Dick Miles, Marty Reisman, Sol Schiff,, Lou Pagliaro, John Somael, Leah Newberger, and a very young Bobby Gusikoff. For you, old timers, you will recognize the names of former U.S. and world champions. I found the Parlor very interesting, a large dark green loft with holes all over one wall. I later learned that this was a former speak-easy from the roaring twenties and “Legs Diamond” had left his calling card one night with a sub-machine gun. Needless to say I lost to all those great players during the regular tournaments. While pursuing my graduate degrees, I continued to play as usual. One night, when a player I had always beaten showed up with a funny looking penhold racket with thick sponge on one side, I laughed and proceeded to play. My old Hock Hardbat could easily beat his strange concoction. Needless to say, I was beaten soundly and began to loose interest in the game - I predicted the end of table tennis.
“As my professional life continued, I taught at the University of Wisconsin, University of Iowa and one year held a full professorship at Manchester University in England. I picked up a racket again, but discovered that the Brits were very good and convinced me that they had invented the game in the late 19th century. It is a claim only challenged by the French, but what else is new? Teaching for several decades at California State University, Long beach, where I held teaching and administrative positions, and having written and published eight books I fully retired in 1998, promising myself never to have to write books, administrative letters, recommendations etc. again. However, here I am now secretary of the Meiklejohn Committee ... and I hope you will enjoy my part of this article.”

By the way, the final of the Meiklejohn Memorial North American
Seniors pitted charming Gao Jun vs. seasoned Danny Seemiller. In
this case beauty and youth triumphed over age and experience. And
the winner was ...ah .... to be YOUNG AGAIN!