Table Tennis

I used to love playing with my dad. Thought that this article was interesting.

I especially enjoyed this section:

"For years, play of the game in the U.S. was sponsored by Parker Bros., which owns the name Ping-Pong. In 1930, the game company held the first American Ping-Pong Tournament "in a swanky hotel in New York City with tuxedoed officials," Boggan said.

Parker Bros., he said, was willing to underwrite the entire cost of the tournament if players used its equipment. Hard to believe in this age of Nike insignias worn by name players in many sports, but the individualists of table tennis declined, splitting off to form their own organization. Because Parker Bros. owned the name Ping-Pong, the rebels called themselves the New York Table Tennis Assn. Ever since, the sport has suffered for sponsors, and has appealed to iconoclasts.

"The old saw is that Ping-Pong is a game and that what we play is a sport," said Art Paolini, 65, from Allentown, Pa., who's been playing for 50 years.

Cox, representing Butterfly, agreed. "The game Ping-Pong is huge — at fire departments, recreation halls, college dorms," he said. "But as a sport, there's about 3,000 active players."

And to think that I could have played on the circuit, I could have been a contendah. ;)