The whiff-whaff sound of parchment ping pong paddles and the ping-pong rhythm of the table tennis ball rebounding from table tennis paddle to table became nicknames for table tennis. In days when the sport was unregulated, ping pong balls were carved of cork or covered in netting, ping pong paddles were made of cardboard, books served as table tennis nets, and any flat surface served as a ping pong table.
Government Issues
Originally a parlor game of royalty, table tennis grew in popularity in the middle of the 20th century. In 1971, America's table tennis team and 10 journalists were invited to visit the People's Republic of China, ending the 1949 information blockade and leading to the U.S. lifting a 20-year embargo on trade.
Russia banned table tennis early in the 20th century, believing it was harmful to players' eyesight. From 1965 to 1971, China's Ma Tse Tung banned his country's players from world table tennis events. Today, table tennis is a booming business, and governments like China place skillful young players into rigorous training programs while paying their top players for grueling hours of practice.
The Name Game
Some of the world's top leaders have been photographed volleying a table tennis ball: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Yasser Arafat, Tony Blair, Henry Kissinger, Fidel Castro, and England's Prince Charles.
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Hollywood's Boggie and Bacall were captured in action at the table tennis match, as were Ronald Regan and Jane Wyman. Olympic and Wimbledon champion Maxwell Woosnam defeated actor/director Charlie Chaplin in a game of table tennis using a butter knife as a table tennis paddle.
The Olympians
Table tennis joined the summer Olympics in 1988. Paralympics (wheel chair) table tennis commenced in 1960 as part of the World Champions and Pan-American games. Paralympics and Special Olympics follow rules governed by the International Table Tennis Federation.
For the Fun of It
Everyone wins at Beer Pong. Believed to have originated on the Dartmouth College campus in the '50s, the object is for 2 two-man teams to throw or hit ping pong balls across a butterfly table tennis table and land them in glasses of beer. If the ball lands in a glass, the offensive team gets the point, and the defending team must drink the beer.
