A grass seed salesman I know went head to head with the power of ping pong and lived to tell about it.
Table tennis has been known by a variety of names including gossima, flim-flam, and ping pong. Experts believe that the game was created in England during the late 1800's. Early versions of the game used balls made of cork on table tops.
The International Table Tennis Federation was formed in 1926. It soon became a favorite in many nations and led to the dominance of the game by nations like Japan and China.
Ping pong was the reason for the first entrance of any American sports organizations into the Chinese mainland after the communist takeover in 1949. In 1971, the American Ping Pong Team was in Japan for the 31rst World Table Tennis Championship. While they were there, they received a surprise invite from China to play. It initiated “Ping Pong Diplomacy” with the massive communist nation in the thick of the Cold War.
Ping pong has a history of breaking down barriers.
A grass seed salesman from Wisconsin who I will call Wild Bill for the purpose of this article has been a life long player of ping pong. He recent...
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