Who invented table tennis?
The game was invented in the late 1880s when game makers tried to emulate the popularity of lawn tennis by developing indoor versions of it.
But because these early versions of the game were made by several different manufacturers, each manufacturer used an exclusive patented or trademarked name for their own version. These included Indoor Tennis, Gossima, Whiff-Waff and Ping Pong.
These games consisted of card games, board & dice games, rackets & balloon games and even tiddledy winks tennis games. But the first action game of tennis on a table was in 1890.
The early years
Around 1898 the English sports company John Jaques & Son were manufacturing the first table tennis sets and popularising the game.
They used rackets (bats / paddles) with velum stretched over an outer casing (similar to a small drum) attached to a handle. This gave rise to the name Ping Pong which was derived from the sound that was made by different sized rackets (bats / paddles) striking a ball.
And as the popularity of the game spread in Europe, two rival organisations were set up in England with the “Table Tennis Association” and the “Ping Pong Association” formed within days of each other in 1901.
But soon after this time in the history of table tennis it’s thought that the game fell out of favour. But by the 1920s it was back in fashion, particularly in Europe.
But what’s the difference between ping pong and table tennis?
Ping Pong v Table Tennis
Well, as we saw earlier, when the game started in the 1890s, various patented or trademarked names were being used by different manufacturers.
So when the English sports company John Jaques & Son became the market leader in the 1920s with their version of the game called “Ping Pong”, they decided that they would only allow their trademarked name to be used if their brand of equipment was specified exclusively.
As more and more ping pong tournaments were now being organised, they also threatened legal action against anybody who used their proprietary trademarked name of Ping Pong without specifying the use of their equipment.
Therefore an alternative name was required for this burgeoning international sport and the name Table Tennis was chosen. So, since that time, and particularly since the establishment of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in 1926, the modern game has been known as table tennis.
But it was in 1926 that we saw the start of the modern game with…
The birth of the ITTF
An international table tennis federation, the “Fédération Internationale de Tennis de Table” (in French) (or in English, ITTF), was established in 1926 by Germany, Hungary, England, and the Czechoslovak Republic, Austria, and Wales as its founding members. More than 165 national groups had joined by the mid-1990s.
The rules for International Competitions, which were approved at that meeting on 12 December 1926, were based on the English rules of the game at that time for singles – subject to a few minor amendments – and the Hungarian rules of the time for doubles play.
A tournament held in London, England from 6-11 December 1926 was also designated as the first World Championship.
Early domination by European players
Players from central Europe dominated the game when the first World Championships were held in London in 1926. Hungary won the men’s team event nine times, while Czechoslovakia won it twice. When Asia emerged as a breeding ground for champions in the 1950s, China dominated both individual and team events (for men and women).
Ping Pong Diplomacy
Ping-Pong diplomacy, a term used in the 1970s to refer to a series of high-profile table tennis matches between sportsmen from China and the United States, was a significant result of the game’s widespread appeal in China. Nixon’s historic visit to China is largely ascribed to the first such event, which took place in Beijing in 1971. The first World Cup was held in 1980, and China’s Guo Yuehua won the $12,500 first prize. Singles and pairs competition for men and women were added to the Olympic program in 1988.
