Marty Reisman

Marty Reisman (February 1, 1930 - December 7, 2012) was an American champion table tennis player and author. He was the 1958 and 1960 U.S. Men’s singles champion and the 1997 U.S. hardbat champion.

Table tennis career

Reisman developed his table tennis skills beginning at the age of 12 in Manhattan's Lower East Side, and then as a hustler in New York in the 1940s, playing for bets and prizes, notably at Lawrence's Broadway Table Tennis Club at 54th Street and Broadway.

Reisman became the oldest player to win an open national competition in a racket sport by winning the 1997 United States National Hardbat Championship at the age of 67.

In recent years, Reisman had continued to be one of the most visible presences and known personalities in the table tennis world. Reisman was the president of Table Tennis Nation at the time of his death. Reisman was Jewish.Comedian Jonathan Katz recalled that he met and played against Reisman when he was a youth and that Reisman was an amazing athlete and that he was once beaten by him with the flat end of a chess piece.