Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Stefan Armijo Azmy Ibrahim, an accomplished ping pong player, donates his expertise to SJSU's ping pong club.

Growing up in Egypt, Azmy Ibrahim said he wanted to be a soccer player. He only played table tennis because his brother needed someone who could practice with him.

Now, decades later, Ibrahim's love for soccer is a distant memory as he has devoted his life to ping pong.

Ibrahim is a former ping pong coach and player and a retired SJSU sociology professor. He has trained professional players with the San Jose State University Table Tennis Club, which meets in the Student Union on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7 to 10 p.m.

Ibrahim said he originally had a club in San Francisco, but when the building was demolished, he had the idea of starting one at SJSU.

"I was the founder of this ping pong club," he said. "From these four tables, we have produced everything in the Bay Area."

Despite having just four tables, Ibrahim said the club has had some of the best players train and practice at the club. The one Ibrahim remembered most was Khoa Nguyen, an SJSU alumnus and 2006 United States of America Table Tennis Hall of Fame inductee.

"Khoa Nguyen is one of the best players in the country," he said. "At one point, he was ranked No. 2 in the country. I trained him when he was very small in his garage. We would play, play and play. He became a student here later, and he learned a lot here at SJSU."

Ibrahim said his most memorable moment came as a player when his team won the Shield of the Republic, the award from a competition in Egypt.

"If your team won the event, you would receive the Shield of the Republic," he said. "It was an unbelievable night. We played until two o'clock in the morning. Now, we don't do that because there is a limit of time. On that night, we got it."

Ibrahim said he also remembered playing at halftime of Harlem Globetrotters games in Los Angeles.

"At that time, the half was 15 minutes," he said. "So at halftime, they would roll the table in, and at the time I was playing so good. Oh, and the crowd was into it. The game had a lot more rallies with hitting and chopping."

Currently, Ibrahim is an International Table Tennis Federation referee and rules committee member.

"Ping pong has taken me to almost every country in the world, believe it or not," he said. "As a referee, it took a lot of traveling. I traveled the whole world to give lectures and give exams, so that people can become umpires."

Continued...

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