Governors Who?
Small Illinois College Has Big Dreams for its Table Tennis Program

An NCTTA Feature - April 2011

By Joel Lidstrom
NCTTA Championships Media Relations

Does Governors State, a small Illinois liberal arts college who qualified for their first NCTTA Championship this year, dare to dream of being the next Lindenwood University, let alone Texas Wesleyan?

GSU’s Executive Vice President Dr. Gebe Ejigu dares. He smiles broadly when asked if his school can challenge at the very highest levels. “Table tennis was our first sports program. Its rapid success has come from an exchange program that brings Chinese students for eighteen to twenty-four months in pursuit of a Master’s degree. The program has been in place for six years, but only recently we realized that we should look for students who are not just academically suitable, but talented table tennis players as well.”

Wait. A college whose first sports program was not football, not basketball, but table tennis? And prospective graduate students are vetted according to their table tennis prowess?

Enter T.J. Wang, long-time educator at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and passionate table tennis supporter. Dr. Wang accepted a position on the academic staff at Governors State, and immediately set about starting a table tennis club. Having secured a single table at a sports facility whose rubber surface was impossible for basketball but perfect for table tennis, Dr. Wang found great interest among a small contingent of Chinese students. He approached Dr. Ejigu with the idea that the University should expand the facilities and select exchange candidates according to their table tennis certification as well as academic achievement.

Already it has brought the team remarkable success. Playing in a region that includes schools ten times their size, including a Wisconsin team that includes former Minnesota standout Ming Curran, Governors State won the right to compete in this year’s NCTTA Championships. In their first real test in the tournament, they won a close contest against an ever-powerful Princeton team.

Amid the excitement and relief of winning that match, Dr. Wang says that for him and his team, the experience is not just about table tennis. “These kids are 2100 to 2400-rated players; I am a 1300-rated player. There is not much I can do to improve their games. But I mentor them in the culture, the language, and help them gain a perspective that they could not have received except for their time playing table tennis in the U.S.”

Dr. Ejigu echoed that as well. “I drove some of our players from Illinois to Minnesota. It was the first time they saw this country, saw a small portion of its expanse. They will go back home with a different perspective, forever changed by this experience.”

For Governors State University and its small contingent of Chinese players, it’s not about this tournament; it is not even about table tennis. It is about life.

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