Remembering Bill Rasmussen: How ESPN Gave American Table Tennis a National Stage

Bill Rasmussen, whose idea for a 24-hour sports network led to the launch of ESPN in 1979, died on August 18, 2026, at age 93 from the effects of Parkinson’s disease.

Most tributes will understandably focus on how Rasmussen changed sports television. His idea created a home for sports programming at a scale that had never existed before. For the American table tennis community, ESPN also opened a door that few people today realize was ever open.

During ESPN’s first full year, table tennis became part of the network’s ambitious early programming. The effort was expensive, difficult and ultimately unsustainable, but it produced dozens of national television programs and preserved an important chapter in U.S. table tennis history.

For Paddle Palace, that history is especially personal. ESPN came to Portland and recorded five matches at the 1980 Northwestern Open, held at Paddle Palace. Seven years later, I played in an ESPN-televised doubles final at the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival. In 1990, ESPN covered Jan-Ove Waldner and Mikael Appelgren competing for what was then the largest table tennis prize awarded on U.S. soil. Today, Major League Table Tennis has brought professional table tennis back to ESPN through “The Ocho.”

That connection now stretches across nearly five decades.

ESPN takes a chance on table tennis

ESPN began broadcasting on September 7, 1979. Late that year, the United States Table Tennis Association, now USA Table Tennis, entered into an agreement with Triple T Enterprises to produce a national table tennis series for the young network.

Triple T was led by Dorsett Gant and executive producer Bill Addison. The original commitment called for 52 ninety-minute table tennis programs during 1980 and 1981.

This wasn’t a small highlights operation. Each production required a 27-person crew, television lights, elevated cameras and a mobile production truck carrying close to $1 million in equipment. Crews spent hours setting up before a tournament and another six to eight hours editing each program afterward.

The estimated cost was $12,000 for each ninety-minute show. Two programs were commonly produced from one tournament.

The crews traveled across the country, recording events in places such as Dayton, Ohio; Wisner, Nebraska; Troy, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California; Moberly, Missouri; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Portland, Oregon.

ESPN’s own review of 1980 listed its agreement to televise 52 USTTA table tennis programs as one of the network’s important programming firsts.

Table tennis suddenly had regular national television exposure. Danny Seemiller, then America’s leading professional player, said at the time that ESPN had helped the sport and that table tennis was appearing on television every week.

Watch ESPN table tennis coverage from the 1980s

An ambitious production that couldn’t pay for itself

The exposure came with a steep financial cost.

ESPN paid only a portion of the production expenses, leaving Triple T responsible for most of the financing. The project struggled to attract enough advertisers, and the losses quickly climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By May 31, 1980, Triple T had reportedly spent $140,000 more on the television project than it had received. Production costs continued to rise as the season progressed.

The original plan called for 52 shows. Triple T completed and delivered 38 ninety-minute programs before the financial pressure became too great. Planned coverage of several later tournaments was cancelled, including the 1980 U.S. Closed at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The series lasted only a short time, but producing 38 national table tennis programs was still an extraordinary undertaking. Approximately 19 tournaments received coverage if two shows were produced at each stop.

When television and competition collided

The ESPN experiment also exposed problems that sports now handle through detailed broadcast agreements.

Players complained about long delays created by lighting, camera placement and production schedules. Attila Malek and Ray Guillen were among those who felt the interruptions affected the competition.

The most serious dispute occurred at the 1980 West Coast Open in San Diego.

USTTA Executive Director Bill Haid told D-J Lee and Malek that they couldn’t wear shirts displaying the Joola logo during the televised men’s singles final. The players refused to compete under those conditions.

A tournament that had been expected to provide one of ESPN’s showcase matches instead became memorable for a final that wasn’t played.

Today, sponsor-logo placement and television obligations are normally settled well before athletes enter the court. In 1980, American table tennis was learning those lessons in real time.

Appelgren wins the 1980 U.S. Open on ESPN

ESPN was also present at the 1980 Butterfly U.S. Open, where a young Mikael Appelgren defeated Zoran “Zoki” Kosanovic to win the men’s singles championship.

The photograph from their match captures what the early ESPN series was trying to create: leading international players, a substantial crowd and American table tennis presented as a serious spectator sport.

Appelgren was still at the beginning of the career that would make him one of Sweden’s greatest players. He later won the U.S. Open again in 1987. Kosanovic returned to win the men’s singles title in 1982.

Five televised matches from Paddle Palace

The 1980 Northwestern Open provides one of the best surviving records of ESPN’s early table tennis coverage.

The tournament was played at Paddle Palace in Portland. Legendary Washington State broadcaster Bob Robertson handled the play-by-play, with Jim McQueen providing the table tennis analysis.

Five televised matches from the tournament survive:

• Quang Bui vs. Tung Phan, men’s singles semifinal
• Dean Doyle vs. Apichart Sears, men’s singles semifinal
• Dean Doyle vs. Quang Bui, men’s singles final
• Judy Bochenski and Jay Crystal vs. Tung Phan and Apichart Sears, doubles final
• Dean Doyle vs. Romuald Ponte, hardbat final

There is also an ESPN interview with Dean Doyle and Judy Bochenski. Judy, who later became Judy Hoarfrost, was already one of America’s leading players and would be inducted into the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 1997.

The broadcasts are worth watching for more than nostalgia. They show the equipment, playing styles, court presentation and television production of the period. They also preserve Paddle Palace’s place in the first large-scale attempt to put American tournament table tennis on national television.

Watch the 1980 Northwestern Open collection

The playlist below contains the five televised matches and the ESPN interview with Dean Doyle and Judy Bochenski. Use the playlist control in the upper-right corner of the player to select each segment.

Jim McQueen: ESPN’s table tennis voice

Jim McQueen of Raleigh, North Carolina, became one of the most important voices in ESPN’s early table tennis coverage. When the network needed someone who could explain an unfamiliar sport to a national audience, Jim was one of the first people it turned to.

I first met Jim at a tournament at the Washington Tennis Center in Northern Virginia. Dressed head to toe in his signature Tar Heel blue, he was hard to miss. His game was just as distinctive. Jim was one of the country’s best push-and-chisel players, combining patience and control with a smooth forehand loop and a sharp sense of when to finish the point.

That experience helped him explain the sport on television. Jim understood tactics, spin and the personalities of the players, but he never made the broadcast feel like a technical lecture. He respected the competition while keeping the presentation lively and accessible.

Jim traveled around the country as ESPN recorded tournaments from Moberly, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon. At the 1980 Northwestern Open at Paddle Palace, he worked alongside Bob Robertson. Jim supplied the table tennis knowledge while Robertson handled the play-by-play.

His service extended beyond broadcasting. Jim worked as a tournament director and volunteer, later chaired the USA Table Tennis Board of Directors and helped support major team events. He was inducted into the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame in the Contributor Category in 2011.

Jim’s work established an early model for American table tennis commentary: know the sport, respect the athletes and help new viewers understand why each point matters.

ESPN returns for selected national events

After the original Triple T project ended, ESPN’s table tennis coverage became less frequent but didn’t disappear.

Bill Addison returned to direct 12 half-hour programs from the 1982 U.S. Closed. The 1986 U.S. Olympic Festival in Houston included two ten-minute ESPN segments, and the network aired a one-hour program from the 1987 U.S. Open.

The 1985 U.S. Open in Miami also produced an intriguing connection to sports broadcasting history. Mary Carillo served as the guest play-by-play commentator for the table tennis coverage. She was still early in the broadcasting career that would make her one of tennis television’s most familiar voices.

Carillo has been elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 in the Contributor Category. She will be formally inducted alongside Roger Federer on August 29 in Newport, Rhode Island.

ESPN at the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival

One of ESPN’s later table tennis broadcasts came from the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Bob Powell and I faced Dhiren Narotam and Jim Doney in the men’s doubles final, with Bob and me winning the gold medal. Jim McQueen was part of the ESPN broadcast team, continuing the role he had established during the network’s early table tennis coverage.

The surviving footage provides another valuable record of the sport on national television during the 1980s.

Watch the 1987 U.S. Olympic Festival doubles final

Waldner and Appelgren bring the world’s best to Baltimore

ESPN was also present for one of the strongest international table tennis tournaments ever staged in the United States.

The 1990 U.S. Open and Tournament of Champions in Baltimore attracted many of the world’s leading players. The combined purse reached $85,000, a major figure for table tennis at the time.

The men’s final matched two Swedish stars who knew each other’s games inside and out: Jan-Ove Waldner and Mikael Appelgren.

Waldner defeated Appelgren and earned $20,000, the largest first prize awarded at a table tennis tournament on U.S. soil at that time. The strength of the field and the prize money led Waldner to describe it as one of the world’s top five or six tournaments.

ESPN recorded the event for a later special, while Sports Illustrated sent a photographer. For one week, the Baltimore tournament gave American table tennis the prize money, international field and national media attention that players had long wanted.

Watch Waldner vs. Appelgren at the 1990 U.S. Open

Calling the 1995 World Championships for ESPN International

My own connection with ESPN continued in 1995, when Danny Seemiller and I spent ten days at the network’s studios in Bristol, Connecticut, calling the World Table Tennis Championships for ESPN International.

Working from ESPN’s headquarters gave us a close look at the scale and discipline of an international sports broadcast. Danny brought the perspective of a five-time U.S. men’s singles champion and longtime national team player, while I drew on my own experience competing internationally. Our job was to make the matches understandable and compelling for viewers across different countries and levels of familiarity with the sport.

Fifteen years after ESPN’s original table tennis series, the network was still giving the sport an international television audience. For Danny and me, ten days in Bristol also showed how far table tennis broadcasting had progressed since those first productions in 1980.

Table tennis becomes part of ESPN culture

As ESPN grew, table tennis appeared in ways that went beyond traditional tournament coverage.

The network used the sport in several commercials, often taking advantage of the speed and personality that make table tennis work so well in a short television spot. The late Stuart Scott, whose energy and language changed the style of SportsCenter, was part of that history.

Watch ESPN’s table tennis commercial featuring Stuart Scott

Table tennis also found its way onto Pardon the Interruption. Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon brought their familiar mix of humor, debate and genuine sports interest to a discussion of a nationally promoted hardbat event.

Watch Kornheiser and Wilbon discuss table tennis

The event they discussed was the Bud Light Hardbat Classic, an effort to present the traditional hardbat game with prize money, personalities and a made-for-television atmosphere.

Watch the Bud Light Hardbat Classic super teaser

Major League Table Tennis brings the sport back to ESPN

The connection between ESPN and American table tennis didn’t end with the tournaments and studio segments of earlier decades.

Major League Table Tennis made its ESPN2 debut on “The Ocho” on August 4, 2023, only months after the league was formed. MLTT returned to The Ocho in 2024 and has continued appearing across ESPN platforms.

The league presents the sport in a format created for today’s audience. Team identities, shorter matches, professional production, player personalities and the Golden Game give viewers an immediate reason to care about every point.

I’ve had the opportunity to work as an MLTT commentator and watch the league develop from inside the broadcast booth. The technology is better and the presentation is faster, but the central challenge remains familiar: give people who may never have watched high-level table tennis enough context to understand what they’re seeing.

The best rallies can capture a viewer immediately. Good commentary and storytelling give that viewer a reason to stay.

Watch MLTT’s best points from ESPN8: The Ocho

The opportunity Bill Rasmussen created

Bill Rasmussen couldn’t have known exactly what ESPN would become when the network went on the air in 1979. He also couldn’t have predicted every sport that would find an audience through the channel he helped create.

Table tennis was there during ESPN’s first full year. The initial series lost money and ended earlier than planned, but it gave American players national exposure, brought ESPN’s cameras into Paddle Palace and left behind footage that still matters.

The connection continued. Mary Carillo called table tennis in Miami. Jim McQueen helped explain the sport to viewers around the country. ESPN covered an Olympic Festival final in Raleigh and Waldner’s record payday in Baltimore. Danny Seemiller and I called the 1995 World Championships from ESPN’s studios in Bristol. Stuart Scott brought table tennis into ESPN’s commercials. Kornheiser and Wilbon discussed it on Pardon the Interruption. Major League Table Tennis later introduced another generation of players and fans to The Ocho.

Today, I’m fortunate to help present MLTT to a new national audience. Every time I step into the broadcast booth, I’m reminded that American table tennis has been building this story for a long time.

That is a meaningful part of Bill Rasmussen’s legacy. He created room on American television for sports that rarely received national attention. Table tennis was one of the first to step through that door, and it has kept finding its way back.