Erwin Klein (died September 30, 1992) was a male

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player from the United States, who four times US Open Table Tennis Singles Champion. His nickname was Chubby. He won a gold medal in the Mixed Doubles event at the

World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include men ...

in 1956.

Biography

Klein lived in Los Angeles and was Jewish. He attended Fairfax High School,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and

Cal-Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. He was

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

men's champion at the age of 11. Klein won the U.S. National Boys 15-under Championship (at age 13) and the respective age groups at age 16, 17, and 18. At age 18, he also won the National Juniors title, and the National Men's Singles and Doubles Championships. In 1955, he and

Richard Bergmann Richard Bergmann (10 April 1919 – 5 April 1970) was an Austrian and British international table tennis player. Winner of seven World Championships, including four Singles, one Men's Doubles, two Team's titles and 22 medals in total. He is cons ...

won the U.S. Open Table Tennis Men's Doubles Championship. In 1956, he, 17 years old, and

Leah Neuberger Leah Thall-Neuberger (December 17, 1915 in Columbus, Ohio – January 25, 1993), nicknamed Miss Ping, was an American table tennis player. She was ranked the # 3 table tennis player in the world in 1951. Table tennis career Her six World Champio ...

won the World Table Tennis Mixed Doubles Championship in Tokyo. was a four-time US Open Table Tennis Singles Champion. In 1956 and 1961, he was the U.S. singles champion. In both 1964 and 1965, he won the U.S. Open Table Tennis Men's Singles Championship, and he and Bernard Bukiet won the U.S. Open Table Tennis Men's Doubles Championship. In 1973, he was a member of the United States table tennis team that competed against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In 1990, Klein was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themselves ...

. He was shot to death in Los Angeles by a business partner in an argument on September 30, 1992. The shooter then killed himself.

References

American male table tennis players Place of birth missing 1992 deaths 1938 births Deaths by firearm in California {{US-tabletennis-bio-stub