Olympians' art museum in Fort Myers

                                             shows table tennis' history

                                                                                                 Marv and Caron Leff

Marv and Caron Leff have been instrumental in bringing a table tennis display to the Art of the Olympians museum in Fort Myers. The exhibit will be on display through at least October 2011 

EXHIBITION

• Where: Art of the Olympians museum, 1300 Hendry St., Fort Myers River District
• When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
• Admission: $5; children under 12 are free
• Grand opening of table tennis exhibit: 6 to 10 tonight

TABLE TENNIS TOURNAMENT
• When: 4 p.m. Sept. 17
• Where: Art of the Olympians, 1300 Hendry St., downtown Fort Myers
• Entry fees: $25 (includes T-shirt, pizza and two drink tickets)
• Spectators: $5, includes one drink ticket
• Register: Call 332-5055. Field limited to 64 players.

FAST FACTS ABOUT TABLE TENNIS
• The table: nine feet long, five feet wide, 2.5 feet high. The net is 6 inches tall.
• At the Olympics: Table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul, Korea.
• Popularity: According to the International Table Tennis Federation, the sport ranks second worldwide behind soccer in terms of participation.
• Paddles: They are made out of cork, cardboard or wood and covered with cloth, leather or sandpaper.
• Matches: Last about 30 minutes at the elite level with serves launching balls at more than 100 mph.
• The best: China, Sweden and South Korea traditionally have fielded the best table tennis teams.

Table tennis, the sport Marv Leff has loved longer than his wife of 49 years, Caron, will be on display at the Art of the Olympians through at least October.

As the world commemorates the 40th anniversary of “Ping-Pong diplomacy,” a watershed moment in relations between the United States and China, the Leffs used their connections to the International Table Tennis Federation to secure items for the exhibit.

Caron Leff was on hand in 1971 at Hofstra University when a team of U.S. table tennis players was picked to play in China. Those matches helped to open diplomatic relations between the two countries, culminating with a visit in 1972 by President Richard Nixon.

The table tennis exhibition launches with a reception and demonstration from 6 to 10 tonight in Fort Myers.

“Everything you see here is because of these two lovely people,” said Sandy Talaga, the museum’s director of operations, as she pointed to the Leffs.

Photographs of celebrities and politicians either playing the sport or holding paddles are on display. Pictures of president Bill Clinton, Prince William, the Beatles, Tiger Woods, Robert Redford and Paul Newman are among the many featured.

Two table tennis tables sit in the museum. Marv Leff and German native Werner Stollenmeier will play each other tonight as part of the grand opening.

A second table has a robot that fires balls at players for practice. The public will be allowed to try their hands against it.

“Table tennis is a sport everybody can play,” said Marv Leff, who is 76 and competed often during his 45 years of running the Atlantic Stamp and Seal Corporation in Miami, which he owns. “It is the sport for life.”

Marv Leff won the 1949 Illinois Boys Championship at 13. He went on to win Florida State men’s championships in 1965, ‘66 and again in ‘98, two years after being inducted into the Florida Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996.

Caron Leff, who was inducted into that Hall of Fame in 2006, parlayed her love for the sport to volunteering at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.

“I’m not the player,” Caron Leff said. “My husband is the player. I am the organizer and the writer.”

A member of the Olympic Pin Society, she has collected more than 3,000 of them.
“I had the time of my life there,” Caron Leff said of the Olympics in Atlanta.

In 2006, the Leffs founded a local table tennis club, headquartered at the Wa-Ke Hatchee Recreation Center in south Fort Myers.

The Leffs moved to Fort Myers from Miami in 2003, to be near their only child, Colbi Congress.

Brad Congress, owner of Bradley’s Jewelers in Fort Myers and Colbi’s husband, has donated a coin from Greece, around 300 to 400 BC, for permanent display at the museum.

To organize the exhibit, Caron Leff said, made her feel like a champion.

“I was like a little kid,” she said upon seeing the display’s completion. “Are you kidding me? It’s the most pretty Olympic venue I’ve ever seen, right there on the water. I was ecstatic. It was like a dream come true.”