Hofer Ping Pong History
The Hofer Ping-Pong Tournament began in our home basement in 1970. We were on the corner of 12th Avenue and 8th Street. There were eight players (we think) and was less of a tournament than an excuse to drink a case of beer that we had no other place to drink.
We are pretty sure that Gary Reno, Mark Hemr, Dewey Bellisle, and John Hofer were there. Legend has it that Jim Hofer and Sam Hofer were each paid a dollar to play until we decided to put together the first bracket and actually compete.
The table we played on was hand made – a couple of pieces of painted plywood on top of some 4 x 4s. It is the same table we play on to this day.
Why we decided to do it again the next year is lost in our clouded memories, but at some point (much like the SuperBowl) we began assigning numbers to each year.
When my parents moved in 1976, rumor has it that when my father went into the basement of the possible new home he simply said, “We can fit two tables down here.” Maybe he said it maybe he didn’t, but we moved and darn if we didn’t put two tables down there.
And the rest as they say is history.
We took a couple of years off, and went through some rough patches in 2017, but the house remained the center of our family and at some point the new owners, Tony and Lynn said, ‘why the hell not’ and so we are back.
So let’s behave and have some fun.
