He's a Ping-Pong Wizard

To Winthrop House residents who pick up packages and get busted for loud parties, security officer Enoch Kyerematen is known for providing superior service in a mostly sedentary job. In his youth, however, he earned considerable fame in his native Ghana due to his ability in the fast-paced game of table tennis, a game he still enjoys—and can dominate.

Kyerematen is the top-seeded player on the 2002 championship Winthrop intramural ping-pong team. Joseph E. Cousin ’02, the Winthrop team captain, attributes the team’s victory to Kyerematen’s solid playing and leadership. “Enoch is a demi-god. He is our spiritual leader,” Cousin says. “I’m only the captain. Enoch’s the force.”

Winthrop House tutor Douglas K. Edwards says playing Kyerematen was physically challenging, but even more taxing mentally. “He has a very wisdom-of-the-ages air about him, so playing him is like getting your butt kicked by the Buddha,” Edwards says.

Kyerematen regularly plays Kyna G. Fong ’03, captain of Harvard’s club table tennis team, and usually loses. Fong says Kyerematen’s playing style is “old-school, but effective” and calls Enoch’s challenges “quality competition.” But she does say that she’s never very nervous that she might lose to the elder statesman of the sport.

In 1958 she might not have been as confident. That year Kyerematen was crowned the Ashanti regional champion, a title he held until 1960, when he earned a berth on Ghana’s national table tennis squad—only 10 years after first picking up a paddle in 1950 at age 13. He says his talent for the sport developed further in high school, where he always carried a ping-pong ball tucked into his shirt in case he happened on a game.

After only one year on the national team, Kyerematen put down his paddle to serve as chair of the Table Tennis Association of Ghana, with the goal of “spreading the sport to places where people don’t know it.” He mobilized efforts to spread the game to less-populated regions and recruited players for leagues throughout Ghana.

Kyerematen, who moved to the United States in 1991 and has worked at Harvard for three years, plays only recreationally now and takes pleasure in surprising unsuspecting opponents with his skill. “When they see me, they see an older man. But once I start to play they say, ‘He plays!’” Kyerematen exclaims. “When you play the young ones, you feel good.”

Table tennis enthusiast David B. Adelman ’04 met the Ghanaian champ after seeing him in action at the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC). At first, Adelman says, he thought the stocky older gentleman was just watching the action, but he soon realized “that guy is amazing!” Kyerematen says he likes to surprise unknowing observers at the MAC who see only “an older guy with a belly” and underestimate his sprightliness. He thanks ping-pong for keeping him young and wishes to play as long as he can. And he’ll keep looking for a challenge. “I know there’s better [players],” he says. “I just have to find them.”