Bernard Hock

Bernard Francis Hock (August 12, 1912 – August 18, 1999) was a table tennis "bat maker", considered a world-class pioneer in the design and fabrication of table tennis rackets (known as "bats" in Britain, and "paddles" in the U.S. and Canada). Many of the great American players of the classic "Table Tennis Era" exclusively used Hock rackets. Hock is remembered as a true craftsman. In 1977, Sports Illustrated described Hock as the "Stradivarius of bats".

Hock's United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee biography mentions him as "'old buzzard' Hock, a number-one-class character, a champion, a fine man, and a person who has done more for table tennis than most anyone."

Hock originally played tennis, but became a competitive, champion US table tennis player.

Biography Bernard Hock was born August 12, 1912, in Wills Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, the fifth of Mary Agnes (née Nawroski) and Frank William Hock's seven children. Hock was a graduate of New Albany High School and a long-time resident at 808 Cedar Bough Place in New Albany's Cedar Bough Place Historic District, one of the earliest private streets in the United States.

Pioneer table tennis racket maker Hock began crafting table tennis paddles in 1933 for his personal use. Hock made his first paddle using wood from a discarded packing crate and a bicycle inner tube for the rubber. Jerry Hock, the youngest of the five Hock brothers, and a long-time table tennis player, said "in the beginning the boys made their own table, and Bernie was very early into making rackets. He stretched inner-tube rubber over the wood (paddles) to produce a surprisingly good playable racket." One Hock innovation was reducing the weight in the paddle grip. Hock was able to produce a hardbat paddle with a total weight (including rubber) of less than four ounces. Hock claimed that only straight handles offered players the best control.

Hock created paddles with extreme precision. In 1956 Hock said he used "a balance scale he made himself" and pre-weighed "every single racket", including the "rubber facings, plywood forms, mahogany handles, leather grips, everything." Hock also claimed he used "a special secret in the glue mixture".

Paddle material In 1949, Hock sought special plywood in order to create better rackets. Living in New Albany, Indiana, Hock had easy access to that city's many veneer plywood factories in business at that time. While the cost of the plywood he specified was relatively high, it made a better bat with "less than 1% loss to warpage". Hock insisted the plywood factory follow his specifications exactly, "redrying the 3 veneers, face, back, and center core, to a specific moisture, a special glue," and then heating it all together "under certain pressure and heat". Hock also specified "that the face and back veneers be from the same tree or log and from consecutive slices off the log".

Hock paddle styles Hock offered two primary styles of paddles, a five-ply plywood model made of equal layers of basswood and the "Model No. 74", a lighter, thinner three-ply model that was slower and provided a player more flexibility. It earned a reputation for "chopping" during play.

Hock charged a flat $3.50 for each paddle and offered over 200 different variations in design and fabrication, ranging in weight between 3 3/4 oz. to 5 1/2 oz. At the age of 34, Miles, playing with a Hock racket (Style No. 74), reached the semifinals in the singles event of the 1959 World Championships, losing to the eventual world champion Rong Guo-Tuan. No one playing with a hard rubber racket has since gone farther in a World Championship. Reisman was the 1958 and 1960 U.S. Men's singles champion and the 1997 U.S. hardbat champion.

Other champions who played Hock paddles include:

In 1977, a Sports Illustrated magazine featured Reisman's Hock paddle. The article said "By contrast, Reisman's Hock Special, covered only by a thin slice of pimpled rubber, looks like a bread-line handout. Yet in the eyes of the maestro, it is the 'Stradivarius of bats,' a five-ply master-work that is handmade by an Indiana artisan named Bernard Hock. Though at a distinct disadvantage, Reisman has steadfastly refused to switch to sponge because, he says, "I feel I'd be prostituting a talent that I devoted a lifetime to learning. The sponge offends my dignity." Reisman continued, saying "To play with the hard rubber racket is to be in communion with the ball, unlike the sponge, it lets you experience each stroke, each vibration, until the tone and feel of the racket become part of your neurological system. And it makes such a lovely sound — plickety-plock, plickety-plock. In the old days you went looking for tournaments with your ears. All you had to do was stop for a moment and listen—plickety-plock, plickety-plock." • 6 times Indiana Table Tennis Senior Champion

Honors USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame Inductee (1984)