David Claflin

Year Inducted: 2004

David Claflin excelled in table tennis. He was also outstanding in hockey, baseball, golf and tennis.

At age seven he started a string of Michigan state table tennis championships that would number nine by age 13. He won at least one in each of those years. He won nine City of Port Huron Championships in the same period. At 11 years of age he won a United States National singles championship and a national doubles championship and was ranked number one in his age bracket nationally. That same year he won the Eastern United States Open championship. He played for the German Traveling Table Tennis Team at age 24 and at age 26 won a championship at the Swiss University Championship in Bern, Switzerland.

David was a top scorer on his minor hockey teams; he was low scorer in golf matches while at Port Huron High School. He played #1 singles for Port Huron High School in tennis and in his senior year was the only area player to go to the Class A State Tournament. He was all area for both junior and senior years. In his junior year he won the Blue Water Invitational singles crown. He won several titles over several years in the Robinson Tournament and once made it to the open men’s championship where he lost to Glen Johnson. Due to the face that tennis was only available for his final two years of high school, David only played those two years.

He quit playing competitive table tennis nationally at age 13. Had he continued he surely would have amassed many more titles.

David graduated from St. Clair County Community College and the University of Michigan and now resides in Austin, Texas.