Glenn Cowan

Cowan was from New Rochelle, New York, and was Jewish.{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/nixon-china-ping-pong-102928.html|title=How Mao Used Ping Pong to Woo Nixon|first=Nicholas|last=Griffin|website=POLITICO Magazine}} His parents were Phil (a television executive, who died at age 48) and Fran Cowan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lamag.com/longform/broken-promise/|title=Broken Promise Los Angeles Magazine|first=David|last=Davis|date=August 1, 2006|access-date=August 2, 2020|archive-date=April 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405083142/http://www.lamag.com/longform/broken-promise/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/2008/06/16/opening-volley|title=Opening Volley|first=Alexander|last=Wolff|website=Sports Illustrated Vault}} The family later moved to Bel Air, California. He attended University High School.

In 1964, at age 12, Cowan won the singles for his age under-13s group in the Eastern regional junior championships.{{Cite web|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1964/01/13/faces-in-the-crowd|title=FACES IN THE CROWD|first=S. I.|last=Staff|website=Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com|access-date=2020-08-02|archive-date=2021-10-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021024355/https://vault.si.com/vault/1964/01/13/faces-in-the-crowd|url-status=live}} He won the 1967 U.S. Open junior under-17s table tennis championships. Two years later he won another U.S. Open.

One day during the 31st World Table Tennis Championship in Nagoya, Japan, American team member Cowan missed his own bus and in his haste got onto the bus of the Chinese team. Unlike his team mates, who ignored Cowan, Zhuang Zedong greeted him and presented him with a silk-screen portrait of the Huangshan Mountains, thus starting the so-called ping-pong diplomacy.[http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=814&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 Ping-pong melts Cold War rifts] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117221828/http://china.usc.edu/ShowArticle.aspx?articleID=814&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 |date=January 17, 2008 }}{{cite news|url=http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/feature/08olympic/news/080708.html |script-title=ja:選手から大臣…隔離も『ピンポン外交』荘則棟氏 |work=Tokyo Shimbun |language=ja |date=July 8, 2008 |accessdate=October 10, 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614122830/http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/feature/08olympic/news/080708.html |archivedate=June 14, 2011 }}

Cowan was arguably one of two critical personalities, the other being the Chinese table tennis player Zhuang Zedong, in the 1971 ping-pong diplomacy which helped paved the way for President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972.{{Cite web|title=Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Home|url=https://scjewishsportshof.com/cowan-glenn.html|access-date=2020-06-05|website=scjewishsportshof.com|archive-date=2020-06-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605024638/https://scjewishsportshof.com/cowan-glenn.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=Andrews|first=Evan|title=How Ping-Pong Diplomacy Thawed the Cold War|url=https://www.history.com/news/ping-pong-diplomacy|access-date=2020-06-05|website=HISTORY|date=19 October 2018|language=en|archive-date=2019-06-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603050327/http://www.history.com/news/ping-pong-diplomacy|url-status=live}} He was the youngest player on the first U.S. table tennis team to compete in 1971's “Ping-pong diplomacy” tour to China.[https://www.surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/March-2019/03_18_2019_SMC_Table_Tennis_Team_Headed_to_National_Championship.html "Santa Monica College Table Tennis Team Headed to National Championship"]

Cowan studied at UCLA and Santa Monica College (1969 to 1972).{{Cite web|url=http://www.smc.edu/NewsRoom/Pages/SMC-Table-Tennis-Program-Inducted-Into-CA-Hall-of-Fame.aspx|title=SMC Table Tennis Program Inducted Into California Hall of Fame|website=www.smc.edu|access-date=2020-08-02|archive-date=2016-09-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160926113245/http://www.smc.edu/NewsRoom/Pages/SMC-Table-Tennis-Program-Inducted-Into-CA-Hall-of-Fame.aspx|url-status=live}} He became a junior high school teacher. He was diagnosed, variously, as being bipolar and schizophrenic. He was married briefly. He lived in Culver City.

He died on April 6th 2004 at 51 years of age of complications during heart surgery.

In 2008 he was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=https://scjewishsportshof.com/bornstein-jonathan.html|title=Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Home|website=scjewishsportshof.com|access-date=2020-08-01|archive-date=2022-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128192257/https://scjewishsportshof.com/bornstein-jonathan.html|url-status=live}} He was posthumously inducted into the California Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/25/pingpong.diplomacy/index.html CNN: 'The ping heard round the world Revisited'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080229001106/http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/25/pingpong.diplomacy/index.html |date=2008-02-29 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowan, Glenn}}

Category:American male table tennis players

Category:1951 births

Category:2004 deaths

Category:Sportspeople from Culver City, California

Category:Sportspeople from New Rochelle, New York

Category:Santa Monica College alumni

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:Jewish American sportspeople

Category:20th-century American sportsmen

{{US-tabletennis-bio-stub}}