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Mississippi College Table Tennis Team Visits Governor’s Mansion


Mississippi College table tennis stars Qing Wei Sun, Coach Cheng Li, Gov. Phil Bryant, North American men's singles champ Yichi Zhang, and Tong Zhang are pictured at the Governor's Mansion in Jackson on September 8. Ranked No. 2 nationally in 2016, MC starts its tenth season of table tennis competition this fall.

Getting the opportunity to visit with Gov. Phil Bryant and tour the Governor’s Mansion proved to be a wonderful treat for Mississippi College’s table tennis stars.

Bryant and his staff served as gracious hosts on September 8 as they welcomed the 2015 North American champs, who finished a close second in 2016.

Bryant joined the team for photos on the steps of the antebellum residence. The Mississippi treasure was built in 1841 for $50,000. Gov. Tilghman Tucker and his family moved into the mansion one year later. The building with white columns out front sits on the National Register of Historic Places.

Enjoying their first visit was the delegation consisting of MC Coach Cheng Li, and standouts Tong Zhang, Qing Wei Sun, and national men’s singles champion Yichi Zhang. All four MC table tennis standouts are natives of China. They said they enjoyed meeting Bryant.

“It was a really nice gesture by Gov. Bryant to open his residence in Jackson and spend time with these outstanding Mississippi College student-athletes,” said MC table tennis sponsor Andy Kanengiser. “They were delighted to see the governor and view one of Mississippi’s historic landmarks up close. The players took plenty of photos on their phones to share with family and friends.”

Meeting with the talented MC students for a few minutes, Bryant recalled his trip to China seven years ago. He’s got strong Blue & Gold connections. Bryant earned his master’s degree at MC and taught political science classes on the Clinton campus for several years.

Thousands of miles from Mississippi, the fast growing nation of 1.3 billion people in East Asia remains a world leader in telecommunications, and a major player in business, technology, trade and culture. Its Great Wall of China, the 3,915-mile Yangtze River and the Temple of Heaven in Beijing are among popular tourist attractions.

China is also a land of towering mountains, vast seas and big cities where table tennis remains the national sport. Chinese players consistently bring home gold medals at the Olympics every four years and that was the case again in Rio in August.

Located just a few blocks from the MC Law School in Jackson, the grand mansion in Mississippi’s capital city serves as the residence of the state’s 64th chief executive and First Lady Deborah Bryant. The splendid facility hosted many special guests over the years.

Former President John F. Kennedy once spent the night in the mansion when he was a U.S. senator from Massachusetts. New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle visited. The late blues icon B.B. King and country music great Charley Pride, both Mississippi natives, were guests, too.

Designed by architect Williams Nichols of Bath, England, the Greek Revival style residence stays in remarkable condition today. Extensively renovated shortly after Gov. William Waller’s inauguration in 1972 for $2.7 million, the mansion sees improvements from one administration to the next.

The Mississippi Governor’s Mansion is the second oldest continuously occupied governor’s mansion in the United States. Bryant makes periodic trips from the residence to the Clinton campus a few miles away.

Serving his second term as governor, the Republican governor returns to MC to introduce prominent speakers at the institution’s spring scholarship dinners. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered the keynote address last March at the 190-year-old university.

The MC table tennis players are among 425 international students at the 5,133-student university.

Beginning its 10th season this fall, MC joins more than 150 universities with table tennis teams in the USA and Canada. Other rivals include Princeton, Southern California, UCLA, Texas Wesleyan, Ohio State, Michigan, Virginia Tech and NYU.

Mississippi College hosts the 2016 Dixie Division tournament on October 15 as part of Homecoming 2016 against teams including Mississippi State, Alabama, UAB and Tulane. The public is invited to see the MC Choctaws put their swift paddles in hand starting 9 a.m. that Saturday at Alumni Gym.