Del Sweeris, a Grand Rapids native, became an internationally-known table tennis star, played for Team USA and was ranked as high as No. 2 in the United States.
During his career, the Creston High graduate won 38 state, national and international titles both in singles and doubles and transitioned into senior tournaments and won age-group competition as well.
Del, and his wife Connie who is also in the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame, were part of a diplomatic mission known in history as Ping-Pong Diplomacy in 1971. They were part of a U.S. team that hosted Chinese players during a two-week tour across the nation. One of the stops was at Cobo Hall in Detroit and 10,000 people attended. The tour is credited with improving chilly China-U.S. relations at the time and setting the stage for a China visit by President Richard Nixon in 1972. Nixon’s historic visit reestablished diplomatic relations with China.
Sweeris cites the 1971 Canadian Open as his most cherished individual title. With Connie, the husband-wife team won four U.S. Open doubles championships and finished second twice in a seven-year span in the 1960s and 70s and collected 25 national titles between them in singles and doubles.
In 2013 and 2014 Del and Connie worked with the West Michigan Sports Commission to host the U.S. Open Table Tennis Championships.
Their son Todd, who is also in the Grand Rapids Sports Hall of Fame, is a two-time table tennis Olympian. Del, Connie and Todd are also in the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
Del is the son of Arthur Sweeris, a founder of a Grand Rapids Table Tennis club who passed away in 2018 at the age of 100.