William B . Spong , Jr . William Belser Spong , Jr . ( September 29 , 1920October 8 , 1997 ) was a Democratic Party politician and a United States Senator who represented the state of Virginia from 1966 to 1973 . Spong was born in Portsmouth , Virginia , and attended public schools , Hampden - Sydney College in Hampden - Sydney , the University of Virginia in Charlottesville , and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland . He studied law , and was admitted to the bar in 1947 , commencing practice in Portsmouth soon thereafter . During World War II , Spong served in the Army Air Corps , Eighth Air Force from 1942 to 1945 . After the War , Spong was a lecturer in law and government at the College of William and Mary from 1948 to 1949 . Spong entered Virginia politics as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1954 to 1955 , and afterwards as a member of the Virginia State Senate from 1956 to 1966 . While in the Senate , Spong was chairman of the Virginia Commission on Public Education from 1958 to 1962 . In 1966 , Spong was personally recruited by President Lyndon Johnson to mount a primary challenge against 20 - year incumbent Senator A . Willis Robertson . Johnson was angered at Robertson ' s opposition to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts . Spong defeated Robertson in one of the biggest upsets in Virginia political history and breezed to victory in November . Robertson resigned on December 31 , 1966 ; Governor Mills Godwin appointed Spong to the seat , giving Spong higher seniority than other senators elected that November . Spong ' s primary victory marked the beginning of the end of the Byrd Organization ' s long dominance of Virginia politics . However , Spong ' s Senate career was short - lived . He was narrowly defeated in 1972 for reelection by 8th District Congressman William L . Scott . Spong probably would have won had it not been for Richard Nixon ' s gigantic landslide that year ; Nixon carried Virginia by almost 38 points , winning all but one of the state ' s counties and independent cities in the process . After his Senate career , Spong returned to the practice of law , and also served as a law professor and the dean of the Marshall - Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary from 1976 to 1985 . For 1976 , Spong was president of the Virginia Bar Association . He was appointed interim president of Old Dominion University in 1988 , and was a resident of Portsmouth until his death . He is interred at the University of Virginia Cemetery in Charlottesville , Virginia . Humor . A popular Internet joke claims that William B . Spong of Virginia and Hiram Fong of Hawaii sponsored a bill recommending the mass ringing of church bells to welcome the arrival in Hong Kong of the U . S . Table Tennis Team after its tour of Communist China . The bill failed to pass , cheating the Senate out of passing the Spong - Fong Hong Kong Ping Pong Ding Dong Bell Bill . In fact , Senator Spong never sponsored such a bill , but he did have some fun with the press soon after arriving in Washington , D . C . As described in an article by his cousin , the Rt . Rev . John Shelby Spong , Senator Spong " was invited with the other freshman senators to address the National Press Club . Fearful that someone on radio or television would call him Senator Sponge , he used his brief five - minute introductory speech to that body to secure proper name identification . His first act as a senator , he announced in his southern drawl , would be to introduce a bill to protect the rights of songwriters in Hong Kong . He would be joined in this effort by the senior senator of Louisiana , Russell Long , and the senior senator from Hawaii , Hiram Fong , and together they would present the Long Fong Spong Hong Kong Song Bill . His name was never mispronounced by members of the media . "