Early Hungarian Hockey

This page overviews early hockey activities in Hungary, prior to the formation of the first national championship in 1936-37.

History

Budapesti Korcsolyázó Egylet (BKE Budapest) created a bandy hockey section in December 1899 and an inter-club match was staged on the 26th.^[1] BKE played their first documented matches against other opponents in 1907-08, facing teams from Prague and Vienna. The Hungarian Winter Sports Federation was founded in 1908 and bandy was given a division within the federation.

Bandy and later hockey was always a noble sport in Hungary. It was only played by the social elite in the country. It was the favorite pastime of many counts, ministers, and other influential individuals. BKE Budapest was long one of the best bandy teams in Europe. They won the Ringhoffer Pokal and a tournament in St. Moritz in 1914. The same year the squad organized a domestic tournament, played in Budapest on February 1 and 2.

The bandy style of play remained at the forefront until the mid-1920s. BKE and Leipziger SC were easily the top bandy teams in Europe at the time. BKE invited the Englishman John Dunlop to teach them the basics of hockey with a puck in 1924. Dunlop had previously been in Vienna instructing the Austrians. Dunlop arrived to Hungary late in 1924 and an inter-squad match between BKE "white" and "blue" sides took place that December and a year later, BKE invited Wiener AC and VfB Wien from Vienna to play a couple exhibition games against them. WAC and VfB each won 1-0, on December 26 and 27, 1925. In 1926 the first artificial ice rink opened in Budapest (Stadion Városliget). Prior to that the rink at City Park had been used for bandy and hockey activities.

Hungary joined the International Ice Hockey Federation on January 24, 1927, and on the same day the Hungarian National Team made its international debut at the 1927 European Championship, hosted by Vienna. In their first game, they lost 6-0 to Austria, and Hungary finished winless at the tournament overall. The following year, the national team took part in the 1928 Winter Olympics. They lost all three games by close margins, falling 1-0 to Great Britain, 2-0 to France and 3-2 to Belgium. Their opponents were all much more seasoned than Hungary, so the results were pretty good. Budapest later played host to the 1929 European Championship.

Hungary also participated in the inaugural 1930 World Championship. The tournament was played in a knockout format, and the Hungarians defeated Italy 2-0 before being eliminated by Germany, 4-1. Domestically, the number of teams was quickly increasing. Some of the initial clubs (BKE, BBTE, FTC, and MHC) were soon joined by new outfits such as Magyar Úszó Egylet (MUE), Műegyetemi Atlétikai és Football Club (MAFC), Amateur Hockey Club (AHC), Újpesti Torna Egylet (UTE) and Budapesti Egyetemi Atlétikai Club (BEAC). As there was not yet a national championship, the teams faced one another in home tournaments. BKE and BBTE were also quite active internationally, facing other club teams from around Europe.

In 1932, BKE formed a youth section in order to train young players within the club itself. Prior to this point, youths were only able to take part in the KISOK Championships organized for high schools. Early Hungarian stars Béla Haray and István Hircsák played in these competitions. Pete Dewar,the brother of former NHL'er Tom Dewar, played for BKE Budapest between 1933 and 1935. Hungary won the 1933 Winter Universitaires (Academic Winter Games).

One of the more sensational results to this day by a Hungarian team was the 0-0 tie in Budapest against the Canadian Saskatoon Quakers in 1934. The same Saskatoon team became the World champions that year. The person who was mainly responsible for this upset was the 20-year old, aforementioned, István Hircsák. Hircsák had debuted for the Hungarian national team in 1933 and held that position for 20 years. He retired from hockey in 1958 as a 44 year old. It is worth noting that he became a Hungarian champion that last season (1958) with Ujpesti Dózsa.

Hircsák is probably the best Hungarian player ever. He was considered to be one of the top goalies in Europe during the 1930's and was on most occasions the guy who helped Hungary be competitive.The same Hircsák helped Hungary earn a 1-1 tie with Canada during the 1938 World Championship in Prague, another huge surprise.

BBTE Budapest arranged a meeting to discuss the establishment of an ice hockey subdivision of the Hungarian Ice Skating Association (Magyar Országos Korcsolyázó Szövetség, MOKSz) on February 5, 1934. Up to this point, BKE Budapest had served as the highest authority in Hungarian ice hockey, but BBTE sought the formation of an official governing body. BKE was not present at the meeting as their representatives, Dr. Lator and Frigyes Minder, were abroad in Italy. The BBTE officials present were Dr. Modoványi (co-chairman), László Szánthó (vice-president), and István Tatár (secretary general). Delegates present from other associations were József Neuhold (BLKE), Antal Tolnay, József Nobel (AHC), Ferenc Laubal and Ferenc Wachsmann (EHC), Ferenc Enyedy (MAFC), and Béla Holtzer and Fischer (FTC). MUE was also invited to the meeting.

Another meeting was arranged for February 14, with the BKE representatives, and all the delegates from the first meeting, in attendance. It was decided that a three-member delegation would begin negotiations with the chair of the MOKSz. By November 1934, the skating association was fully in charge of governing ice hockey in Hungary.

During the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) the Hungarians were led by Sándor Miklós' 8 goals in 6 games and Béla Haray's 4 goals in 6 games. Hungary finished in 7th place. Another member of that 1936 Olympic team was László Róna who later had an international career where he played for EHC Arosa (Switzerland), won the league title with KIF Helsinki (Finland) and also played for Karlberg (Sweden) and Paris Lions (France).

There was not much domestic hockey played between 1932 and 1936, with the main clubs (BBTE, BKE, and FTC) mostly playing in international matches. After more than 10 years of domestic hockey activities in Hungary, the national federation finally organized the first Hungarian Championship for the 1936-37 season. Three teams from Budapest (BBTE, BKE, and FTC) indicated that they would participate, as did Debrecen from the countryside. FTC withdrew from the competition after it was ruled that a Canadian player on the club, Frank Stapleton, would not be allowed to participate. Debrecen did not play in the end either, so BKE also entered a second team in the championship. The competition was abbreviated owing to a heavy schedule of international matches for both the clubs and national teams, and BKE Budapest was named the inaugural Hungarian champion after the first round.

Results

Note: For results in all games involving BKE prior to 1918, please see Budapesti Korcsolyázó Egylet.

1913

February 2: MAC Budapest - FTC Budapest 12:4^[2]

1914

January 11: MAC Budapest - FTC Budapest 13:3^[2]

1916

February: There was a youth tournament played for the "BKE Youth Challenge Prize". Qualification matches: Barcsay-utcai gimnázium – Kegyesrendi gimnázium 9:4, V. ker. főgimnázium – IV. ker. főreál 16:0. Final: Evangelikus gimnázium - Barcsay-utcai gimnázium 14:1.^[3]

Early Hungarian seasons
1921-22 - 1922-23 - 1923-24 - 1924-25 - 1925-26 - 1926-27 - 1927-28 - 1928-29 - 1929-30 - 1930-31 - 1931-32 - 1932-33 - 1933-34 - 1934-35 - 1935-36

Photographs

An early bandy match played in Hungary.
BKE Budapest in 1909
FTC in 1924
BKE Budapest in 1929
A picture of three individuals from the first ice hockey game played in December 1924. John Dunlop was in the center.