Dr. Tamás Sárközy was the president of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation for 10 years between 1989 and 1999. The renowned lawyer and university professor is celebrating his 75th birthday.
Dr. Tamás Sárközy comes from a well todo family on his father's side he is distant relative of former French President Nicolas Sárközy. His father was an engineer and his mother from from a respected Austrian family but she was born in Budapest.
“Ice hockey is a childhood love of mine, I was a softy, and hockey is a tough sport a fast sprot. I have seen legendary players play, Balázs Kenderessy, Hírcsák, Háray, or even Pásztor. I had the luck that even as a Fradi fan the legendary UTE player and later coach I counted among my friends. I went to takes in the 60s through the 1980s so people in the Hungarian hockey world knew me. When the ice hockey and ice hockey and the ice skating federation split in 1988 a number of people come to me about becoming the president of the federation, I took up the offer and was the president for 10 years. I am proud that with teh help of Ferenc Studniczky and Tamás Hársfalvi we avoided imploding financially like a number of other sports federations did in the 1990s. In 1998 we were able to become financially independent from the government and that how it was when I left the federation. I owed this to the federation.” said Dr. Tamás Sárközy in a previous interview. He also said that despite him being from Budapest he had a great working relationship with people from Dunaújváros and from Székesfehérvár. “I tried to to what I could not only for those two cities but also for hockey in Debrecen, Miskolc, Jászberény and Szeged as well. At that time I had the dreams of an eight team Hungarian first division.”
He was also asked that was it worth it to spend the little free time he had on Hungarian hockey, “It was an unforgettable experience, I got to see ten world championships, I was at three winter Olympics, but what I received from hockey I also tried to put it back.”