Basically any position that can be held at the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and within Hungarian hockey in general László Török has held it. He was the press officer of the first and to this day last world championships held in Budapest. These days he can be seen on SportKlub television channel as sideline reporter during Fehérvár matches.
You have been doing this for so long and seen so many matches, what is the drive that keeps you going?
You can’t just quit, I dont even go for the games really but just to talk. Of course this is only partially true, but to a certain extent I go for the atmosphere and the people. I have been sucked up by the feeling that hockey creates, once you get a taste of it you just can’t shake it. It is addictive like smoking. I have gotten upset so many times in the past, for example when I was the secretary general of the federation I would quit because I was fed up with what was going on, but I would be pulled back in. I never truly thought about going through with the idea.
Simply put, it is too good to just stop. In 2003 when the world championships were in Budapest I said they could find someone younger to do my press work. In 2011 I said there are things that have gone past me and it is time for some new blood. Because of my illness I thought that it was great that I could do all this but I also knew that I was not able to do everything at 100%, so I told the current secretary general, Zoltán Kovács to only rely on me if there was no one else or if there was any serious problems.
In the end you were still there in 2013...
Yes I learned after 2011 never to say “I’ll do this one last thing”, and I also learned to to not say “never again”, either. I will always have one leg in the door of the federation and ready to help out with something if needed.
In the meantime you have continued with your television work.
Seven years ago when SportKlub started airing EBEL games, somehow it was obvious that I would be involved since Ákos Léderer and Zoltán Hetthéssy did not have that much experience in live on air hockey, while I had been going to hockey games for forty years already. I would like to say that I have never would put a foot into Alba Volán’s locker room, i just poke my head in and ask that so and so should come out for a post game interview. In the first couple of years I was useful for teaching Zoli and Ákos the ropes but lately everyone knows them or are more familiar with them then they are with me. I stick around because they ask me to. At the end of each season we always say that it was a fun year and I always add “find me in August if I’m needed”.
How much do you prepare for your work and how exactly compared to in the past?
I take a lot of time to prepare for my work. I am slower than you young guys who grew up on the internet. I have learned to surf the net but for example sometimes I can't find what I am looking for on the new EBEL website. At the beginning of the season I like to collect all the information about the other EBEL teams and what their history against Fehérvár, and I just have to update the info as the season goes on. Zoli sits there with his tablet as I’m sitting there with a pile of printed out sheets of paper, but this is what I’m used to.
The older players clearly know you but do the younger ones know who you are?
I don’t know. Csaba Kovács, András Benk and Bálint Magosi, I think they know me but Péter Vincze…? Do they even need to know me?
János Gálvölgyi once said that it is important for a good actor to know the legends of the past.
The older players know me from doing interviews on the radio and I know Rob Pallin asked Zoli once who is that old guy always with you and Ákos. Zoli pulled out a picture of the 1981 championship team and pointed out who I was. So at least Rob Pallin knows who I am.
Taking Attila Rajz’s recent death as a sad example how does a death in the hockey family have an effect on you?
Of course it has a great effect on me. Since my illness I try to do as much sports as I can and I play tennis with my brother in law who was the national team coach in the early 2000s. He always uses the term to pull an “Attila Rajz” to be a borderline player on the national team. Dezső Széles said that he never had the intention of calling Rajz into the national team but he had such a good nose for the goals that he would end up slipping into the team. I didn't really know him but still it is sad what happened. During the third period of Sunday’s EBEL game Bence Szirányi’s father came up to me and asked if I heard about some former Fehérvár player passing away that day, and I did not. We wrapped up the rest of the game and the post game show when Dániel Kóger asked me if I had anything new on Attila Rajz. That’s when I realized that Attila was that Fehérvár player...
Turning onto happier themes: what is the greatest memory from your long association with ice hockey?
In 1981 at the world championships Hungary was playing China, probably on March 15th, which is a national holiday in Hungary, of course. Captain Antal Palla had the idea that the team hit the ice with national colored cockades on the jerseys. The idea that the national team had a chance to win promotion at the first indoor world championships held in Budapest was great in itself and I was doing radio work alongside my press duties for the federation. I also knew most of the players and their wives or girlfriends so the atmosphere was great that day and for the whole worlds. Of course if I can see the national team win promotion in person in Krakow next spring, that would be great as well.