József Hátszeghy

József Hatz was born into a military family. Their parents sent all four of their boys into military service. His brother, Ottó, was also a military officer and an Olympic fencer. Later, they all changed their names to Hátszeghy.

Staring from 1934, Hátszeghy was a fencer with MAC, while from 1935-44 he was with Honvéd Tiszti Vívóklub, and between 1946 to 1948 was a part of Újpesti TE. He won the Hungarian individual foil championship in 1937, 1943, and 1944, finishing second nine times. From 1936-44 he won the foil team championship nine times. Between 1933 and 1942 he appeared 20 times on the Hungarian national team. He was second at the 1933 European Championship with the Hungarian foil team. As a member of the Hungarian Olympic foil team, Hátszeghy finished seventh in Berlin in 1936 and fifth in London in 1948.

Hátszeghy was a professional military officer. He and his family were arrested for his anti-German activity during the war and taken to prison first in Hungary and then in Austria, only to be released from German captivity through the intercession of Otto’s brother. After his release, he served in the Army and between 1948 and 1952 and became commander of the famous sports squadron.

From 1953 to 1959 Hátszeghy was the fencing master of Bp. Elektromos, and from 1960-71 had the same role with Újpesti Dózsa. In 1972-73 he was a fencing coach in Algeria, from 1974 to 1978 he was the fencing master of BSE, and from 1979 to 1988 he was fencing master of Budapest Honvéd.