László Bánhegyi

Between 1949 and 1951 László Bánhegyi was a basketball player for the Budapesti Vörös Meteor and then for the Budapesti Honvéd until 1961. Between 1952 and 1960 Bánhegyi won the national championship title eight times with the latter team.

Between 1950 and 1960 Bánhegyi played for the Hungarian national team 106 times. He was a member of the team for the 1952 Helsinki and 1960 Roma Olympics. He played at the 1953 European Championship in Moskva, where Hungary won the silver medal, and after the 1955 Championships in Budapest where they won gold. He also played at the 1957 Sofia and 1959 Istanbul European Championships. In 1954 he won the World College Championship in Budapest.

In 1961 Bánhegyi left for Great Britain with his family. In London he was also a member of the YMCA team that won the English First League three times in a row and the English Cup three times. He returned to Hungary in 1965. He then became acquainted with kung fu during a trip to China in 1959 and remained a supporter of the Far Eastern martial art until his death, and was also the president of the Hungarian Kung Fu Association for a long time. After his resignation, he was elected the association’s perpetual honorary president. He was also a retired army colonel and lived in Vienna during his last years.