József Kálmán

When he was 15 years old József Kálmán started wrestling in the colors of MTE in Debrecen. In 1926 he moved to Budapest and continued his sports career as a wrestler at UTE. Apart from a year-and-a-half absence where he worked in a mine in Belgium, he wrestled for UTE for sixteen years. He was equally proficient in both in freestyle and Greco-Roman. In 1930 he won the youth championship in the middleweight category and in 1932 he won the championship title as a team. He won his only individual championship title in 1937 in freestyle as a welterweight, but he also finished second and third in the national championship several times.

He was a member of the national team between 1935 and 1937. In 1935 he participated at the European championship. In 1936 he took part in the Berlin Olympics at his own expense, where he finished unplaced in the lightweight in Greco-Roman after losing two matches. He ended his sports career in 1942, but he did not break up with the sport. He was the President of the wrestling association for several years after the Second World War, and later he was the head of the gymnastics department in the Vasas SC.