' Mill it be Lions next year? Will next year’s shots of the Gray Cup finals show British Columbia Lions in one of the stellar roles. That’s the question now following the opinion given this week by Walter Sprague, president of oarern Interprovincial Football League that the Lions must now be considered full-fledged members yang Sprague said. “The WIFU and the Lions made a gentlemen’s agreement at the 1953 meeting d the Lions have lived up to it.” Why Hungary has gone | to very top in football hey first b icki f Beolia 3 egan kicking foot : In Hungary 61 years tet the five years after the 1892 that had been imported in tional yy the first soccer interna- f. 2.099 watched by a “crowd” ®aingt ungarian fans—a game Unga a Cricketers of Vienna. Care; rn soccer international 0 word Ich has carried its teams defeat. eminence, began with a ft es Hungarian Football Associa- 199). ‘formed four years later, in La capture at Helsinki, Hungary ames at € coveted Olympic the te ampionship. This year Worlg hot favorites for the Since th ‘ampionship, especially land .. &3 victory over Eng- doubtedly the great national favor- ite. = Nearly 100,000 players are regis- tered with the Football Association —a high figure for a population of only ten million—against only 15,- 000 in 1939. And the average number of spec- tators who watch each of the 14 first division teams has risen from 2,748 in 1938-39 to 8,118 in 1952. The many sports establishments destroyed by the war have been rebuilt with generous government assistance and new sports grounds have been constructed. ' In Budapest alone six big stadi- ums will have been completed and opened by the end of this year. These include the 110,000 Peo- and mortar for a builder. In the evenings he was always to be found kicking a ball around with the local boys in his home town of Kispest, a Budapest suburb. He was “discovered” playing for the little Kispest Club at the end of the war and in 1947 he put on the cherry-red international jersey for the first time. Since then he has played for the national team '43 times. He is now a captain and a sports coach in the army. He plays at right half. : Another outstanding player is Sandor Koesis, inside right. He is 24 years old and first played for the national team at the age of 20 against Sweden (the then Olym- pic chamion team) in 1949. His Gert Whyte'e t he first time an English foot- ball team met a Hungarian club (this was in Budapest in 1901) the English goalkeeper sat on the crossbar, smoking his pipe, watching his team win 4-0. Those days are gone forever. Hungarian football has travelled a long way since 1901. For the reasons why, read the feature article on this page, which was sent to me by the Hungarian News and Information Service. * * x Many people in this province, and particularly in Vancouver, will remember Steve Endicott, former B.C. leader of the Na- tional Federation of Labor Youth. Steve is now living in Budapest, where he has a chance to~ob- serve at first hand how the Hun- garian authorities encourage the developments of sports among young people—the surest guaran- tee that there will be a steady improvement in the health of the nation. At the Olympic Games in Hel- sinki last year Hungary finished third in the unofficial points standing, right behind the United States and the Soviet Union. Par- ticularly impressive were the Hungarian swimmers. Writing to Ernie Lawrie recent- ly, Steve Endicott gave some in- teresting information on swim- ming pool facilities in Budapest. He wrote: “In the city there are six big swimming pools of competition category, with six or eight lanes. One of the best is on Margurite Island in the middle of the Dan- ube which has an open pool 50 x 20 metres and also a covered pool and a small diving pool. “A big new covered pool is being built in the working class district where many _ railway workers live. “There are many other swim- ming pools for recreation pur- poses, 22 altogether in Greater ‘Budapest which has a population of about one and a half million. Budapest is blessed with many hot springs and thus a number of ‘these pools have hot water for oie _ winter; and also the water con- tains many important minerals, SPORTLIGHT lovely letter from Frank Coller (who, you may remember, flay- ed me from stem to stern for a previous dissertation on weight- lifting) embodies most of the ideas expressed by readers who reacted unfavorably to my link- ing ballet and pool in a recent column which was intended to be humorous—but obviously missed the mark with many fans (of bal- let, not pool). Take it away, Frank: “So once more I must take type- writer in hand and protest a Whyteism. “Having dismissed the weight- lifters in a few well-frozen phrases he now, most evidently in blissful ignorance, soars to the opposite pole and dismisses the ballet in four Whyteless para- graphs. Allow me now to criti- cize these paragraphs. “Louis XIV may have been in- terested in ballet but the story of his ‘grand jete’ smacks of fic- tion. Louis’ tights were well padded but no more than the eolumns of some sports writers. And more important a ‘grand jete’ is not ‘a leap in which the dancer does the splits.’ It is a leap in which the dancer tries to create the illusion of flight; the very idea of doing the splits, which would mean that the legs were parallel to the ground, would destroy. the illusion. “I too obtained free tickets at the Beaver Club during the war and my preference was the bal- let.. However I was. not always lucky as tickets for the ballet were inevitably scarce while tickets to the Windmill could be had by the handful. Evidently each time I was on leave the ‘un- cultured oafs’ were back at camps, or more probably, at some pub. “T take issue with Whyte’s state- ment that it takes twice as long to make a snooker champion as it does to turn out a good ballet dancer. The ability to exeel at billiards, snooker or pool calls for concentration in a very limit- ed sphere. Anyone who attemps to make a comparison between these games and ballet can only be in their whyte-mind. “In conclusion may I suggest that Mr. Whyte stick to writing about those sports with which he # Ce playing is typical of Hungarian such as iodine and sulphur. football style. He is fast and re-| «fach swimming pool has a per- sourceful and can sum up a situa- | manent staff; everybody from a tion in a flash. His play shows cashier to cleaning workers. Each originality and does not follow 2 gay the water is changed and the ple‘s Stadium, opened in August, a stadium to hold 40,000 for the youth sports movement, another accommodating 38,000 for the Ha is &w weeks ago. War, ed Since the Second World the er People’s Democracy, +75 n . its full ah football has gained is familiar, unless, of course, he cares to enlarge his knowledge by careful study. I also suggest that a series on the European atu Vo Lobogo (formerly Bastya) ; i : Percent * re, Before the war 59 : Kins cick one holding 20,000 |rigid pattern. ‘pool cleaned. “The Margurite champions in ail sports would be nites en, ike ee international re the Spartecus Club and one Twenty-six year, old Ferenc PUs- | Hools have a permanent staff of mere interesting than a continu- an almost s: ere Since the for 30,000 supporters of the | kas, inside left and captain of the |62 people. On an average day in ance of concentration on profes- Sin, al Matches. ae ion ang building workers sports club. national team, began his football inter about 1,600 people swim sional hockey, baseball and foot- dete they ‘eth been won. x * S. | career kicking a anaes oF TABS! in these pools, which are open hall which are only there to make ie ‘theif. own saat The backbone of the team which | around ee oer Lage Soest (fom 6 am. to 9 p.m. They open ete Pip areca oe St ten j,, 78 the Hungar; they ternational Sarlans won all Matches in which 0 : Undefeated. This year they are Kispest. early in order to allow workers isi England came from two of the: most fa Like boys the world over they 4, have a swim before going to the most famous Budapest clubs— Honved and Voros Lobogo. Honved supplied such men as 7 a * * Ferenc Puskas, internationally re- tions” football ; garded as one of the best if not ests we are supposed to be fight- used their torn coats as woalposts. | work.” ssi odarabeat : but unlike youngsters in formerly | ae ao a better-off countries they often play- | * * * y, ed barefoot to save their shoes. My ill-fated excursion into the 04 contributing an article on D S Hungary’s na-|the best footballer in the world,| He too got his start with Kispest pealm of ballet has had reper- weight-lifting to the PT sports af world ae Though she has al goalkeeper Gyula Grosics, centre-| Athletic Club. He was first select: cussions, verbal and written. A page? Ports aE in many other half Gyula Lorant, right-half Joz-\ed for the national 2 ree nal EARL ES a ee t Swimming and sef Bozsik and inside-right Sandor | Liberation In 1945. Since Kocsis has been “capped’’ more than we From Voros Lobogo came full-| times. | back Mihaly Lantos. Imre Kovacs | Youngsters are taken gras peat | ='and Jozsef Zakarias both of whom |of in Hungary cae’ | are half-backs, and centre-forward|the Hungarian oe : | Nandor Hidegkuti /team won the world a mo . Is and so, with an H ary’s football stars are (at Brusse : : not orotenstortele® Every one the future, beige Fecuge hired iob of his own, though |ers are giving i ) : aerbeily sigs get time off for | them individually. She kare the intensive training needed for the youth “ber athe sony Se important matches. Puskas and ince ae Puskas ‘ i th officers in the (and so on. a aati er aatenc Army. Coaching and training ve Jozsef Bozsik, 28 years old, is a) been brought to a high state o tennis, fencing » football is un- A STN pean Ser les PATRONIZE NORTH WEST FUEL BEST QUALITY — SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Fairly Dry and Very Clean Heavy Millrun - Heavy Slabs - Planer Ends Fresh Cut Clean Fir Sawdust © Phone FA. 5247 - North 3224 rt ee UT) member of parliament. At the rene Ric 2 geno x PW *s de-| are today i ae eiage of Ss ae Teter carried bricks | and trainers in the country. LS sexenpveniiiauevgut sun may : ec PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 11, 1953 — PAGE 11 i