Pál Bogár

Pál Bogár became acquainted with the game of basketball in the Alba Regia AK (ARAK) team. During his university years (between 1946 and 1951) Bogár was a player of the Sopron MAFC, then after a season with the Budapesti Honvéd he returned to Székesfehérvár and played for the local Építők team until the end of his career. Bogár achieved his greatest successes as a member of the Hungarian national team, where he played 40 times between 1949 and 1956 and from 1951, he also held the position of team captain. He finished third in the World College Championships in 1949 and first in 1954. He also played in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. In 1953 he finished second at the European Championships in Moskva. The pinnacle of his playing career was the 1955 European Championships in Budapest where he led the Hungarian national team to the gold medal as team captain.

In 1956 Bogár was arrested on charges of espionage and disloyalty, and after a six-month trial, he was sentenced to five years, but this was not final due to an appeal. After the repeated proceedings the “mistake” was clarified, but he did not get his passport back, was not allowed to travel either east or west, and therefore he had to resign from the national team.

His workplace for many decades was the Fejér County Public Roads Directorate from where he retired as a chief engineer, a national authority in the road construction profession. In 1984 Bogár was a member of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, which voted in favour of boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics with one vote against and three abstentions. One of the abstaining voters was Pál Bogár.