Siklódi Csilla szerk.: Sport Anno (A Sportmúzeum Kincsei 1. Budapest, 1993)

Sport anno... (Siklódi Csilla)

Before the detailed representation of the pictures occuring in the volume, les us give an overview of the historical background of the period that is represented for the biggest part in the collection of Ferenc Mező, it means the beginning of the sport club movement and of the organized racing sport. The first photo of the volume is dated from 1860, while the latest are from the ending 1930's. In the Hungarian history, there are hunting scenes known already before the Hungarian Conquest. Also in the Arpadian period the chronicles speak about the entertainments of the kings and of their attendants, among those the hunting played an important role. Later, e. g. at the time of Louis Ist the Great, the tourneys were counted to be one of the most important events of the royal court. The knights had been exercising the riding and the fencing from their early youth, so that they can come up to the requirements of the knightly ideal. The chivalry, the physical capacity to defend the others are still requirements among the youth. Till the beginning of the 19th century, the sport activity of the nobles, cultivated as an entertainment was strictly separated from the plays and competitions that can be included in the category of the popular customs, independently wether they were pursued by the adults or by the children. The appearence of the bourgeoisie has changed this situation. This social class tried to form its own culture and its own customs between the nobility and the peasantry. Furthermore, they insisted on the self-defense, as well. These two tendences resulted in fact that the frames of their sport activity were the well organised civic riffle-associations, very similar to the craftsmen's societies, and — which is quite strange for us — the firebrigades. Even our first communal sport buildings were shooting-ranges, a lot of relics survived concerning their activity. The reformist movements of the beginning of the 19th century left their traces on the sport history, as well. It's sufficient to recall that the greatest reformers, and among them gr. István Széchenyi as first, were also the founders of several sports in Hungary. Beside the introduction of the horse-races, the foundation of the fencing school called „Vivolda" and the ordering of the first outriggers and yachts, Széchenyi accentuated the importance of the swimming, of the walking and of the scholar physical training, too. László Siklóssy evaluated the activity of Széchenyi and Wesselényi in his great work of three volumes „Thousand Years of the Hungarian Sports" as the turn of two periods. Nothing can better prove the successe of their work than the collective exhibiton of the Hungarian sport history in the Hungarian National Museum that was organised at the same time as the millennial festivities in 1896. This was also the moment when the Hungarian sport appeared on the international scene, as well, not only by a recapitulation, by the presentation of the results obtained up to then, but also by the participation on the great event of the modern sport history, on the Athens Olympic Games. Due to their successes, the Hungarian participants called the attention of the world to the country. But this is already the subject of the next chapter of the story — that of the Olympic Games.