The originally planned Winter Olympics for 1940 had to be cancelled because of the war, instead a winter sports week was scheduled. A sign of the times was that Hungary took on the Czech-Morva select team in the finals.
There was postive signs in 1941 when country side teams such as Hatvan, Szeged, Debrecen, Győr, Szombathely, Esztergom, Ungvár, Munkács, Kassa, Marosvásárhely, Csíkszereda, Kolozsvár and many other cities. With the league growing so large the competition was played in four divisions (North, Kolozsvár, Transylvania and Budapest), with the four champions, BBTE, Kolozsvári KE, Marosvásárhelyi SE and Kassai AC, making it to the finals with BBTE winning the title over Kolozsvár.
Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation established
On November 6th the sports clubs who had ice hockey teams left the the Skating Federation at their meeting held at BKE’s hall, and the Independent Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation established. By forming their own federation the founders hoped for the improvement of the adverse circumstances.The first president was Géza Lator, and György Margó became the first-ever general secretary. One of the big achievements of the 40’s was the forming of the national youth team.
Rebuilding the City Park ice rink
After the war Hungarian ice hockey showed the first signs of life at the end of June. István Hűvös, general secretary of the Hungarian Skating and Hockey Federation, notified the teams in the daily sports paper, Népsport. to show up at the federation’s office in Nádor utca. The only goal of the season was the renovation of the skating rink at the City Park, which suffered serious damage from the fighting. One wing of the clubhouse had completely collapsed, the roof was missing on almost the entire building, the ice surface was damaged by bomb craters, and the electrical equipment was all gone. Only the heart of the rink, the engine house survived the war with slight damages, which gave hope for the future. During the half year long work the condition of the rink was sufficiently restored that it was able to host ice hockey practice, even though the service building was not completely restored. Games could only be held in the following year. Full renovation of the ‘Műjégpálya’ (City Ice Rink) after the war was due in 2011, workers still found bombs left behind from the war. The destroyed north wing of the building was rebuilt during the renovation.
No currency for this sport
The new year had brought new rules in the sport of ice hockey. The most important change was the 3 times 20 minutes of playing time, and that all players participated in both the attacking and the defending. The two top teams, MTK, which signed almost the complete roster of BKE, and Ferencváros, traveled to the alpine countries to learn the new playing style that arrived with the new rules. The journey didn’t start off in the best of moods. Despite their previously made promises, the National Bank didn’t provide the necessary amount of foreign currency with the reason being that ‘for this sport there’s no currency’. The trip from Budapest to Vienna was the only part that was paid for, where the Austrians hosted the Hungarians in a return favor from the year before. The tour was finally completed. At the end of it we participated at the University World Championship in Davos, where we finished in third place because of a weaker goal difference.
Financial difficulties
Due to financial reasons, the hockey players were ultimately unable to make it to the Olympics. Knowing this, it’s surprising that MTK, on which the national team was built, made a tour in Switzerland directly before the games. Due to the financial irregularities a ministerial commissioner was appointed to the skating federation, who was of the opinion that the budget of ice hockey was disproportionately big. In his opinion, our top players had grown old and he didn’t intend to spend years supporting the national team. He was able to push through with his plans, and the national ice hockey team was assembled only twice in ten years. In the championships Csepel won bronze for the second straight year, and then disappeared from ice hockey at the end of the season. A big part of their team reappeared on the roster of Vörös Meteor (Red Meteor), which team later competed for the championship title. Another new team on the scene was the Szegedi Postás. The players usually played games without practice sessions, but despite all this they were able to clinch one victory. Szeged was not able to complete the following season, and the Tisza-side ice hockey went into hibernation for many decades.
