User:Malo95/Andor Mezei

Andor (Andy) Mezei (14 August 1935 – 23 October 2020) was a handball player how played for the Hungary men's national handball team. He was known as "Father of Canadian Handball".

Life
According to his sister Louis his childhood in Budapest was hard. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 he first stayed in Germany and moved in 1958 in to exil to Montreal Canada. Ten years later he told La Patrie: "J’avais lié mon sort à celui de l’équipe nationale de handball. Après notre tournée européenne, tous les membres de l’équipe avaient décidé de ne pas retourner en Hongrie. J’étais jeune à l’époque, et sans trop songer aux conséquences, j’optai pour cette même décision. Je suis venu au Canada parce que je croyais que c’était le pays où il existait la plus grande liberté. I had linked my fate to that of the national handball team. After our European tour, all of the team members decided not to go back to Hungary. I was young at the time, and without thinking too much about the consequences, I opted for the same decision. I came to Canada because I believed it was the country where there was the greatest freedom."

In 1960 he created the North American Team Handball Championships and helped to create the Canadian Federation of Olympic Handball – now called the Canadian Team Handball Federation. In 1962 they bceame a IHF member. And the Fédération Québécoise de Handball Olympique (FQHQ). He was president at both federations. Between 1984 and 1987 he was also President of the former Pan-American Team Handball Federation.

In the 60s he was hired at the St. Thomas High School as a physical education teacher and teached them handball.

He was the organizer of the handball tournament at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Club teams
In 1951 (First edition), 1954, 1955 & 1956 he won with the Vörös Meteor Közért SE the first hungarian handball league the Nemzeti Bajnokság I.

In 1959 he published an add in a newspaper and about twenty men's from europe answered him. With fellow immigrants he formed two teams and they played games in Montreal which attracted up to 500 spectators.

In 1962 he founded the Montreal International.

National team
He played 3 games for the Hungary men's national handball team and scored 3 goals. The first two games were the first games of the national team.

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