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HUNGARIAN-born Australian international basketball trail-blazer Laszlo "Les" Hody died in Melbourne today after a short illness. The first man to represent two different countries at Olympic Games and the inspiration for a generation of players in South Australia and Victoria, Les was 88. 

In 1956 when he and his brother John fled Hungary in the grip of the fall-out of its doomed revolution against an occupying Soviet Army, few knew how profund their influence would be on Australian basketball.

Hall of Fame members such as Lindsay Gaze and Ken Cole credit Hody with changing the way they viewed and played the game, Les' passion for basketball evident in his autobiography "Not an Ordinary Life". It hardly could have been.

Born in Szeged, Hungary, in 1934, his parents owned a shoe-manufacturing factory but with the Soviet takeover of the country after World War II, Les’ family was branded as “enemies of the nation” - capitalists in a Communist country.

His parents were stripped of their assets, his father in-and-out of prison while a young Hody thrived at first division handball, basketball and volleyball. The Government forced him to choose one sport and fortunately, it was basketball.

At the 1951 European Basketball Championship, Hungary finished third and the decision made to select a younger team for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Hody was selected to represent Hungary as a 17-year-old at those Games in Helsinki.

Hungary missed the top eight, but took the Silver Medal a year later in the European Championship, Hody elevated to a starter’s role.

From 1952 to 1955, the Hungarian men’s team experienced a “golden age”, claiming the Gold Medal at EuroBasket 1955 in Budapest, the 6-4 Hody voted the best forward in Europe.

It all fell apart suddenly in 1956 with the Hungarian Revolution which led to a brutal Soviet crackdown across the nation.

The Russian Army ultimately destroyed the Hungarian revolt, restored Communism by force, Les and his brother John fleeing to Vienna as refugees.

Migrating to Australia soon afterwards, they arrived in Adelaide in March, 1957, starting a Hungarian-orientated team, naturally called Budapest. Along with the Latvian and Lithuanian teams comprised of fellow displaced persons, they quickly dominated South Australian basketball.

In 1960, Hody led Budapest into the first of four consecutive SA championship grand finals. While Budapest lost the 1960 grand final to the Latvian club A.S.K., Hody comfortably won the Woollacott Medal as the fairest and most brilliant player in the state’s top competition.

In 1961 and again in 1962, Budapest won the championships under Hody’s leadership, before losing in 1963 to South Adelaide and its Hall of Fame-bound Indigenous superstar Michael Ahmatt.

Now a naturalised Australian, Hody twice led South Australia at the Australian National Championship, the state winning both national titles.

In 1963, he moved to Melbourne, joining his brother John, who had swapped states earlier and also represented Australia, albeit at the "forgotten" FIBA World Championship in Manila in 1962. 

Les was instrumental in leading the Victorian team at the 1964 nationals in Adelaide where they lost to SA in the final. And at 30 years of age, he was selected on the 1964 Australian team to contest the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Twelve years earlier at the Helsinki Olympics, Hody was the youngest team member for Hungary. In 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics, he was the oldest team member for Australia.

It was difficult time for Hody, the prospect of playing against Hungary, which also competed in Tokyo, particularly emotional. Fortunately, Hungary was in the rival pool and the two nations never squared off, though both completed intrapool play at the Games with identical 2-5 win-loss records.

The eventual ninth place achievement by Australia’s part-timers widely was lauded as the Boomers’ greatest performance to that point, Hody leading Australia in scoring with 14.7 points per game, no other Aussie averaging in double-figures. Hungary finished 13th of the 16 competing nations.

That 1964 Olympic team established Australia’s international reputation and laid the platform for Australia’s future direct entry into the Games via the Oceania Regional Championship.

Three years later when Budapest merged with Norwood in the South Australian “district” competition, Hody, as playing-coach of the new entity, led the team to the 1967 Summer Championship, beating South Adelaide in a classic grand final.

1964 OLYMPIC BOOMERS: Les Hody, back row, fourth from the right.

As a postscript to the Hody brothers’ departure from Hungary in 1956, his family continued to be penalised.

In 1958, the Communist Government granted the family visas to go to Vienna, then withdrew them the day before they were to leave.

Hody’s father was sent to prison with hard labour for one year, John and Les sentenced in absentia to three years prison for escaping from Hungary.

Six years later, their sentences were commuted and they were given amnesty. Times do change and countries change.

In 1995, Hody was awarded the “Gold Cross of the Hungarian Republic” one of that nation’s highest awards.

In 2005, he was awarded the “Gold Ring Insignia” of the Hungarian Republic for outstanding life achievement.

During the 100-Year Anniversary celebration of the Hungarian Basketball Association in 2012, Les Hody was made a “Legend” of Basketball and a cast of his hand is exhibited in the “Hall of Fame” in Budapest.

Finally in 2020, Basketball South Australia inducted him into its Hall of Fame.

I had the personal pleasure of knowing Les from my childhood when he was playing-coach of Norwood-Budapest where four of my brothers were under his charge.

At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where past Australian basketball Olympic teams proudly were acknowledged and paraded during breaks in Boomers matches, we were able to catch up and rekindle a friendship which only further blossomed in the intervening years.

His loss is one of the big ones from Australian basketball. May he rest in peace and his legacy never diminished or forgotten. It was indeed no ordinary life.

HALL OF FAME: My lucky day, joining Les and his dear wife Eva at the 2020 Hall of Fame dinner