Lajos Tichy
Lajos Tichy was born in Budapest on March 21, 1935. He began his playing career at MÉMOSZ SE in 1947, then played for Bp. Lokomotív, and was a Budapest Honvéd footballer between 1953 and 1971.
He played his first top-flight (NB I) match on March 7, 1953, in Salgótarján. Bp. Honvéd lined up as Grosics – Rákóczi, Lóránt, Palicskó – Bozsik, Bányai – Budai II, S. Kocsis, Machos, Laczi, Czibor. Tichy had featured in the reserve match, but at halftime Jenő Kalmár, the first-team coach, informed him that he could not play the second half because he had to prepare for the senior team's match. In the 58th minute, he came on to replace Laczi. The score stood at 1–1 at the time, but just one minute after Tichy's introduction, Honvéd took the lead through Czibor, and then in the 81st minute, nineteen-year-old Lajos Tichy scored his first goal in his very first top-flight league match.
Tichy made his national team debut in Oslo and did not wait long there either: in the 74th minute, he fired a thunderbolt into the net from 18 meters. The Hungarian side ultimately defeated the Norwegian hosts 5–0. With his robust physique and brilliant skill, he quickly won the hearts of football supporters. Many flocked to the Kispest ground or to the Népstadion specifically to witness his sensational long-range goals.
With the Kispest side, he won league championship titles in 1954 and 1955. In the red and white colors, he played a total of 320 NB I matches, scored 247 goals, and claimed the league top scorer crown five times. With Budapest Honvéd, he won the Hungarian Cup (MNK) in 1964, and between 1955 and 1971 earned 71 caps for the national team, scoring 49 goals for Hungary. He scored four goals at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden and three at the 1962 tournament in Chile. He made 11 appearances in European club competitions for Kispest, scoring 7 goals. On June 20, 1971, he made his final appearance in the colors of Bp. Honvéd. In Kispest, in front of 15,000 spectators, Honvéd's opponent was Vasas. Fifteen minutes before kickoff, both teams lined up in front of the main stand to give the 36-year-old striker a ceremonial farewell. Bp. Honvéd president Tibor Sárdy greeted the player. Honvéd's starting eleven was: Bicskei – Kelemen, Ruzsinszki, L. Szűcs, Molnár – Pál, L. Kocsis, Pintér – Pusztai, Tichy, Kozma. True to tradition, the center-forward treated the fans to a goal: in the 45th minute, after a Tichy-Pintér-Tichy combination, the departing striker unleashed a ferocious first-time left-footed strike from 13 meters into the bottom right corner. The match ultimately finished in a 1–1 draw, as Antal from Angyalföld equalized.
From 1971, Tichy worked as a coach at Bp. Honvéd, managing the youth and reserve squads for several years before serving as head coach of the senior team from 1976 to 1982. After a quarter of a century, Bp. Honvéd won the league championship again under his guidance. The title race was decided in the 32nd round of the 1979–80 season. On June 7, 1980, ten thousand spectators gathered at the Kispest stadium for Honvéd's clash with Volán. The lineup of Menyhárt – Paróczai, I. Kocsis, Lukács, Varga – Dajka (Gyimesi), A. Nagy, Garaba – Bodonyi, Esterházy (Weimper), Kozma defeated the transport club 5–2. In 1992, he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Kispest by the local municipality.
The "Nation's Bomber" passed away in Budapest on January 6, 1999.
