Hungary’s Volleyball legend Attiláné Kotsis turns 95!

Dr Attiláné Kotsis, aka ‘Gabi néni’, the legendary coach who was at the helm of the women’s national team of Hungary in their golden era and for three straight editions of the Olympics (Munich 1972, Montreal 1976, and Moscow 1980), turns 95 today.

She was the first female player from Hungary whose game reached a high international standard in the 1950s. Between 1949 and 1957, she played 26 times for the national team, but she subsequently achieved her greatest successes as a coach.

She started by working at Ganz Villany and right from the beginning, young players such as Lúcia Radó or Ilona Makláry came out of her hands. These eventually became key members of the national team that Kotsis coached. In the meantime, she graduated from the College of Physical Education, but also obtained a degree in pedagogy and psychology, became a professional coach, passed an intermediate language exam in German and English, and wrote and defended a doctoral dissertation on Volleyball – something she was the first person to do in Hungary. As the coach of the women’s senior national team, she took Hungary to three Olympics, and in addition to that, she was at the helm of the group at two World and five European Championships.

The Master Trainer was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in the United States in 2010, but she has received many honours in her native Hungary as well. In addition to the Prima Primissima award, she has the Silver and Gold Degrees of Excellent Coach and the Small Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary.

As a player, Dr Kotsis was a three-time national champion (1953, 1959, 1962), two-time winner of the Hungarian Cup, finished sixth at the 1952 World Championship in Moscow, and sixth at the European Championship in 1950 in Sofia and in 1955 in Bucharest.

Under her guidance, Hungary ranked fourth at the 1976 and 1980 Olympics in Montreal and Moscow, fifth in 1972 in Munich; at the World Championships, Hungary finished fourth in 1970, sixth in 1974 and 10th in 1982 at the events held in Bulgaria, Mexico, and Peru. Dr Kotsis helped Hungary achieve their greatest international successes to this day when they won silver at the 1975 European Championship in Yugoslavia, and bronze in 1981 and 1983 in Bulgaria and East Germany. She also helped Hungary claim a fifth place in 1971 in Italy and 9th in 1985 in the Netherlands.