Peter Fogarassy - (2005)

      As a teenager, Peter Fogarassy left his native Hungary during the October 1956 Hungarian people's short-lived revolt against Soviet Union rule.

      He fled his homeland into Austria and shortly thereafter came to the United States. After a stay in a refugee camp at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, Peter met up with his former Hungarian swim coach, John Leonard in New Haven, Connecticut.

      Fogarassy had developed in swimming as a teenager under Leonard to win the Hungarian national breaststroke title in 1955.

      Leonard got Peter a work scholarship to Cheshire Academy in New Haven, where as a senior he won the 1959 New England school-boy breaststroke title and All-America honors.

      It was at the 1959 USA National AAU Indoor Championships that Peter caught the eye of NC State swimming coach Willis Casey.

      "I realized there was no limit to his greatness in the breaststroke," said Casey after watching the teenage Peter take fourth in the AAU Indoor meet.

      That night over dinner, a handshake between the two sealed the relationship. In the fall of 1959, Fogarassy boarded a bus for Raleigh with a small satchel containing a bathing suit, a pair of shoes and a change of clothes.

      Over the next several years at NC State, Fogarassy ranked among the best breaststrokers in the world. From 1959 to 1963, he broke two world records and at one time held six American records. He won seven ACC individual titles and never lost a race in ACC dual-meet competition.

      Fogarassy was denied a chance to put an Olympic medal in his swimming legacy. Because he was not yet a U.S. citizen, Peter was ineligible to compete for either the U.S. or Hungary in the 1960 Summer Games in Rome.

      Fogarassy beat American Bill Mulliken, the eventual 1960 Olympic gold medalist, in six out of seven races leading up to the Rome Olympics. At the 1960 National AAU Outdoor Championships just months prior to the Games, Fogarassy beat Mulliken by five yards in claiming the U.S. national championship.

      However, Fogarassy would win a gold medal. In 1961, he captured the 200-meter breaststroke at the Maccabian Games in Tel Aviv, Israel, setting a record that stood for 12 years.

      Fogarassy was an easy choice for the ACC's 50th Anniversary Swim Team. He twice won the Louis J. Fisher Award (1960-61) as the top amateur athlete in North and South Carolina.

      "Peter Fogarassy is the greatest swimmer I ever coached," Casey said in 1963. "As far as a specialist is concerned, he's the finest swimmer I've ever had in one stroke."

      Fogarassy holds the late Casey in high esteem as well.

      "Mr. Casey was like a second father to me," Fogarassy said. "There's no way I could repay the man. He was tough on me, but that is what I needed. The man was a swimming genius."

      On January 11, 1963, Peter was sworn in, along with his brother Andre and his parents, as a U.S. citizen. Fogarassy graduated from NC State with an education degree in 1964.

      Fogarassy married the former Joan Shapiro of Boston in 1969. The couple has two grown daughters, and four grandchildren. Fogarassy worked in sales for Levi Strauss & Co. from 1966 to 1999.

            At age 65, Fogarassy's competitive swimming career hasn't ended. He's still in the water regularly at the North Raleigh YMCA, training to compete in North Carolina and U.S. Master's competitions.

written May 19, 2005