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The Hungarian Iron Man
After almost twenty years of chronicling our wrestling heritage there are great moments that take us by surprise and add to what is still a limited collective knowledge. One of those rewarding occasions was the announcement by the son of Lorant Baranyi that his father was alive and living in Yorkshire.
Lorant Baranyi, now there was a man in danger of being overlooked, and what an injustice that would have been.
Born near Budapest on 7th July, 1934 Lorant Istvan Baranyi pursued an interest in Greco Roman and Freestyle wrestling from the age of twelve years old. He continued wrestling as an amateur whilst serving in the Hungarian army. He was just twenty two years old when his life was turned upside down as the Hungarian uprising was crushed by the invasion by Russian tanks in November, 1956. Like thousands of others Lorant left his homeland and made a torturous journey to Britain, where he settled in Leeds, home to many Hungarian refugees at the time, wrestlers Laszlo Banjo and Zoltan Boscik amongst them. Laszlo and Lorant were to form a lasting friendship.
Keen to pursue his wrestling interest and seeing the opportunities open to him he trained with the Crabtree brothers in Halifax and turned professional at the age of twenty-three. We found him wrestling professionally in 1958. Our earliest recorded contest, though not his his debut, is in November, 1958, wrestling Texan Bill Cody.
In the years that followed Lorant wrestled some of the major names in British wrestling, Geoff Portz, Don Mendoza, Cyril Morris and Shirley Crabtree amongst them. His physical culture background made him a powerful and muscular wrestler.
His son recalled, “He was a very athletic wrestler for a heavyweight and used to weigh in at around 16 stones. He often wrestled Shirley Crabtree, who was seven stones heavier. With Lorant having a successful amateur wrestling background he had a very big strong neck and did a lot of wrestlers bridges in training. This was a crowd pleaser when Shirley Crabtree used to jump on him and he supported his weight with his neck.”
During the late 1950s and early 1960s Lorant wrestled for major promoters Twentieth Century, Jack Taylor, Paul Lincoln and Relwyskow Green. Whilst it all looked promising on the wrestling front sometimes real life gets in the way, however welcome. In 1964 it was good news, but not for wrestling fans. Lorant married and as his wife was not keen on his wrestling career he retired from the ring and concentrated on his employment as a Physical Culture Instructor.
In the mid 1960’s Lorant also worked as box office manager at the Leeds Mecca Ballroom, which played host to many of the biggest names in British music at that time and most of the Leeds United players, including Billie Bremner, Norman Hunter, Peter Lorimer, and Jack Charlton. One attendee at the hall said, “”Everyone had to dress smartly. There was none of this ‘jeans and trainers’ thing going on back then. All the men wore suits and ties. It was the place to be.”
In April 1966 Lorant, still living in Leeds, became a British citizen. Citizenship wasn’t the only big event of 1966, as he and his wife parented their first child. Although Lorant left the wrestling this was by no means the end of his physical achievements. If anything his achievements have become more remarkable as life has gone on.
He continued to train daily and was in incredible physical condition at the time of his addition to this site at the age of ninety. Indeed, that’s something of an understatement. He was a very active member of the Skyrac Athletic Club until the Covid outbreak.
In addition to winning the Yorkshire and North East Powerlifting championships and in January 1997, aged 62, he won the Masters British Powerlifting championships.
And if all that wasn’t enough he went on to win a Gold Medal in the Mayor’s Yorkshire Hammer Throw Championship for Over 80’s, and in 2018 was ranked 7th in the United Kingdom.
In wrestling terms it was a short career, but undoubtedly a Lorant Baranyi was a skilled wrestler who made his mark and deserves his place in our wrestling heritage. An ongoing story ….
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