Georg Grozer senior

György Grózer was born on 14 September 1964 in Budapest. He learned volleyball in Hungary and joined the first-division club then known as Bp. Vasas Izzó / Tungsram SC.

By his mid-teens he was already training and competing with much older teammates. That early immersion forged the hard competitive edge later German observers would call part of his character on court.

From 1980 to 1985 he starred for Tungsram in Budapest, winning the Hungarian championship in 1984 and 1985. He earned roughly 70 caps for Hungary between 1981 and 1985 and took part in the 1983 European Championship, where Hungary finished eleventh.

After that tournament the domestic programme declined. In 1985 Grozer left Hungary for West Germany, beginning a career that would make him famous on the Lower Rhine.

His first German stop was MTV Eintracht Celle in 1985-86. He then moved to Belgium with Rembert Saxon Torhout (1986-88), winning the Belgian Cup in 1988.

Photographer and chronicler Jürgen Sabarz later recalled meeting him in Torhout in 1988: a frustrated match-winner carrying weaker teammates, open to an offer from Moers that would change German volleyball.

From 1988 to 1996 Grozer was the face of Moerser SC. In 1990 the club won the CEV Cup, the first men's European club title for a German side. Further trophies followed: German Cup in 1991 and 1993, and the Bundesliga championship in 1992.

The same year he was named Germany's Volleyballer of the Year. League ranking lists repeatedly placed him first in attack and serve. The nickname Hammer-Schorsch stuck for the force of his spike and jump serve, measured near motorway speeds on contemporary radar.

Naturalised in 1989, Grozer played 19 times for Germany and appeared at EuroVolley 1991 (fourth) and 1995 (eighth). His relationship with head coach Igor Prielozny was explosive.

After one substitution he threw his shoes at the coach's feet and later refused call-ups. Contemporaries argued that the quarrel cost Germany a stronger Olympic qualifying campaign around 1992 and left Grozer with fewer caps than his club form deserved.

Standing about 196 cm and weighing around 103 kg in his prime, Grozer combined heavy athleticism with timing at the net. He trained with a bandaged arm as a youth to keep the swing long and generate whip through the hand.

Hamburger Abendblatt in 1992 called him the hardest-hitting, most eccentric and best-paid German volleyballer. Teammates remembered trash talk and a demand for the ball in crisis; they also remembered a player who would not abandon his club side.

After eight seasons in Moers he closed his playing career with Belgian club Maldegem in 1996-97. By then he had won titles in Hungary, Belgium and Germany and a European club crown that Moers supporters still cite as the club's high-water mark.

Grozer returned to Moerser SC as coach from 2006 to 2009, overlapping with years when his son Georg was emerging. In 2011-12 he coached second-division Titans Berg. Land in Wuppertal and helped the side toward higher ambitions.

After moving back to Hungary around 2018 he coached Gödöllő's women (2018-19). In 2025-26 he was head coach of Pénzügyőr SE, winning Hungarian Cup bronze before being released after the league semi-finals in spring 2026.

He was married to Timea. Their children Georg, Tom, Dora and Tim all played volleyball seriously. Georg Grozer junior became a German opposite of world class, with Olympic appearances, World Championship bronze and European Championship silver.

Dora also played for Germany. Grandchildren Leona and Loreen have represented German youth sides. His sister Anna, a Hungarian indoor and beach international, died after illness in 2023; their father György was still alive in his mid-eighties when Georg senior died.

On Friday 11 September 2026 Grozer felt pressure in his chest and consulted a cardiologist, who prescribed medication. On Saturday evening, 12 September, at his home in Veresegyház he became unwell and stopped breathing.

His wife and emergency services attempted resuscitation. Death was recorded at 21:15. He was 61, two days short of his 62nd birthday. An autopsy was ordered to determine the exact cause; it had not been made public when tributes were published.

The German Volleyball Federation and Volleyball Bundesliga hailed a formative figure whose titles and long service would be remembered. Nemzeti Sport, MTI and Hungarian clubs mourned a former national player and recent coach.

His sporting line continues through Georg junior and a volleyball family spanning Hungary and Germany. For Moers and Bundesliga fans of the early 1990s, Hammer-Schorsch remains the standard for attacking power on the German men's court.