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to sport. His merits are in the popularisation and development
of the physical education and sport.
Lajos Vermes was the son of a very rich family, an intellectual
who completed 2 unversities, but were more interested in sports
than in science.
Vermes was the first at that time to make efforts to make
sport available to everyone. It is supported by the fact that he
opened to the public a ground in his fruit-garden equipped with
sport and athletic instruments. In the spring of 1880, Lajos Vermes
with his brothers Bela Vermes and Nandor Vermes founded the
Gymnastics Club of Szabadka. More than 100 years ago. In
invain he wanted to make sports available to everyone, and he
tried to do this by offering free equipment to participants. It was
Lajos Vermes who brought into existence the Games of Palies,
to make sport available to everyone. We can see his importance
if we look at the fact that Pierre de Coubertin called together his
congress only 13 years later to establish the Olympic Games.
The Palies Games were held every year. Besides the athletic
competition, swimming was held annually. Rowing figured first
in 1884. But the bicycle races were the most popular. Every year
it was organized on the road between Palies and Szabadka. In
1886 he founded the Achilles Club. At the beginning of 1886
the first ice-sailing competition was held.
How large was the crowd at the games? Unfortunately we don't
have exact and authentic data, but the extra trains and trams
to the games refer to thousands of people. The interest grew more
and more every year. In the summer of 1892 he built the 225m
long asphalt course. The significance of Lajos Vermes organizational
and educational work can be better appreciated if we read through
the sports magazines edited and published by him-one of which
shows the asphalt covered cycling track.
In 1894 the Szabadka Sport Club is founded. Its aims was
to spread and organize every kind of physical culture.
3. Both sport and photography became popular at the turn of
the century. The propagandist, Lajos Vermes was a sport photographer
himself, too.
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