Houston lawyer going to Beijing with 94-year-old medalist: his dad

Houston lawyer Robert C. Tarics is understandably excited about the trip he and his father are taking this Thursday to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But there’s more to it than just a shared love of sports between a father and a son. Robert’s dad is Sándor Tarics, a water polo player from Hungary who helped his teammates bring home a gold medal in 1936. Robert says his dad, who turns 95 next month, is believed to be the oldest living gold medalist in the world. And what an Olympics that was. The Games of the XI Olympiad took place in Berlin on the eve of World War II. Adolf Hitler presided over the event, which the Nazi Party hoped would showcase the country’s Aryan superiority. “I do remember him telling me stories that all the Germans were there,” Robert says. Although he doesn’t remember his dad talking specifically about Hitler, he vividly recalls his dad telling him about watching the legendary Jesse Owens compete in the track and field events. (Owens brought home four gold medals that year.) Sándor is attending the games and the closing ceremony as a special guest of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, says Robert, who adds that the two hope to attend as many of the actual games as possible -– especially the water polo competition. “I am thrilled for my dad. It’s an incredible opportunity, and it’s going to be a very emotional experience,” says Robert, a litigation partner in Gordon & Rees. Robert says growing up with a gold medalist for a dad wasn’t as hard core as you might expect. “He definitely instilled a sense of competitiveness in us, and he definitely emphasized the importance of hard work and high goals, but he never made it into direct competition with him,” Robert recalls. “He wanted me to live my life, gave me a lot of encouragement and a lot of love." But athletics were definitely encouraged, and Robert says he played a lot of sports growing up, especially tennis, achieving statewide ranking in tennis in Texas and in California as a youth. As a young lawyer in the 1980s, Robert won the Texas State Bar singles championship, and he was thrilled to watch his own son dominate the court during college. And what of Sándor’s 72-year-old gold medal? “He still has it. It’s framed and on his wall,” Robert says. “He’s promised that I get to inherit it when he dies. I am not waiting on it, but I will definitely stake my claim.”
-- Jenny B. Davis

Comments

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