Tadeusz "Ralf" Adamowski (November 19, 1901 – August 22, 1994) was a Polish-American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who competed in the

1928 Winter Olympics The 1928 Winter Olympics, officially known as the II Olympic Winter Games (; ; ; ) and commonly known as St. Moritz 1928 (; ), were an international winter multi-sport event that was celebrated from 11 to 19 February 1928 in St. Moritz, Swit ...

, and a supporter and popularizer of the sport in early twentieth century Poland.

Early life

He was the son of Polish musicians Józef and Antonina Adamowski née Szumowska, who with Józef’s brother Tymoteusz Adamowski made up the Adamowski Trio. He was the brother of Helenka Adamowska Pantaleoni, film and stage actress and humanitarian associated with the founding of

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

. He was also a cousin of the Polish pianist and diplomat

Ignacy Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; r 1859– 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman who was a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the nation's prime minister and foreign minister during which time he signed the Tre ...

.Muzeum Histori Polski (Museum of Polish History
"Dwudziestolecie: Oblicza Nowoczesnosci 1918-1939. Sport w II Rzeczypospolitej
(The 20's: Faces of Modernity 1918-1939. Sport in the Second Republic), . Last accessed August 18, 2010. Adamowski was born in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, Switzerland when his parents, Polish immigrants to the United States, had traveled there so that his mother could avoid being in the spotlight in her advanced pregnancy condition. His family resided in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

, and were actively engaged in the music world in Boston but also traveled frequently to Europe. Adamowski graduated from the Browne and Nichols School in the class of 1918. He finished a degree in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

(

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

) in 1922. While in school he played

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and ice hockey. He was a member of the Harvard hockey team,Bartosz Kaczyński, ''Daily Sport News''
Tadeusz Ralf Adamowski – pionier hokeja w Polsce
(Tadeusz Ralf Adamowski – Pioneer of hockey in Poland), . Last accessed August 18, 2010 and the college's

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

team."Fencing Team Defeats Tech"
''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...

'', 1920

In Poland

In 1925 "he went to Warsaw as an agent for the General Motors Corporation". In Warsaw he ran into Polish hockey players, associated with the club

AZS Warszawa Academic Sports Association Warsaw () was a former multi-section University sports club based in Warsaw, Poland. The club was dissolved into University clubs within List of universities in Poland#Public universities, Universities in Warsaw that we ...

, who asked him to join their team after he explained he had played hockey at Harvard. With Adamowski on the team, AZS Warszawa five times in a row won the Polish championship (1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 and 1931). Between 1926 and 1931 he was the center of the Polish national team and considered one of the most technically skilled hockey players in Europe. He was chosen as the fourth most popular athlete in Poland in 1927 (and 7th in 1929). In 1926 Adamowski took part in the European Hockey Championship in

Davos Davos (, ; or ; ; Old ) is an Alpine resort town and municipality in the Prättigau/Davos Region in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of (). Davos is located on the river Landwasser, in the Rhaetian ...

, as part of the first-ever international appearance of the Polish ice hockey team. Adamowski played in the European Championships six times in all (1926, 1927, 1929-silver medal, 1930, 1931-silver medal, and 1933). He participated in the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

three times (1930, 1931, and 1933). In 1928 Adamowski skated in the Olympic tournament, also with Poland's national hockey team. In 1930, during the World Championships in Davos was appointed to represent Europe at the game with Canada. One of his greatest hockey successes came in 1931 at the World Championship in Krynica, when the Polish team with Adamowski as its leader took fourth place, after Canada, the US, and Austria, making it the second team in Europe. He became the coach of the Poland national team in 1927 and served until 1930, as well as in 1932. As a coach, he popularized Canadian hockey methods and strategy which stressed teamwork over individual players. Along with Aleksander Tupalski he also served as a coach for the Gdańsk club Gedania. In the 1930s he worked initially for the group General Motors (delegation in Warsaw), and then in the enterprise "Gdynia-America shipping" S.A.

During World War II

In 1939, during the

Nazi invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet ...

he was called up from the reserves into the Polish army and fought as a Second Lieutenant in the 21st Regiment of the 2nd Polish Corps, Vistula Uhlans (21 Pułk Ułanów Nadwiślańskich) near the towns of

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

and

Grudziądz Grudziądz (, ) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its province. Grudziądz is one of the oldest citie ...

. Captured by the Germans, he was imprisoned in

Oflag II-C Oflag II-C Woldenburg was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located about from the town of Woldenberg, Brandenburg (now Dobiegniew, western Poland). The camp housed Polish officers and orderlies and had an area of with 25 brick huts fo ...

in Woldenberg (

Dobiegniew Dobiegniew () is a town in western Poland, in Lubusz Voivodeship, in Strzelce-Drezdenko County. As of December 2021, the town has 3,004 inhabitants. It is situated on the Mierzęcka Struga River and southern shore of Wielgie Lake. History The are ...

).Woldenberg was then located in Germany but after 1945 became part of Poland as the city of Dobiegniew. While in the camp he participated in educational activities for prisoners, organized classes for studying English, and played basketball on the camp team. At the end of the war, he managed to reach American troops stationed in Europe. He moved to the United States, where for many years he worked for

. He died in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1994.Polski Komitet Olimpijiski (Polish Olympic Committee)
profile ADAMOWSKI TADEUSZ "RALF" (1901-1994)
, , last accessed August 18, 2010

References

External links

* * Polish Olympic Committe

(in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Adamowski, Tadeusz 1901 births 1994 deaths American officials of the United Nations AZS Warszawa (ice hockey) players Buckingham Browne & Nichols School alumni Harvard College alumni Ice hockey people from Norfolk County, Massachusetts Ice hockey players at the 1928 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Poland Polish ice hockey centres Polish military personnel of World War II Polish prisoners of war Prisoners of Oflag II-C Sportspeople from Brookline, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Lausanne Ice hockey people from the canton of Vaud UNICEF people World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players Harvard Crimson fencers