Hubert Wagner

He was born in Poznań, Poland. His parents were Romuald and Zofia (née Kotlińska). He had younger siblings - sister Elżbieta (born 1946) and brother Leszek. Married twice. On October 15, 1963, he married Danuta Kordaczuk, who was a volleyball player and an Olympics medalist, World and European Championships. With wife Danuta, he had one son Grzegorz Wagner (born 1965), who was also volleyball player (setter) and coach.[1] They divorced in 1978. In 1979, he married Anna Baraniecka. In the last two years of his life, his partner was Danuta Marzec. He had two grandsons - Iwo (born 1991) also played as setter and now he works as scoutman, second grandson Jakub (born 1993) also is volleyball player and one granddaughter named Sara (born 2003).[2]

In 1973, he became a head coach of Polish men's national volleyball team, when he was 32. He was known as a demanding coach, who attached great importance to physical preparation of their players. In 1974 he led Poland men's national volleyball team to first title of World Champions 1974 in history.[3]

As World Champions his team was one of the main contenders for next title. Poland went to European Championship 1975 held in Yugoslavia and won silver medal.

Before going to Montreal for the Olympics he said: I am only interested in gold.

The tournament was fatiguing and hard for his team but Wagner completed plan. On July 30, 1976, he achieved with Polish men's national volleyball team title of Olympic Champions 1976.[4] In final his team beat Soviet Union in tie-break, despite the fact that Polish volleyball players spent on the pitch 11,5 hours - a lot more time than opponents (5 hours) throughout the tournament. Two months after success he left national team.

On 13 March 2002 he left the hotel in Warsaw after a lively discussion at a meeting of members of the Polish Association of Volleyball, which he was secretary. Some time later he had car accident caused by his heart attack.[5] Despite the rapid resuscitation he died. An autopsy showed advanced coronary artery disease. He was buried at the Northern Communal Cemetery in Warsaw.[6]

Every year (since 2003) is organized Memorial of Hubert Jerzy Wagner, which is three-day tournament for four national teams invited by Poland. It is one of the most important and popular volleyball event in Poland. In 2010 Hubert Wagner joined to International Volleyball Hall of Fame.[7] Five schools and two sports arenas in Poland are named after him.

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Hubert Wagner". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2015-10-16.