George Turay
Soccer (2000)

George played soccer in Saskatoon from 1957 until he retired in 1988, playing on 11 Saskatchewan Shield or North Saskatchewan League champions in 16 years, and appearing in the interprovincial playoffs six times.

George was born in Budapest, Hungary, on Aug. 16, 1936, and is shown here in his kindergarten year.

This was one of the last soccer teams on which he played in Hungary, where he was chosen to play for the Hungarian junior team, and where he also excelled as a teenager in wrestling, kayaking, high jumping and five track distances from 100 metres to 1,500 metres.

George left Hungary during the 1956 uprising and came to Canada where he first played for United in 1957, 1958 and 1959 when they won the North three times and won the 1960 provincial on his game-winning goal. He played for Concordia in 1960, winning the league title and losing to Regina in the provincial finals. He was picked up by Regina for an interprovincial series against Calgary Kickers, which Regina lost 6-3, but George scored two goals against Calgary.

In June 1961, George and four others from Concordia were invited by Hollandia to play in a tournament at Edmonton where Hollandia won top prize on penalty kicks.

George was named most valuable player in the Western Canada Soccer League in 1964.  George was invited by Regina Concordia to play in the Dominion Cup semifinals against Vancouver Columbus of the Pacific Coast League in 1964. He played again for Regina in the interprovincial playoffs in 1965.

George was named to the Saskatchewan All-Stars for the 1966 Canadian soccer championships at Winnipeg and he was the only player from Saskatoon invited to try out for the Canadian National team.  In 1968, Concordia won both the North Saskatchewan championship and Saskatchewan Challenge Shield.

In later years, he also played for both the International outdoor and indoor teams, then back to Concordia. In 16 outdoor seasons, George was named to seven all-star teams. As an indoor player, he was scoring champion in 1976 and 1977.