KARCH KIRALY, KING OF THE COURT & BEACH

MIRAMAR MOMENTS, UPDATED 2024

The Miramar, King of the Beach & Spalding® partnership featured the living legend and Olympian Karch Kiraly as "Brand Ambassador" for over 15 years up and through his official retirement from playing on tour in 2019.

Karch was a central part of the U.S National Team that won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games. He went on to win the gold medal again at the 1996 Olympic Games, the first Olympic competition to feature beach volleyball. He is the only player (man or woman) to have won Olympic medals of any color in both the indoor and beach volleyball categories. He played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins, where his teams won three national championships under head coach Al Scates.

Kiraly is currently the head coach of the United States women's national volleyball team leading them to their first-ever gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and thereby completing the "triple crown" of coaching an Olympic gold medal-winning team as well as personally winning gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball.

Below is MIRAMAR's iconic poster of Karch Kiraly from the King of the Beach and Spalding partnership years of 2001 through 2018.  .  "Karch, in action, the 2007 US Open of Beach Volleyball." Courtesy, Miramar Film and brand partner, Spalding.  MIRAMAR, Spalding, King of the Beach, Karch Kiraly, Crown Imports and its Corona Brand, the Presenting Sponsor of the 2007 US Open.  This event was held  in conjunction with USA Volleyball, in Huntington Beach, California.

ABOUT KARCH KIRALY, A TIMELINE

2016 Pac-12 Men's Volleyball Player of the Century: Karch Kiraly

In 2016, Former Bruin Karch Kiraly was named the Men’s Volleyball Player of the Century. Kiraly led UCLA to three national titles during his collegiate career, and was an All-American all four years. He was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2001, he was inducted in the Volleyball Hall of Fame and in 2005 he was inducted into the AVCA Volleyball Hall of Fame. UCLA was 126-5 during his career including two undefeated seasons (1979 & 1982). He won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, and was the captain and team MVP of the 1988 Olympic team that won the gold medal. He also won the gold medal at the 1987 Pan American Games, 1986 World Championships and 1985 World Cup. He also has a gold medal on the beach from the 1996 Olympics.

Charles Frederick "Karch" Kiraly was born November 3, 1960 is the premier American volleyball player of all time, coach and broadcast announcer. He is the only person to have won Olympic gold medals in both volleyballcategories: beach and indoor. The Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, (FIVB), volleyball's highest governing body, honored Kiraly as the greatest volleyball player of the 20th Century. He played college volleyball for the UCLA Bruins and won three national championships under head coach Al Scates.

Volleyball legend and three-time Gold Medalist, Karch Kiraly is synonymous with the sport of Pro Beach Volleyball. Clearly the 'winningest' player in the history of the sport, Karch has earned more than three million dollars playing beach volleyball and has become one of the most recognized sports figures today.

Kiraly had a long career on the professional beach circuit and is the 'winningest' player in the history of the sport. He won at least one tournament in 24 of the 28 seasons he played in a career that spanned four decades. He claimed titles with 13 partners, and in domestic events he made it to the semifinals over 80% of the time. Kiraly competed into his mid-40s.

THE EARLY YEARS

Kiraly played in his first beach tournament at age 11 as his father's partner. Kiraly has said asan 11-year-old he was thrilled to discover in beach volleyball he could compete with grown men on even terms. He earned his A and AA rating on the beach at the age of 15 and his AAA rating at 17. In the early 1980s Kiraly made a successful beach team pairing with UCLA teammate Sinjin Smith. The partnership split up as Kiraly came to focus on the U.S National Team.

US NATIONAL TEAM

Kiraly joined the national team in 1981. Playing outside hitter, he proved to be an extremely solid passer. Along with teammate Aldis Berzins, Kiraly was the foundation for the "two-man" serve reception system created by Doug Beal in 1983. Besides covering half the court on serve receive and consistently delivering the ball to team setter Dusty Dvorak, Kiraly was an excellent defender and an outstanding outside hitter. The Kiraly led U.S National Team won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, overcoming a pool play loss to Brazil, and then defeated them in the finals. Kiraly was the youngest player on the gold medal team.

 

The 1984 Olympics had been marred by the boycott of the Soviet and eastern bloc teams. The US National team showed their place as the world's best team by winning the 1985 FIVB World Cup, followed by the 1986 FIVB World Championship. In the 1988 Summer Olympics the team won its second Olympic gold medal, this time defeating the USSR in the championship match. Kiraly was selected as a captain for the 1988 team at Seoul. FIVB named Kiraly the top player in the world in 1986 and 1988.

Following the 1988 Olympics, Kiraly retired from the national team. He and teammate Steve Timmons played professional volleyball for Il Messaggero Ravenna in Italy from 1990 to 1992. The team included Italians Fabio Vullo and Andrea Gardini, Roberto Masciarelli and Stefano Margaret as team members. In two seasons the team won a series of titles, including the Italian Volleyball League (1991), the Italian Cup (1991), FIVB Volleyball Club World Championship (1991), CEV Champions League (1992), and the European Supercup (1992).

CAREER IN BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Kiraly had a long career on the professional beach circuit and is the 'winningest' player in the history of the sport. He won at least one tournament in 24 of the 28 seasons he played in a career that spanned four decades. He claimed titles with 13 partners, and in domestic events he made it to the semifinals over 80% of the time. Kiraly competed into his mid-40s.

 

In 1992 Kiraly left his indoor career behind, returning to the U.S. to play beach volleyball full-time on the AVP tour. Kiraly chose Kent Steffes as his doubles partner. Steffes was a talented youngster who had left UCLA early to start playing on the professional beach tour. Kiraly and Steffes soon became the dominant pairing on the tour, supplanting former teammate and doubles partner Smith and his partner Randy Stoklos as the beach's top team. In 1996 Kiraly returned to the Olympics, this time competing in beach volleyball with his partner, Steffes. Kiraly and Steffes won the gold medal, the first ever awarded for men's beach volleyball.

Even late in his career, Kiraly continued to win tournaments, recording two AVP tournament victories with his partner Brent Doble in 2002 and 2003, and four more with Mike Lambert in 2004 and 2005. Kiraly's last victory came in August 2005, when he and Lambert won at Huntington Beach. In 2006, Kiraly partnered with Larry Witt, and in 2007 partnered with Kevin Wong. His teams continued to make high placings. Over his career on the beach, Kiraly won over $3 million in prize money, and earned considerably more in endorsements. Kiraly retired from the AVP tour after the 2007 season.

Ultimately Kiraly won 148 professional beach volleyball titles, 110 of them with Steffes. The next closest player in total wins is Sinjin Smith at 139. Following Smith is his longtime partner, Randy Stoklos, at 122. The next closest player behind these four from the top two teams is Emanuel Rego, with 78 total wins.

COACHING CAREER

Kiraly began coaching at St. Margaret's Episcopal High School, where he took the opportunity to coach his sons, Kristian and Kory.

Head coach Hugh McCutcheon of the US National Women's Volleyball team hired Kiraly as assistant, where he helped coach the team to a Silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

In 2012 Kiraly was named head coach of the US National Women's Volleyball team to try to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In October 2014 Kiraly coached the Women's National Team to the FIVB World Championship, defeating China in the Gold Medal final. In doing so Kiraly became the fourth person to win a World Championship gold medal as both a player and a coach.

PERSONAL LIFE

Kiraly is the head coach of the US National Women's Volleyball team. He resides in San Clemente, California, with his wife Janna and two sons, Kristian and Kory. His father, Laszlo Kiraly, played for the Hungarian junior national volleyball team. Kiraly studied biochemistry in college, and considered pursuing a career in medicine after completing college.

The nickname "Karch" is derived from the Hungarian word "Karcsi" (pronounced "KAR-chee"), which can be translated as "Charlie". It is a common derivative of Karoly, which is the Hungarian equivalent of "Charles". His last name, Kiraly, means "King" in Hungarian.

Kiraly babysat Misty May-Treanor when she was a youngster. 

AWARDS AND HONORS

College

• All American (1979, 1980, 1981, 1982)
• NCAA Volleyball Tournament Most Outstanding Player (1981, 1982)
• UCLA Hall of Fame (inducted 1992)

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB: International Federation of Volleyball)

• FIVB Best Player in the World (1986, 1988)
• FIVB Best Player of the 20th Century 

American Volleyball Professionals (AVP Professional Beach Volleyball)

• AVP Best Offensive Player (1990, 1993, 1994)
• AVP Best Defensive Player (2002)
• AVP Comeback Player of the Year (1997)
• AVP Most Valuable Player (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998)
• AVP Sportsman of the Year (1995, 1997, 1998)
• AVP Outstanding Achievement Award (2004)

Volleyball Hall of Fame inducted 2001.

Kiraly has been named as one of 2009's inductees into the College Sports Information Directors of America (COSIDA) Academic All-America Hall of Fame.

Source:  Courtesy, Wikipedia