Ervin Zador was a member of the Hungarian water polo team that competed and won gold in the 1956 summer Olympics in Melbourne. Ervin gained worldwide recognition when he appeared on the cover of Time magazine after the famous “blood in the water” game against the Soviet Union. This match made history due to the underlying political significance of the Hungarian Revolution that was occurring at the time. In 2006, executive producers Lucy Liu and Quentin Tarantino created a documentary, Freedom’s Fury, that climaxed with the notorious match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. The documentary’s narrator, Mark Spitz, was coached by Zador as a young man.
Ervin presently runs The Ripon Aquatics Center and holds the position of head coach for various recreational and competitive swim and water polo teams.