Dear members, friends of the 1st Hanau Tennis and Hockey Club, sponsors and supporters,
It is with deep sadness that we have to inform you that our first chairman, Michael Bailly, died yesterday evening, after a short, serious illness, at the age of 78, surrounded by his close family.
With Michael’s death, we are losing a great and great person in every respect, who, in addition to his impressive life’s work, also created something unique for our club in his almost 70 years of membership.
The projects implemented during his term as head of the hockey department and as president of our club are hard to count and unmatched. No challenge was too big for Michael and no path was too far to find equally enthusiastic supporters for his ideas and to develop solutions that no one really wanted to believe in before. To do this, he brought courage and confidence like no other to open up possibilities and create results.
Seeing things that need to be tackled, simply trying something out, was just as much a strength as his sensitive instinct in dealing with people in order to speak to them correctly, to take them along and to encourage them to achieve special achievements, both on and off the pitch. Michael was a man-catcher in the most positive sense of the word, someone you wanted to count as your friend. He paid at least as much attention to the youngest members of the club as he did to the veteran members who had been at the club longer than him, because the liveliness that the youngest members brought to the club, the togetherness, was the strongest driving force for Michael, volunteering and sometimes to commit sacrificially to his club. From his point of view, the greatest sporting successes were worthless without a deep feeling of community and he saw this community as the foundation for the qualitative growth of the club, which grew by almost 500 new members during his term of office. For him it was a special appreciation when parents could entrust their children to the club in the certainty that they would be in good hands with us. He accepted this as a valuable inheritance from his predecessors and, even in the face of his final diagnosis, made every effort to pass it on responsibly.
It is an honor and a positive obligation for us on the board to continue Michael’s idea in his spirit. As Michael said on the 100th anniversary of the 1st Hanau THC, with all due respect for what has been achieved in the past, the future was very important to him –
For sporting success and friendships that last a lifetime.
Today and in 100 years.
It is with deep sadness, gratitude and love that we say goodbye to Michael Bailly. We will miss him bitterly as an advisor, as a doer, as a problem solver and as a person who was passionate about the things he pushed forward. Our thoughts are with his family. We wish them the strength that Michael has always exemplified.
For the board
Gabi Stenger and Henrik Statz
We ask – also on behalf of the family – to refrain from expressing condolences in person or by telephone. A book of condolence will be available in the inn of the 1st Hanau Tennis and Hockey Club from midday today.
