Tadeusz Adamowski

Tadeusz "Ralf" Adamowski (November 19, 1901 – August 22, 1994) was a Polish-American ice hockey player who competed in the 1928 Winter Olympics, and a supporter and popularizer of the sport in early twentieth century Poland. He was the brother of Helenka Adamowska Pantaleoni, film and stage actress and humanitarian associated with the founding of UNICEF. He was also a cousin of the Polish pianist and diplomat Ignacy Paderewski.

Adamowski was born in Lausanne, Switzerland when his parents, Polish immigrants to the United States, had traveled there so that his mother could avoid being in the spotlight in her advanced pregnancy condition. His family resided in Brookline, Massachusetts, and were actively engaged in the music world in Boston but also traveled frequently to Europe. Adamowski graduated from the Browne and Nichols School in the class of 1918. He finished a degree in economics at Harvard (Cambridge, Massachusetts) in 1922. While in school he played American football, tennis, basketball and ice hockey. He was a member of the Harvard hockey team, and the college's fencing team.

In Poland In 1925 "he went to Warsaw as an agent for the General Motors Corporation". In Warsaw he ran into Polish hockey players, associated with the club AZS Warszawa, who asked him to join their team after he explained he had played hockey at Harvard. With Adamowski on the team, AZS Warszawa five times in a row won the Polish championship (1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 and 1931).

Between 1926 and 1931 he was the center of the Polish national team and considered one of the most technically skilled hockey players in Europe. He was chosen as the fourth most popular athlete in Poland in 1927 (and 7th in 1929).

In 1926 Adamowski took part in the European Hockey Championship in Davos, as part of the first-ever international appearance of the Polish ice hockey team. While in the camp he participated in educational activities for prisoners, organized classes for studying English, and played basketball on the camp team. At the end of the war, he managed to reach American troops stationed in Europe.