The study is based on the research of a previously never examined source, one of the earliest public opinion researches in Hungary. In 1927 the newspaper Nemzeti Sport launched a popularity contest about athletes, then – in the next three weeks – published the readers’ votes. Finally, they published the Book of Hundreds containing the short biographies of the most popular athletes. The study presents the social conditions (place of birth, sex, occupation, sports club membership), the national and international achievements in sports of the winning athletes, and in addition, the ranking of the sport clubs and the different sports according to the voting. The paper also discusses the reasons of popularity, the interaction of the prestige of sport clubs, athletes and different kinds of sport, and provides a description of the behavior of the sport-loving people taking part in the voting, as well as that of the organized fans.

full text in Sic Itur ad Astra 62. (2011)