It was the 1980s - a time of stone-washed, tapered jeans and feathered bangs and blindingly-fluorescent colors - when the then-growing legend began his trademark fashion statement because of superstition.

Of all his colored hats, Karch Kiraly's hot pink one was worn during a streak of six or seven tournament wins, so he kept it long after the color's style faded. Through fashion cycles the pink hat has planted itself on one side of the volleyball net, all the way up to what Kiraly perceives as a recent rise in the color's popularity again.

"I was laughing with somebody about it (recently): I've become relevant again," he said. "I've been waiting ever since for it to come back."

Kiraly's fashion might not have spanned the decades, but he has.

Kiraly, the three-time Olympic gold medalist, the all-time professional beach volleyball wins leader, and now, at 44, the oldest player on the AVP Tour, will return to Cincinnati Friday in what he has approached as his last season of playing.

Of course, he has approached every season like it was his last for the past eight years, so don't bet on him retiring yet.

"I want to see how far I can push it," said Kiraly, who won both previous Cincinnati AVP tournaments in 1993 and 1994. "It's hard to give a career like this up, when I tell my wife I'm going to the office, and it's the beach. But I'm also looking to see how late is too late, how old is too old."

It doesn't seem it's too late yet.

His body may be past its prime. (He recovered from his third shoulder surgery last fall.) His motivations have changed. (Winning every tournament as he used to is not an option; it's now about the challenge of facing younger players.) His partners have also changed. (He's on his second partner this year because of his struggles.) But there are two things that continue to make him a threat: ageless focus and mental toughness.

"The guy's in phenomenal shape, and he's a mental giant. When you couple the two together, it's a winning combination," beach volleyball Olympian Jeff Nygaard said.

Birth of an athlete

Karch Kiraly, whose given name is Charles, was 6 years old when his father, Dr. Laszlo Kiraly, began to teach him beach volleyball.

Three NCAA championships with UCLA (1979, 1981-1982), two Olympic gold medals in indoor volleyball (1984, 1988), an Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball (1996), six AVP MVP titles, 147 beach volleyball tournament wins, more than $3.1 million in winnings and two FIVB titles as the "Best Player in the World" later, he is beginning to watch his two sons give competitive volleyball a shot.

When they were younger, Kristian, 14, and Kory, 13, never used to think of Kiraly as their father when he put on his pink hat. Kiraly remembers one tournament when the boys were walking by the courts with his wife Janna, saw the man in the pink hat and exclaimed, "Mom, mom! There's Karch Kiraly!" He hasn't been able to draw the same awe from the teenaged versions of his sons as he tries to teach them the game.

"I have the same problem every parent has. No matter what my credentials, they listen to others more than me," Kiraly said.

That's a bit of a difference from the teenagers he guided two decades ago.

Role model

Mike Lambert was 14 years old with a poster of Kiraly on his wall, trying to model his game after the superstar.

"He was the Michael Jordan for all of us young players," Lambert said.

Sixteen years later, Lambert, a two-time indoor Olympian, found himself playing alongside his role model. Kiraly teamed with Lambert last season to win three tournaments and finish second twice. They were named the AVP's Team of the Year.

"Getting the call to play with him, I was like, 'Wow.' It was kind of a dream come true," Lambert said. "... It's one of my best memories volleyball-wise, playing with him at Manhattan Beach, which is like Wimbledon for us. It was my first victory ever. It was so storybook."

Of course, storybooks end.

Changes

It's the body's give and take for choosing one type of volleyball - the indoor game can be hard on the knees, the ankles and the back; the beach game can destroy the shoulders.

Because Kiraly is older, he gets most of the opponents' serves, which means he takes most of his team's swings. While he's had nothing more than an ankle sprain or groin pull, he's now had a shoulder surgery every four years, starting in 1996.

The latest surgery last fall left him struggling to come back at the beginning of this year with Lambert. He even had a scare in the season-opening Fort Lauderdale Open, where he thought his career might be over. It turned out he had just aggravated the repair area, nothing serious. Still, with two ninth places and a seventh in the first three tournaments this year, he gave Lambert an out with their partnership.

"I said, 'I feel like I'm letting you down. I'm pretty sure I'll be playing better in the next month or two. If you have the patience to wait until then, let's keep playing together. If you don't, I respect your decision to play with someone else,' " Kiraly said.

It was an amicable breakup, and Kiraly now partners with Adam Jewell, with whom he finished fifth in San Diego June 12. While he's 19th in individual points this season, he said he's starting to feel like he could get to the level he was at last year.

'So hungry'

Trainer Mike Rangel said he's met Kiraly on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and birthdays for training sessions Kiraly affectionately calls "45 minutes of Hell." He never misses his twice-a-week sessions of 30 minutes of stretching, 45 minutes of plyometrics (exercises where the muscle is stretched before it's contracted) and two and a half hours of intense scrimmaging, which is what Rangel said has him playing better than he has in maybe 10 years.

"I'd put him up against any athlete in the world as far as conditioning," said Rangel, who started working with Kiraly in January 2003 and also trains Lambert, Misty May and Kerri Walsh. "He also has an ability to focus at a higher level unlike any athlete I've ever seen."

Kiraly will be the first to tell you he doesn't jump as high or move as fast as he once did, but his tournament experience and the fact that he's "got the book on everybody," according to Nygaard, are what have kept him around.

"Physically I'm not as strong as I was, but I try to make up for it mentally," Kiraly said. "It's a big challenge, and I relish it, competing with guys half my age."

That drive is what makes the pink hat, no matter how faded or outdated, still an alarming sight.

"In an important game on Sunday, when it's 17-all in the deciding set, that's when he comes alive," Lambert said. "He's like a blooming flower. He just loves those situations. You can see his eyes through his sunglasses, as wide as can be. So hungry."