Jiří Holeček

Jiří Holeček
IIHF Hall of Fame , 1998
Date of birth	March 18, 1944
place of birth	Prague , Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Nickname	Fakir
size	181 cm
Weight	74 kg
position	goalkeeper
Career stations
1956-1957	Tatra Smíchov
1957-1958	Bohemians Prague
1958-1963	Slavia Prague
1963-1973	VSŽ Košice
1973-1978	Sparta Prague
1978-1980	EHC 70 Munich
1980-1981	EHC Essen-West

Jiří Holeček (born March 18, 1944 in Prague ) is a former Czechoslovak ice hockey goalkeeper who played for many years in the Czechoslovak national ice hockey team and won numerous medals with it at international tournaments.

Career

After he started as a striker with the ice hockey at Tatra Smíchov , he moved to the position of goalkeeper at the age of 13. He moved from the Bohemians Prague to the Juniors of Slavia Prague . There he played until 1963. Then he moved to Dukla Košice in the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia , which was renamed VSŽ Košice in 1967.

In 1966 he became the goalkeeper of the Czechoslovak national ice hockey team . Here he formed an excellent duo with Vladimír Dzurilla , with whom he was number one from the 1970s. He became world champion for the first time in 1972 and also won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Sapporo . From 1973 he played for Sparta Prague . At his second Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 1976 , his team won silver and the 1976 ice hockey world championship brought him the second world championship title. When his team finished second in the 1976 Canada Cup , he was only number two behind Dzurilla. The Czechoslovaks were able to defend their world championship title at the Ice Hockey World Championship in 1977 . In 1978 he was named the best goalkeeper at a World Cup for the fifth time and was elected to the All-Star Team.

Because of his great success, he was allowed to move to Germany in 1978. Here he played in the 2nd Bundesliga for EHC 70 Munich . After leading Munich into the first division in his second season, he moved back to the second division at EHC Essen , where he ended his career in 1981.

He returned to his homeland and worked there as a goalkeeping coach. He was also involved in Dominik Hašek's training . Later he was a goalkeeping coach at HC Hvězda Prague. In 1998 he was honored with the induction into the IIHF Hall of Fame . Today he runs the Goalie Academy International with Lukáš Mensator .

Sporting successes

• Olympic silver medal: 1976
• Olympic bronze medal: 1972
• Ice hockey world champions: 1972 , 1976 and 1977

Personal awards

• Best goalkeeper in the World Cup: 1971 , 1973 , 1975 , 1976 and 1978
• WM All-Star Team: 1971 , 1972 , 1973 , 1976 and 1978
• Zlatá hokejka (golden hockey stick): 1974

Web links

• Jiří Holeček at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Jiří Holeček at rodi-db.de
• Jiří Holeček at eurohockey.com
• Jiří Holeček at International Hockey Legends
• Jiří Holeček in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ goalie-academy.com, Šéftrenér, hlavní patron - Jiří Holeček ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.