Jozef Golonka

Jozef Golonka (2012)

Jozef "Joschi" Golonka (born January 6, 1938 in Bratislava ) is a former Slovak ice hockey player and coach.

Career as a player

The center player began his career with Slovan Bratislava , where he played from 1955 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1969. In between he played during his military service with ASD Dukla Jihlava . He played a total of 300 games in the first division of Czechoslovakia , in which he scored 298 goals. He also completed a sports degree and has the title of engineer. At the end of his career he moved to SC Riessersee . Here he came - as a defender - between 1969 and 1972 to 44 goals in 104  Bundesliga games .

International

His talent was quickly recognized by those in charge of the Czechoslovak national team and so he took part in 134 international matches in which he scored 82 goals. With the national team of the ČSSR he achieved two world championship silver and two world championship bronze medals, as well as Olympic bronze in 1964 in Innsbruck and Olympic silver in 1968 in Grenoble at five World Championships and three Olympic Games . Here the Czechoslovaks managed to defeat the Soviet national ice hockey team 5: 4.

Career as a coach

After he had finished his active playing career, he devoted himself to coaching. First from 1975 to 1979 at SC Riessersee, with whom he became German champion in 1978 . He then went back to Czechoslovakia for a while and coached Zetor Brno there , as well as the ČSSR junior and B national teams. However, as early as 1982 he came back to Germany, first to Garmisch and then from 1983 to 1985 to the Kölner Haien , with whom he became German champion in 1984 . Then he had to return home and trained Slovan Bratislava, his home club. Other coaching stations were HC Davos , ECD Iserlohn from 1989 to 1992 and EHC 80 Nuremberg from 1992 to 1995 .

In 1996 and 1997 he was a member of the Slovak national ice hockey team , but after that he retired from active sport and now works mostly as a consultant. For his services in sport he was honored in 1998 with the admission into the IIHF Hall of Fame and in 2004 with the admission into the Hall of Fame Germany . He is also a member of the Slovak (2002) and Czech Hall of Fame (2010).

Web links

• Jozef Golonka at hockeydb.com (English)
• Jozef Golonka in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )