2024-04-03 18:30:22
When Czechoslovak hockey players became world champions three times in the 1970s, defenseman and team captain František Pospíšil was the first to lift the winning trophy over his head each time. A member of the Czech and World Hockey Hall of Fame celebrated his eightieth birthday on Tuesday.
The long-term support of Kladno and the national team was decorated not only with emphasis, great positional play and perfect passes, but also with the ability to “coach” a team full of personalities.
This quality later came in handy during his coaching career, in which he also made it to the national team.
“I definitely remember three big things that I value the most. First, it was the 1972 world championship title. Prague, the home championship, a wonderful and extraordinary victory,” Pospíšil summed up.
“Four years later then Katowice. We didn’t lose even once there, that’s when we were probably in the best form,” continued the famous captain.
“Well, soon after, a new, completely new experience – the Canada Cup. We reached the finals, we managed to beat the domestic professionals. I think that we helped European hockey in a way,” thought Pospíšil.
In addition to the titles from 1972, 1976 and 1977, “Pospec”, who formed an elite defensive pair with Oldřich Machač, won four silver and three bronze medals at 11 world championships.
He took part in the Olympic Games three times, of which he has two silvers and a bronze, he also started at the memorable Canada Cup in 1976. He played a total of 262 matches for the national team and scored 25 goals.
He added another 622 games and 134 goals during 17 seasons in the Kladno team, with which he won four league titles and a triumph in the European Champions Cup in 1977.
In 1971 and 1972, he won the Golden Stick poll, was named the best defenseman of the world championship twice and was selected for the WC all-star team three times.
The native of Unhoště started playing hockey at the local ice rinks, at the age of 14 he was accepted for the second time in the youth team of Kladno Labor Reserves.
He trained as a mechanical locksmith, then graduated from a metallurgical school and as a seventeen-year-old he made his first league debut for SONP (later Poldi) as a defensive left winger.
“I worked in the morning, they took me upstairs before eleven and then I went to train. I even volunteered to work at night,” he described his “professional” beginnings.
At the end of his career, Pospíšil, who at one time was intensely interested in Toronto, worked in Landshut in Germany.
He hung up his skates in 1979 and started coaching. In his first season on the bench, he led his parent club Kladno to the league title, later he coached Litvínov, the national team with whom he won three silver and one bronze medals at the World Cup, and between 1986 and 1988 he was Ján Starší’s assistant with the national team.
After coaching stints in Italy and Japan, he also tried his hand at the role of a hockey official when he held the position of general manager of the Kladno team.
After that, he brought Louny from the regional championship to the third highest competition, before putting hockey on the threshold of the 60s for good.
“I got to know different situations, I was at a lot of events, successes. But I never chased my own shirt. I didn’t play for something I’m not. Humility is also important in sports,” said the father of twins and a lover of beekeeping.