Gold, silver, uranium. How the communists sent hockey champions to the mines

In 1947, puck hockey had been played in the Czech lands for almost four decades. When the Czechoslovaks first encountered overseas teams in 1920, they got 15 goals from Canada and 16 from the USA, four years later they even got a historic thirty-goal debacle from the Canadian champions.

Of all 26 official duels with Canada and the USA before the Second World War, the Czechoslovak hockey players played two 0:0 draws in friendlies. And one famous 2-0 win over the USA at the home championship in 1938. Therefore, the pre-war generations of Czechoslovak hockey players did not even dare to dream of a world title.

But when the terrible Second World War ended, in February 1947 the distant dream of a hockey title could finally materialize. At the first major post-war tournament, which was hosted by Czechoslovakia in Prague, Canada was absent, but thanks to the participation of the Americans, it was possible to compete for world medals, and not just European ones.

“I experienced it firsthand, and from then on, hockey just got under my skin in such a way that I will never get rid of it,” recalls Miloslav Jenšík, then not even eleven years old, in the new episode of the Ice Bearers podcast series about the 1947 world championship , sports historian and author of many publications on the history of (not only) Czech hockey and football.

“In order to increase the luster of the championship, so that the winter camp, as they said, was full, the organizers let two or even three boys on one standing ticket for an adult. We found that out and from the second day we diligently went there. I saw over 20 of the 28 matches, because we had a coal holiday at the time and that’s how we went there.

It was just an incredible experience. That championship (world championships in 1947 in Prague) was one of the last that was still held in such a picturesque, even neighborhood atmosphere.

Czechoslovakia then took to the ice with new stars – Vladimír Zábrodský, Stanislav Konopásk and Václav Roziňák, but also with pre-war representatives Bohumil Modry, Ladislav Troják, Jaroslav Drobný and captain František Pácalt.

And the home team went through the tournament excellently. They successively defeated Romania 23:1, Austria 13:5, Poland 12:0, Switzerland 6:1 and Belgium 24:0. The title was within sight, but the two biggest rivals stood in the way. As always, tenacious Sweden and also the American selection, which was not one of the strongest.

Past episodes of Ice Bearers

Captain Pácalt was unable to participate in the duel with the Northerners due to injury, but the home team became nervous mainly after the opponent’s quick goal after 50 seconds, which the Swedes scored after being offside. The great pressure in the end, when the northerners already led by two goals, was not valid. Zábrodský only reduced the score to 1:2 a minute before the end. The title was – as it seemed – in trouble and everyone was more or less resigned to second place.

“If they had won, we would have been world champions that evening, but the championship would not have remained in such vivid memory and would not have aroused such huge interest in hockey as what actually happened,” concludes Miloslav Jenšík with the passage of time.

At the time, practically all the press announced that the new world champions were the Swedes, who until then had only drawn with the Swiss, but had otherwise beaten all the other teams, including the Americans. Only weak Austria awaited them, which had previously received a humiliating 13 goals from the Czechoslovaks. An obvious formality. But Austrian goalkeeper Josef Wurm had the best day of his career and put on a phenomenal performance. Austria shockingly defeated the Swedes 2:1, and our southern neighbors were rewarded by enthusiastic Czechoslovak fans sending food and even a wagon full of coal to the war-decimated country. Hockey can also evoke such solidarity in people…

Stories from the history of hockey

Photo: Getty Images

List News has prepared a series of articles on the history of hockey championships. Where was hockey passion born, when were the Czechs champions? Unknown stories from the history of this sport.

The Czechoslovaks couldn’t even lose against the Americans and after a 6:1 win, they won their first historic title of world champions. All the sweeter that it was won right at home, in Prague.

And other successes followed. Silver in the 1948 Olympics by a score behind Canada and then the 1949 World Championship title in Sweden, this time even before the cradle of hockey, these were huge achievements won despite circumstances that hit our hockey in a truly tragic way.

After the communist coup d’état in February 1948, the emigration of the people that the new regime was responsible for came first. In addition to many former representatives, including stars such as Josef Maleček and Oldřich Kučera, the world champions from 1947 Jaroslav Drobný and Miroslav Sláma and the silver Olympian from 1948 Oldřich Zábrodský left Czechoslovakia. Even the recent world champion Zdeněk Marek emigrated right at the venue of the 1949 world championship in Stockholm. But many others left too. Even the successful coach Mike Buckna did not return from Canada to the communist-ruled country.

The really dark day then came on November 8, 1948. At that time, the national team was moving from Paris to London on two planes. The second one, with six representatives, never reached the goal. World champions Zdeněk Jarkovský, Vilibald Šťovík, Miloslav Pokorný, Ladislav Troják and Karel Stibor disappeared forever in the waves of the English Channel, along with the representative rookie Zdeněk Švarc.

But the horrors were far from over. The first golden era of Czechoslovak hockey was ended in 1950 by the inhuman communist regime itself. At that time, instead of defending their gold world medals at the world championship, he sent the hockey players to London for many years to criminals and uranium mines.

Although outstanding athletes did nothing at all of what the communist prosecutors accused them of, they received crazy, draconian punishments for alleged treason and anti-state activities, and our hockey was dealt a blow from which it took decades to recover…

Miloslav Jenšík, a witness of those times and an excellent storyteller, also talks about this in the next volume of the Ice Bearers. You can listen to it in the player at the very beginning of the article.

Ice Bearers

• Author: Tomáš Kučera
• Editor: Pavel Vondra
• Music: Martin Hůla
• Sound design: David Kaiser

Podcast series Seznam Zpráv, in which Tomáš Kučera describes the most interesting moments of our rich hockey history and interviews those who were personally present at the greatest successes.

Every Thursday – from 21 March – to be listened to as a bonus episode of the related podcast Nosiči vody on Podcasty.cz, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast applications.

Photo: ČTK, Getty Images, Seznam Zpravy