The hockey league started 85 years ago! | Hokej.cz
January 3, 1937 was the big date of our hockey. After many years, we have finally managed to start a real league competition. Even before it, the country champion, who thus became Slavia five times and LTC Prague six times, was played out in a knock-out manner, but it was not until the league that the best of the best were in the long-term competition.
The very first match of the league was to be played on that date at 2.30 pm on the blind shoulder of Malše in České Budějovice, where Mladá Boleslav arrived. But a smaller frosting came, so the match had to be postponed to the evening of the same day. And so it all started at 3 pm at the U Pavilonu ice rink in Ostrava, where Sparta Prague and Canadian Teeple came to compete with Vítkovice. Vilém Kubečka scored the very first goal of the new competition in the 7th minute of the match to the delight of 3,000 home spectators after Arnošt Duda’s pass. Although Sparta prevailed, the Canadian Murray Teeple almost did not come off the ice, but only three minutes before the end, Karel Jedlička, a native of Sparta in a Sparta jersey, only equalized to the final 1: 1. The first surprise was born.
Meanwhile, another league duel began to take place in Nový Smokovec, Tatra, from 5 pm – the local HC Tatry team welcomed Prague’s Slavia. And one of the fastest goals ever! Local fighter Rudolf Tomašek turned the first chance in the 15th second of the match. Anton Luther added another goal and Josef Straka reduced Slavia to a final 2 minutes before the end.
The third match was played in the evening in southern Bohemia, where the České Budějovice Stadium defeated Mladá Boleslav 3-0 and goalkeeper Karel Dědič became the first to catch a clean sheet. Václav Špatný scored two goals, Vítězslav Aibl one. By the way, the opponents will face the same in tomorrow’s extra-league duel…
The first round could not be complete, because in the end the championship LTC Prague did not have an opponent yet. The team was supposed to be the best team of the minority German union, but it has not yet completed its championship from the previous season. In the end, the Opava team Troppauer EV became the eighth participant in the league. By the way, the LTC match in Opava was the only one that did not take place at all in the end due to the German club’s sluggishness in securing the deadline and ice, and it was counted in favor of LTC Prague, which it would certainly win.
In the first year, which was played from January to March 1937, otherwise 27 matches were played. LTC, practically identical to the national team and further strengthened by Canadians Mike Buckna and Stephen Bed, crushed all opponents quite clearly and lost unexpectedly only with the second Sparta after a 0-0 draw. The third place was won by pond fishermen from České Budějovice also due to contumacy. Their duel in Slavia ended 2: 1 for the Prague team, but he played for Slavia and the winning goal was scored in Prague by the British Harry Arthur Hele Spence-Bate, who belonged to the LTC and had only settled guests in Slavia. However, only the county of Prague and not the union allowed it, so in the end the match ended 5-0 for the guests after the contumacy. Were it not for this case, Slavia survived in peace…
The last two teams were originally supposed to relegate, but during the season it was decided to expand the league, so the originally descending pair – Slavia and Mladá Boleslav – additionally played a decisive match, of which the ten better ones were saved. Financially exhausted Slavia in December 1937 against (also from Slavia) strengthened Boleslav did not manage the match, lost 0: 1 and disappeared from the highest competition for almost 60 years!
The season was otherwise very interesting and offered several record entries. Oldřich Kučera from LTC scored 8 goals for Mladá Boleslav right at his debut. The result of the LTC match in Boleslav 19: 0 was a record for many years. The best Czech hockey player of the first half of the 20th century, Josef Maleček, scored an incredible 16 goals in 6 matches, which is an average of almost 3 goals per match. This is still a record. And 5 captured zeros in 6 duels for the legendary Bohumil Modrý is also an example of how the Prague LTC was bounced away from the others.
The tradition was in any case established as a winning season of 1938-39, 1939-40 and 1944-45 with the highest hockey league competition in our territory played every year to this day. For 85 years…
Final table of the 1936-37 season:
1. LTC Prague 7 6 1 0 64: 2 13
2. AC Sparta Prague 7 5 2 0 29: 7 12
3. AC Stadion Ceske Budejovice 7 4 0 3 20:24 8
4. HC Tatry 7 3 1 3 18:14 7
5. SSK Vítkovice 7 3 1 3 14:18 7
6. Troppauer EV 7 2 1 4 10:19 5
7. SK Slavia Prague 7 2 0 5 8:31 4
8. Mladoboleslavský SK 7 0 0 7 6:54 0
Cross Table of all duels:
LTC SPA CEB TAT VIT TRO SLA MLB
LTC * 0: 0 – – 10: 0 – 13: 0 –
SPA – * – – – – 8: 0 –
CEB 0:12 3: 5 * 4: 0 3: 2 – – 3: 0
TAT 2: 5 1: 2 – * – – 2: 1 10: 0
VIT – 1: 1 – 0: 1 * 3: 0 2: 1 –
TRO 0: 5K 0: 4 5: 2 2: 2 – * – 3: 1
SLA – – 0: 5 ths. – – 2: 0 * –
MLB 0:19 2: 9 – – 2: 6 – 1: 4 *
Team rosters in previous 1936-37:
LTC Prague
Bohumil Modrý (20 years; 6 matches; average 0.33 goals per match, 5 catches zeros), Antonín Houba (27 years; not entered) – Vilibald Šťovík (19 years; 2 matches; 2 goals), Stephen Beda (27 years; 3 matches; 2 goals), Jaroslav Pušbauer (35 years; 6 matches; 0 goals) – Josef Maleček (33 years; 6 matches; 16 goals), Oldřich Kučera (22 years; 6 matches; 14 goals), Mike Buckna (23 years; 6 matches; 8 goals), Alois Cetkovský (28 years; 6 matches; 6 goals), Ladislav Troják (22 years; 6 matches; 4 goals), Jaroslav Císař (24 years; 6 matches; 3 goals), František Pergl (21 years; 6 matches; 3 goals).
AC Sparta Prague
Josef Bohac, Eduard Hofman – Jan Kosek, Jan Michalek, Rudolf? Vondrich – Oldrich Hurych, Karel Jedlicka, Drahomir Jirotka, Zdenek Jirotka, Arthur McLean, Jaroslav Rott, Antonin Sejk, Murray Teeple, Josef Topinka.
AC Stadium České Budějovice
Karel Dědič, Jaroslav Kučera – Otomar Aibl, Josef Ryneš, Josef Zasadil – Vítězslav Aibl, Bohumil Cvach, Narcis Kotous, František Mizera, Čeněk Pícha, Václav Špatný, Leopold Vávra.
HC Tatry
Štefan Fulka – Ján Kapolka, Jozef Paulík, Emanuel Šonský – Ján Gross I, Ján Gross II, Ján Klinga, Jozef Lhota, Anton Luther, Alfréd Pomp, Viliam Riczinger, Rudolf Tomašek.
SSK Vítkovice
Bohuslav Botko, Karel Vorel – Bohuslav Klevar, Vaclav Klevar, Stanislav Schauer – Arnost Duda,? Dohnal,? Drozd, Bedrich Hoskek, Vilem Kubecka, Josef Milicek, Frantisek Novy, Oldrich Slovak.
Troppauer EV
Wilibald Tomaschek – Wolfgang Dorasil, Alfred Mattern, Otto Weisshuhn – Adolf Ehrenhaft, Josef? Kotrba, Erwin Lichnofsky, Eduard Pahler, Walter Steffan,? Wanjek, Johann Wolf.
SK Slavia Prague
Otakar Včelák, Erich Tylínek – Josef Trousílek, Josef Straka – Zdeněk Andršt, Václav Frýzek, Rudolf Christelbauer, Jan Rabas, Harry Spence-Bate, Jiří Stichenwirth, Jan Taraba, Vojtěch Trapl, František Vašta.
Mladoboleslavský SK
? Scholz, Vojtech Simek,? Vanek – Zbislav Peters, Jan Plzak, Oldrich Smelhaus – Jaroslav Aust,? Bricklayer, Josef Crha,? Javůrek, Josef Král, Karel Lederer,? Peony, Rudolf Taborsky,? Coal miner.