Aarne Väinö Edvard Honkavaara (June 7, 1924 – March 22, 2016) was a Finnish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

player and coach. He was born in

Tampere Tampere ( , , ; sv, Tammerfors, ) is a city in the Pirkanmaa region, located in the western part of Finland. Tampere is the most populous inland city in the Nordic countries. It has a population of 244,029; the urban area has a population o ...

, Finland.

Playing career

Honkavaara played his first game of ice hockey when he was 12 years old. The team which he represented was Tampereen Kisa-Veikot. He participated in the

Continuation War The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II.; sv, fortsättningskriget; german: Fortsetzungskrieg. A ...

between 1942–1944 and played his first actual SM-sarja game in 1944 against HSK. He played for

Ilves Ilves (; Finnish for " Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Tampere Deck Arena. The colors of Ilves, green, yellow, and black, were taken from what was then the coat of arms of the city ...

, which was along with TBK, one of

's top teams. He played his entire career for Ilves with the exception of a short visit to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, where he played in two Exhibition games for

Sarnia Sailors The Sarnia Sailors are a defunct Canadian semi-professional and amateur senior ice hockey team. The team played in the City of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada and participated in the International Hockey League and the OHA Senior A Hockey League afterw ...

. His playing career ended in 1953 when he broke his shin after a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

player fell onto it during a National Team match between Finland and Poland. After retiring, he made a two-season return to playing staff while he was the head coach for Ilves in 1956. He re-retired in 1958 after a single game during his second season after comeback.

Coaching career

After retiring as a full-time player, Honkavaara went on to coach Ilves to three Finnish Championships (gold medal) and one silver medal (runner-up). He was also the National Team Coach of Finland between 1954 and 1959.

Museum founder

When the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The was founded in 1979 with the mission to record, document, and exhibit objects, ...

was established June 14, 1979, Honkavaara was one of its founding members, and later served as its chairpersons from 1983 to 1996.

International career

Honkavaara was part of the Finnish national team and played 47 games for Finland, scoring 46 goals. He was also team captain of the national team during they'r first participation at the winter Olympics in 1952. International statistics

Career statistics

References

Bibliography

* Dynamo, (Book in Finnish)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Honkavaara, Aarne 1924 births 2016 deaths Finland men's national ice hockey team coaches Finnish ice hockey centres Ice hockey players with retired numbers Ilves players Ice hockey people from Tampere Ice hockey players at the 1952 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players of Finland