Gábor Ocskay, Jr. ( hu, ifjabb Ocskay Gábor; 11 September 1975 – 24 March 2009) was a Hungarian

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. As the center of the first line, he played a huge part in his national team's promotion to the 2009 World Championship. He died of a heart attack weeks before the start of the 2009 Championships. Ocskay was posthumously awarded the

Torriani Award The Torriani Award is given annually by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to an ice hockey player with an "outstanding career from non-top hockey nation". It was inaugurated in 2015, and is awarded alongside the annual IIHF Hall of Fa ...

by the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...

in 2016.

Domestic career

Ocskay was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, but spent his childhood in

Székesfehérvár Székesfehérvár (; german: Stuhlweißenburg ), known colloquially as Fehérvár ("white castle"), is a city in central Hungary, and the country's ninth-largest city. It is the regional capital of Central Transdanubia, and the centre of Fejér ...

, Fejér county and during his entire career he played for

Alba Volán Székesfehérvár ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kingdom ...

. Officially he has been a member of the club since 1983 and that time he has started to develop a famed on-ice relationship with right winger Krisztián Palkovics. Among hockey fans in Hungary the pair was just known as "The Twins". Started to play regularly in the Hungarian First Division in the 1993-94 season and won the championship nine times, the last seven being consecutive. After long-time captain, Balázs Kangyal has left the team, he became his successor, but due to some difficulties at the end of the 2008-09 EBEL regular season, he decided to give up this position. However, he has been the real spiritual leader of the team for a long time.

International play

He won 187 caps for the

Hungarian national team The Hungary national football team ( hu, magyar labdarúgó-válogatott) represents Hungary in men's international football and is controlled by the Hungarian Football Federation. The team has made 9 appearances in the FIFA World Cup and 4 app ...

and since 1993 he has played in every single World Championship for them. With him the team won the Pool C (now Division II) tournament in 1998 and 2000, and by winning the 2008 Division I tournament in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, it gained promotion to the highest level of the

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

for the first time since 1939.

Death

In 2004, he was diagnosed with a

heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...

and sidelined for four months, but later has received a medical permission to continue his career. He died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

late on 24 March 2009, aged 33, three days after helping his side win its tenth Hungarian title. After the shocking news of his death, both his club and the Hungarian Federation has decided to retire his famous #19 jersey from their teams. On the day of his funeral, the ice hall of Székesfehérvár has been named after him. Ice hockey fans around the country have started to raise money to build a statue for him in front of the entrance of the ice hall.

Awards

*Hungarian Player of the Year :1994, 1995 and 2006 *Best Scorer of the Hungarian First Division :1994-95, 1997-98, 1998-99 *Best Forward of the Hungarian First Division :1993-94, 2006-07 *

(IIHF) : 2016

References

External links