Harijs Mellups (1927–1950) was a Latvian football and

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 h ...

player. Mellups died in the 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash at age 23.

Biography

Mellups came from

Sarkandaugava Sarkandaugava is a neighbourhood of Riga, Latvia. Origins of the name The name of the neighbourhood derives from that of the Sarkandaugava ('Red Daugava'; german: Rote Düna), a minor arm of the Daugava that formerly separated Pētersala fr ...

in Riga where he played football in the streets and ice hockey on a frozen river in the winter. His first football club was Aldaris for which Mellups played as a left side forward. In addition to football Mellups played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, was an ice hockey goalkeeper and also competed in

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

. In boxing aged 18 Mellups was nominated for the Latvia national team. In 1945 he was the champion of Riga in his weight division. However, by 1945 Mellups had decided to pursue his career in two sports: ice hockey and football. In 1945 with FK Dinamo Rīga Mellups won the Latvian championship in football. Mellups had a very good goal sense and was highly skilled in playing one-on-one. In 1946 with

Dinamo Rīga Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of ...

he also won the Latvian championship in ice hockey, as a goalkeeper with Dinamo he allowed just 3 goals in the entire season. In 1949 he transferred to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

where he also played both football and hockey on the highest level. Every year from 1947 Mellups was selected in the symbolic selection of best players of the Soviet ice hockey league. Mellups died in an airplane crash together with Roberts Šūlmanis and several other ice hockey players. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellups, Harijs 1927 births 1950 deaths Ice hockey people from Riga Latvian ice hockey players Latvian footballers Soviet ice hockey players Dinamo Riga players Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the Soviet Union Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1950 Association footballers not categorized by position Footballers from Riga