Jānis Rozītis (20 March 1913 – 3 May 1942) was a Bulgaria-born 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. In football, he played as a forward and became a two-time champion of Latvia and a Latvia national team regular in the mid-1930s.

Biography

Rozitis was born at

Sliven Sliven ( bg, Сливен ) is the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. Sliven is famous for its heroic Haiduts who fought against the Ottoman Turk ...

, Bulgaria, where his parents lived before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, his father being Eduard Voldemars Rozitis and Anna (''nee'' Immaka). Rozitis married Eleonora Rozīte in 1935 by whom he had one son. Eleonora died in 1936, 3 days after giving birth to their only son, Leon Rozīte (Brašnevics), soon to be raised by his grandparents, Herbert and Klara Brašnevics. After the death of Eleonora, Rozitis went onto marry Mirdza Rozīte (Bekmane) in 1938

Rozitis became a mechanic working at motor company VEF in Riga and did compulsory military service in the Heavy Artillery of the Latvian Army during the 1930s.
Football in Latvia 1917-1940 Biography, Janis Rozitis (Latvian language), accessed 15 March 2022. Rozītis started playing football with the youth squad of Rīgas FK, RFK. He played his first official matches for the side in 1932 and in 1933 he became a regular. On 10 June 1934, Rozītis made his first international appearance for Latvia as he replaced another youngster - Ēriks Raisters in a friendly match against Lithuania. He scored his first goal for Latvia in a friendly against Estonia national football team on 12 June 1935. In total between 1934 and 1939 Rozītis scored 7 goals over 26 matches. With RFK Rozītis won the

Latvian Higher League Latvian Higher League or Virslīga is a professional football league and the top tier of association football in Latvia. Organised by the Latvian Football Federation, the Higher League is contested by 10 clubs. The full name of the league is O ...

titles in 1934 and 1935. He competed for the

Latvian national ice hockey team The Latvian men's national ice hockey team represents Latvia in international ice hockey. The team is ranked 10th in the world by IIHF as of 2019. The team is controlled by the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation. Their best ever finish at the World Ch ...

at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

. After the 1936 season Rozītis left RFK and continued playing with the football club of his work place - biggest Riga factory VEF. Rozītis had been playing with VEF Rīga in addition to RFK since at least 1934 in

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

s tournaments but as VEF side was aiming for the top-flight it acquired several higher class footballers to play with its side full-time, and Rozītis was the most notable of those. Although it was not until 1939 when VEF gained a place in the Latvian Higher League, Rozītis did not lose his place in the national team in 1938 and 1939. He stayed with VEF after Latvia was annexed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

in 1940 and he also stayed there when Latvia was occupied by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1941. Rozītis died in an accident on 3 May 1942 aged 29, together with two other VEF footballers – Leonīds Peiča and Arnolds Boka – in Riga, Reichskommissariat Ostland,

- when they were blown up attempting to remove German Army munitions that had been stored on the VEF playing field. The three team mates were buried in the First

Forest Cemetery, Riga Forest Cemetery ( lv, Rīgas Meža kapi) is an large cemetery in the northwestern part of Riga, the capital of Latvia, between the neighbourhoods of Mežaparks and Čiekurkalns. Formally, the cemetery is divided between 1st Forest Cemetery, w ...

Honours

: 1934, 1935 * Baltic Cup: 1937

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rozītis, Jānis 1913 births 1942 deaths Men's association football forwards Civilians killed in World War II Footballers from Riga Ice hockey people from Riga Ice hockey players at the 1936 Winter Olympics Latvian casualties of World War II Latvian men's footballers Latvia men's international footballers Olympic ice hockey players for Latvia