Jiří Holeček (born March 18, 1944) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

professional

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 ...

coach and former player. Holeček played in the Czechoslovak Elite League from 1964 to 1979, and on the Czechoslovak national team for many years. After joining the military he participated in the hockey camp of Dukla Jihlava, but coming from an insignificant Slávia team at the time, he did not make it higher than the number three goaltender and was loaned to

HC Košice Hockey Club Košice is a Slovak professional ice hockey club based in Košice that competes in the Slovak Extraliga, the top tier of Slovak ice hockey. It is the most successful hockey club in Slovakia and the former Czechoslovakia, having won th ...

in the eastern part of the country. After starting his career on the

Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...

team in 1963–64, Holecek played there for 10 years until he joined

Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

for the 1973/1974 season. Holecek played 488 league games, and despite being awarded the Czechoslovak Golden Hockey Stick award for the best player in 1974, he never won the league title. Holecek played 164 games for the national team, including ten

World Championships 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, ...

(leading the team to gold in 1972, 1976, and 1977), being named the best goaltender five times. He played at the

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

and 1976 Olympics and the

1976 Canada Cup The 1976 Canada Cup was an international ice hockey tournament held September 2 to 15, 1976, in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Quebec City in Canada as well as in Philadelphia, in the United States. It was the first of five Canada Cup to ...

. Holecek finished his playing career in 1981 in West Germany. In 1980s he worked as a coach of the

Czechoslovak national ice hockey team The Czechoslovakia men's national ice hockey team was the national ice hockey team of Czechoslovakia, and competed from 1920 until 1992. The successor to the Bohemia national ice hockey team, which ...

goaltenders. He was inducted into the

IIHF 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 ...

hall of fame in 1998. Currently, he is working as goalie coach for one of the

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

junior hockey teams, HC Hvězda Praha.

References

External links

*
HC Sparta Praha Klub Historie

GOALIE ACADEMY INTERNATIONAL
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holecek, Jiri 1944 births Czechoslovak ice hockey coaches Czechoslovak ice hockey goaltenders HC Košice players HC Sparta Praha players Ice hockey players at the 1972 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1976 Winter Olympics IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Living people Medalists at the 1972 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Czechoslovakia Olympic ice hockey players of Czechoslovakia Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Czechoslovakia Ice hockey people from Prague