Jiří Holeček (born March 18, 1944) is a Czech professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

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

Košice Košice 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 approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

team in 1963–64, Holecek played there for 10 years until he joined Sparta Prague for the 1973/1974 season. Holeček 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. Holeček played 164 games for the national team, including ten World Championships (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, ...

and 1976 Olympics and the 1976 Canada Cup. Holeček finished his playing career in 1981 in West Germany. In 1980s he worked as a coach of the Czechoslovak national ice hockey team goaltenders, and later worked as goalie coach for HC Hvězda Praha. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1998.

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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 for Czechoslovakia Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Czechoslovakia Ice hockey people from Prague Czechoslovak expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Czechoslovak expatriate ice hockey people Expatriate ice hockey players in West Germany