Josef Mikoláš (, 23 January 1938 – 20 March 2015) was a Czechoslovak

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) 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. In ice hockey, two o ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

of the 1950s and 1960s. His biggest success came in 1961 when he helped 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 ...

win silver medals at the World Ice Hockey Championships in Geneva, Switzerland and in 1963 when they took bronze

in Stockholm IN, In or in may refer to: Places * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Indepe ...

, Sweden. Altogether he played in 29 matches for the national team.

Early life

Josef Mikoláš was born to a

single mother A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

and had three younger siblings. When he was a small boy, he suffered from several serious illnesses, including

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and

rickets Rickets is a condition that results in weak or soft bones in children, and is caused by either dietary deficiency or genetic causes. Symptoms include bowed legs, stunted growth, bone pain, large forehead, and trouble sleeping. Complications ma ...

. When he was five years old, he still could not walk. Despite this he later attended a coal mining apprentice school in

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four ri ...

and worked as a

coal miner Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

after he finished it. He lived in Ostrava and started his ice hockey career here.

Ice hockey career

Josef Mikoláš started playing for ice-hockey team Pracovní zálohy Ostrava in 1956, but soon he came to another Ostrava team, VŽKG Vítkovice, who were playing in the

Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League The Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League was the elite ice hockey league in Czechoslovakia from 1936 until 1993, when the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Slovak Extraliga and Czech Extraliga formed from the split. H ...

, the highest league in former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. He quickly got recognition for both his goaltender's skills and courage with which he faced the shots, although he was not wearing any head protection in that time. In 1959 he was elected the best Czechoslovak goaltender of the season. His career culminated in 1961, when he was nominated into the

for the World Ice Hockey Championships in Geneva, Switzerland. The team won most of the matches and surprisingly beat even 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, ...

6–4. They drew with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

1–1 and finally took silver due to Canada's better overall

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. For his performance Josef Mikoláš won the trophy of the Czechoslovak Sportsperson of the Year. In 1962 the World Championships took place in Colorado Springs, USA, but the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia boycotted the tournament. In 1963 they took bronze at the World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

Injuries

Josef Mikoláš was acknowledged for his courage, with which he faced the puck although he did not wear face protection. In his time only some goaltenders experimented with home-made masks, but he refused to use any. Throughout his career he lost eight teeth and suffered a broken

cheekbone In the human skull, the zygomatic bone (from grc, ζῠγόν, zugón, yoke), also called cheekbone or malar bone, is a paired irregular bone which articulates with the maxilla, the temporal bone, the sphenoid bone and the frontal bone. It ...

, double fracture of his

lower jaw In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

and 35 sutured injuries. As the most painful he described a shot of

Karel Gut Karel Gut (16 September 1927 – 6 January 2014) was a Czech ice hockey player and coach, who later worked in sports management. He was born in Prague and later played in the Czechoslovak Extraliga. While Gut played soccer in his youth, he wa ...

, which cost him four teeth at one moment. Altogether he had about eighty stitches all over his head. He tried wearing a

goaltender mask A goaltender mask, commonly referred to as a goalie mask, is a mask worn by goaltenders in a variety of sports to protect the head and face from injury from the ball or puck, as they constantly face incoming shots on goal. Some sports requiring ...

only a short time before the end of his career.

End of the career and off-ice life

Soon after the World Championships in Sweden Mikoláš's career started declining. In 1965 he got divorced and moved to

Chomutov Chomutov (; german: Komotau) is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. There are almost 80,000 inhabitants in the city's wider metropolitan area. The city centre is well preserved and is protec ...

, where he got married again and played for VTŽ Chomutov until 1968. Then he returned to Ostrava but in 1970 he finally finished his ice hockey career and worked as a

sports journalist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

. He had three daughters. On 20 March 2015, he died after an illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mikolas, Josef 1938 births 2015 deaths Czech ice hockey goaltenders Czechoslovak ice hockey goaltenders People from Frýdek-Místek Czech sports journalists Ice hockey people from Ostrava Piráti Chomutov players HC Vítkovice players