Sven William "Wille" Löfqvist (12 April 1947 – 23 October 2016) was a Swedish

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 ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

who played for the Swedish national team. He was part of the Swedish team earning a bronze medal at the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, Essex County, New York (state), New York, United States. In 2020, its population was 2,205. The village of Lake Placid ...

, United States.William Löfqvist's profile at Sports Reference.com
/ref> He later became a professional golfer and played on the

Swedish Golf Tour The Swedish Golf Tour, currently titled as the Cutter & Buck Tour for sponsorship reasons, is a developmental professional golf which was formerly operated by Svenska Golftourerna AB, as well as being owned equally by the Swedish Golf Federatio ...

Ice hockey career

Löfqvist was born and grew up in Gävle, Sweden. He began playing ice hockey as a teenager and became a goaltender by coincidence. 18 years old he played his first season in local ice hockey club

Strömsbro IF Strömsbro IF is a Swedish sports club located in Gävle. Background Strömsbro IF currently plays football in Division 4 Gestrikland which is the sixth tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Testebovallens IP in Gävle. T ...

, at the time in the Swedish second division. After three seasons in Strömsbro IF and helping the team advance to the Swedish first division, Löfqvist was recruited to local competitor and reigning Swedish champions

Brynäs IF Brynäs IF is a Swedish professional ice hockey team from Gävle. The club currently plays in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), promoted from the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of ice hockey in Sweden, following the 2023–24 season. The ...

for the 1968–69 season. He was part of the team, mostly as their first goal tender and playing 500 games, for 15 seasons in the highest Swedish hockey league, winning the Swedish national ice hockey championship six times in eleven years

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

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, ...

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

. For the 1971–72 season, Löfqvist was awarded The Golden Puck by the

Swedish Ice Hockey Association The Swedish Ice Hockey Association () in Swedish, is an association of Swedish ice hockey clubs. It was established in Stockholm on 17 November 1922 by representatives from seven clubs. Before then, organized ice hockey in Sweden had been admi ...

and the newspaper ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'', as the best Swedish player in the highest Swedish hockey league. He played 105 matches in the Swedish national team, 37 of them in

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 ...

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

or the

Canada Cup The Canada Cup () was an invitational international ice hockey tournament held on five occasions between 1976 and 1991. The brainchild of Toronto lawyer Alan Eagleson, the tournament was created to meet demand for a true world championship that a ...

. After the 1982-83 season, Löfqvist retired from ice hockey and turned professional in golf.

Awards and honors

*1972 The Golden Puck as Swedish Ice Hockey Player of the Year *Elit Sign No. 90 by the

*Jersey number 1 hoisted in Brynäs IF home arena

Golf career

With parents not playing golf, Löfqvist at around 12 years of age, together with friends, search for golf balls around Gävle Golf Club close to his home in Gävle, Sweden, to earn money to buy his first golf clubs. He convinced his father Sven to pay for his member fee in the club and in a few years he had won junior championships on both club and district level. By 1966, Löfqvist was among the top twelve junior golfers in his country and the year after he was selected for a national team camp. In 1972, Löfqvist won the

Norrland Norrland (, , originally ''Norrlanden'', meaning 'the Northlands') is the northernmost, largest and least populated of the three traditional lands of Sweden, consisting of nine provinces. Although Norrland does not serve any administrative p ...

Championship (one of three regions in Sweden, covering the northern half of the area of the country). Two weeks in a row in July 1975, Löfqvist won successive national 72-hole amateur tournaments. On August 1, 1976, Löfqvist won the Norrland Championship again. After the victory, Löfqvist ended his golf season due to his participation in the first

ice hockey tournament, with the top six national professional teams in the world meeting a month later in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Despite Löfqvist was in the middle of his ice hockey career, as a goal keeper in both the dominant Swedish club and the national team, he reached handicap scratch in 1977. The same spring he finished second in one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in Sweden, Slottspokalen at Uppsala Golf Club. After turning professional in 1983, Löfqvist played tournaments in Sweden and joined the Swedish Golf Tour, with its inaugural season 1984, but played a reduced schedule and with limited success. His best finish in 1983 was tied 6th at Gevalia Open on his home course Gävle Golf Club, helping him to finishing 22nd on the 1983 Swedish Professional Order of Merit. On the Swedish Golf Tour his best finish came to be tied 26th at the

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

Martini Cup The Martini Cup was a golf tournament on the Swedish Golf Tour from 1984 to 1988. It was played in Rya and Torekov Torekov () is a locality situated in Båstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 863 inhabitants in 2010. It is still a fishin ...

at Rya Golf Club. Löfqvist's eldest son Robert also became a golf professional. He was part of the team winning the Swedish national club team championship for Gävle Golf Club in 1997. Löfqvist and his son won the Swedish Father and Son Championship, over 36 holes foursome stroke-play, three times. The tournament was at the time, due to Sweden's "open golf"-policy since 1983, not restricted to amateurs only, but it was without prize-money.

Amateur wins

*1972 BP Cup (Sundsvall), Norrland Championship *1974 Sandvik Open (Högbo) *1975 Söderhamn 72-hole Tournament, Fyris-Neon Open (Gävle) *1976 Norrland Championship *1980 Jörn Trä Open (Skellefteå) *1981 Tolvslaget (Boden) *1982 Scandinavian Foursome (with (Olle Hedblom) *1983 Swedish Father and Son Championship (with Robert Löfqvist) *1984 Swedish Father and Son Championship (with Robert Löfqvist) *2001 Swedish Father and Son Championship (with Robert Löfqvist)

Death

Löfqvist died on 23 October 2016 at the age of 69, from

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

, and attempted to raise awareness that men can also be affected.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lofqvist, William 1947 births 2016 deaths Swedish ice hockey goaltenders Brynäs IF players Ice hockey players at the 1980 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Medalists at the 1980 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic bronze medalists for Sweden Swedish male golfers Sportspeople from Gävle Deaths from male breast cancer Deaths from breast cancer in Sweden 20th-century Swedish sportsmen