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The International Hockey Journal Passion and Purity: The Story of Inter-War European Hockey Hockey in Europe developed rapidly and experienced tremendous growth during the Inter-War (1918-1939) era, becoming a popular winter pastime for individuals of all backgrounds. During the early 19th century, prior to World War I, ice hockey on the continent was predominantly an upper-class sport. Gustave Lanctot of the Oxford Canadians described European hockey of the pre-war era as a "sport of nobles at which spectators wore full evening dress and dined sumptuously at candlelit, rink-side tables; the referees wore black tie and smoking jackets", concluding that it was "certainly not a people's game" in the continent. After the war, Europe was in shambles, and hockey was mostly an afterthought until the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. Germany was banned from international play until 1926, and the hockey infrastructure in Great Britain had been eviscerated, with very little activity taking place in the country during the first half of the decade. Pre-war stalwarts Belgium, Czechoslovakia (formerly Bohemia), France, and Switzerland remained relevant, and were joined by a new European power - Sweden. The Swedes had played bandy until being introduced to hockey with a puck by American film director Raoul Le Mat in 1920. They quickly picked up the new sport and won European gold in 1921. North Americans had significant influence on the development of European hockey during the 1920s. Blake Watson both played and coached in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia, and his playing style was emulated by many of the continent's rising stars. The Canadian senior teams who toured Europe and played in the World Championships and Olympics also helped popularize the sport and provided the Europeans with valuable knowledge, although they were often criticized for rough play - the European game was more graceful and skilled than violent. By the end of the decade, hockey had also spread to Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia and the Netherlands. It was also played briefly in Spain, starting in 1923, but soon fizzled. The hockey "boom" started in earnest around 1930 (with Estonia and Norway taking up the sport in this time period), as numerous clubs began springing up across Europe and interest in the sport skyrocketed. Most hockey teams were part of a multi-sport club, which featured numerous different sections, or in some cases, a more specialized "winter sports club". Many players competed in multiple sports with their club. Numerous regional domestic competitions were played throughout the continent, especially in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Poland. The championships were divided by city, region, and even ethnicity - there was an ethnic German competition staged in Czechoslovakia. The teams playing in these championships all had the opportunity to advance and compete in the national championship, provided they win the regional title. In the days of closed professional leagues with fixed numbers of teams, it is a very romantic notion to envision players taking to the ice across Europe, harboring dreams of advancing to compete for national glory. Although there was parity in the sense that every team theoretically had a chance at winning a national championship, most countries were dominated by a small nucleus of powerful clubs. Berliner Schlittschuhclub won 14 German Championships between 1920 and 1937. The Swiss club HC Davos claimed 12 national titles in a 14 year span from 1926-1938. LTC Praha maintained a stranglehold over Czechoslovak hockey, winning every championship played between 1929 and 1939. In Austria, Wiener EV earned the national championship 11 times from 1923-1937. The game looked very different back then. The equipment, despite major improvements during the 1920s into the 1930s, was still fairly rudimentary, and most teams only carried eight players on their bench for games - six forwards and two defensemen (also called halfbacks). The defenders usually played the entire game. A few players started wearing helmets at the tail end of the 1930s, but this was extremely uncommon. The goaltenders usually played barefaced, although Stefan Wachmenko is known to have worn a wire cage as early as 1929. Hockey in Inter-War Europe was almost entirely an amateur sport, with most players having to earn a living outside of hockey. However, this was not the case in Great Britain, where numerous large arenas opened and teams were stocked with professional players, many of whom were Canadian. The English National League was formed as a professional competition in 1935, and the Scottish National League, which had once been a fully-amateur Glasgow-based competition, soon followed suit. Britain rode a roster stocked with Canadian-trained players to a 1936 Olympic title. In continental Europe, the 1935-36 European Cup also marked a "dangerous trend toward professionalism" according to then-IIHF president Paul Loicq. Despite these concerns, the sport still remained predominantly amateur for the rest of the 1930s. There were few indoor rinks in Europe during this time period, with most games being played outside on artificial (specifically designed for skating) rinks. This left the sport at the mercy of the weather in most places. The seasons were short and generally began in December, with domestic competitions commencing in earnest in January. There were numerous tournaments played over the Christmas holidays, including the famous Spengler and Tatra Cups, which are still contested to this day. The Olympics/European/World Championships were staged in February, with the hockey season winding down by March. A very mild winter in 1936 significantly disrupted play throughout the continent. Aside from Britain's plethora of indoor facilities, there were several in Belgium, as well as the Berliner Sportpalast in Germany, Lindarängen Isladen in Sweden, and the Palazzo del Ghiaccio in Italy. The cavernous Vélodrome d'Hiver opened in Paris in 1931, a crucial development in Inter-War French hockey; prior to then the main source of ice was outdoors in Chamonix, perched high atop the Alps. The national teams to fare best during the Inter-War era were Czechoslovakia and Sweden, with four European Championships apiece. Great Britain won three continental titles and the 1936 Olympics, while Switzerland also claimed European gold on three occasions. Austria and Germany won two titles apiece, and France took the 1924 European Championship. Czechoslovak center Josef Malecek was the superstar of this era, scoring well over 1000 goals and starring both domestically and internationally while becoming a national icon. He even received an offer to play professionally for the New York Rangers. Gustav Jaenecke and Rudi Ball of Germany were also exceptional talents, as was the Swiss right winger Bibi Torriani, who shone the brightest on a line with the Cattini brothers (Hans and Pic). Ulli Lederer was a feared Austrian sniper during the 1920s. Carl Erhardt was a stout British defenseman, while self-avowed Nazi (from Czechoslovakia) Wolfgang Dorasil struck fear into opponents with both his goal scoring and his defensive work. Istvan Hircsak and Jozef Stogowski of Hungary and Poland, respectively, were among the best Inter-War European goalies. The outbreak of World War II led to the end of the Inter-War era, both on and off the ice. For hockey, it was a unique period of growth and development and of passion and excitement. The complexion of the game in Europe changed immensely after the war. Czechoslovakia and Sweden remained at the pinnacle of the sport until the early 1950s, when the Soviet Union first entered the international scene, and hockey on the continent - and the world - was never to be the same again. |
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