Bowzek, Vladimir

Vladimir Bouzek was born on December 3, 1920 in Trebic.

He began his hockey career in 1936, in the team "Goratsk Slavia Trebic", for which he played for 12 years. He also played for Vitkovice (he helped the club in 1952 as a playing coach to win the first title in the history of Czechoslovakia) and Rude Hvězda Brno , in which he completed his playing career in 1955.

From 1947 to 1949, Bowzek played for the national hockey team of Czechoslovakia . In 1948, he became the silver medalist of the Winter Olympics in St. Moritz . In 1947 and 1949, he won the World and European Championships.

Bouzek as part of the Czechoslovak national team was supposed to defend the champion's title at the 1950 World Championships in the UK , but after the government decided not to take part in it at the last moment (the reason for this was the refusal of a British visa to Czechoslovak radio reporters) right in the restaurant, where they gathered to discuss this event and, according to the investigation, conducted anti-government conversations and shouted anti-communist slogans ^[1] .

Vladimir Bouzek, who was not in the restaurant that day, March 13, 1950, was one of the only hockey players who escaped imprisonment (largely due to the fact that he did not play for the LTC Prague team). After a trumped-up trial, the 12 best Czechoslovak hockey players received lengthy prison sentences, the communist authorities suggested that Bowsek become the captain of the new Czechoslovak national team, but he made the courageous decision to refuse this offer ^[2] .

Already in the last years of his playing career, Bowzek was a playing coach, his coaching career continued for 40 years (from 1949 to 1989). As a coach, he achieved great success: 10 times won the gold medals of the Czechoslovak League with a team from Brno , was the head coach of the Czechoslovak national team at 4 world championships and the 1956 Olympics , in addition to Czechoslovakia coached in Germany . He completed his coaching career in 1989, in his own club, Goratsk Slavia Trebic.

In addition to hockey, Bowzek played football. He played for the football teams Banik Ostrava , Vitkovice, Slavia Bratislava.

He died on July 31, 2006 in his native town Trebic, at the age of 85.

He is a member of the IIHF Hall of Fame (since 2007) ^[3] and a member of the Czech Hockey Hall of Fame (c November 4, 2008).

Player

• 2-time world champion (1947 and 1949)
• 3-time European champion (1947-1949)
• Olympic silver medalist (1948)
• Champion of Czechoslovakia (1952)

Coach

• 10-time champion of Czechoslovakia (1955-1958, 1961-1966)
• 2-time champion of Germany (1968 and 1969)
• Winner of the Spengler Cup (1955)
• Winner of the European Cup (1966)
• 2-time silver medalist of world championships (1965 and 1966)
• Bronze medalist of the World Championship (1955)

• Czechoslovak Championship - 79 games, 91 puck
• Czechoslovak national team - 20 games, 17 pucks ^[4]
• Total career - 99 games, 108 pucks

• Profile on the Czech Hockey Hall of Fame website
• Vladimir Bouzek at eliteprospects.com