Hall of Famer Cerny passes away

85-year-old Czech won 11 IIHF medals

 

Josef Cerny, one of the most decorated international hockey players of all time, passed away yesterday at the age of 85. During a career that spanned more than two decades in his domestic league, and some 13 years with the national team, Cerny was a leader, a goalscorer, and a winner.

 

In four successive Olympics (1960-72) the left winger helped the Czechs win three medals, and in nine World Championships he won another eight medals, four silver and four bronze. He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2007 and a year later was similarly honoured by the Czech Hall of Fame.

 

“The Czech Ice Hockey Federation expresses its sincere condolences,” the organization wrote on its website yesterday.

 

Although he began his senior career with Plzen, Cerny moved on to Kometa Brno in 1958 to serve in the military. He remained there for two decades, during which time he played a record 686 games and became the first player in league history to surpass 400 goals (he finished with 403). Playing alongside Frantisek Vanek, Cerny helped Brno win three straight European Cup championships, 1966-68, and an additional seven consecutive league titles, from 1960 to 1966.

Cerny made his IIHF debut at the 1959 World Championship at home in Czechoslovakia, helping the team win a bronze medal after wins over Sweden, Finland, and Canada in the medal round. A year later, he played at the Olympics in Squaw Valley, where a loss to the gold-medal hosts on the last day prevented the Czechs from claiming the bronze.

 

Cerny played at six more World Championships in the 1960s, but the most memorable was the last, in 1969, which came after the Soviet invasion of Prague in the spring of 1968. He scored the insurance goal on March 21, 1969, an emotionally riveting 2-0 win over the Soviets, which led to a bronze…