Czech Ice Hockey Association

The Czech Ice Hockey Association (Czech: Český svaz ledního hokeje, ČSLH), also known by the shortened name Czech Ice Hockey (Czech: Český hokej), is the governing body of ice hockey and sledge hockey in the Czech Republic. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and controls the majority of organized ice hockey in the Czech Republic.
==History==
===Origins===
It was originally founded as the governing body of ice hockey in Bohemia and later served as Czechoslovakia's national federation. 
The creation of the Bohemian federation was an extremely complicated and convoluted process as the representatives from the various clubs had to meet four times (December 11, 18, and 30, 1908 and January 13, 1909) before they were able to select a president. 
This was due to pre-existing rivalries between some of the clubs and nobody wanted to select a president from a rival club. The rivalry was particularly heated been Sparta and Slavia Praha.
Before the four main meetings there was a preliminary meeting held at the U Karla IV restaurant. It was attended by the following delegates:
*Novomestsky SK - Herites and Benes 
*SK Vlasim - Chalupa and Hufnag
*AC Sparta Praha - Kracik and Falten
*AFK Vrsovice - Hatina and Rombald
*Slavij Zizkov - Vlk
*BK Mlada Boleslav - Meisner
*SK Slavia Praha - Prochazka and Bohutinsky
*Union Zizkov - Benatsky
*Viktoria Zizkov - Moscinsky and Stokl
*BZK Praha - Potucek 
*SK Smichov - Richter and Poniatovsky
A committee was selected after the initial meeting featuring Herites, Prochazka, Benatski, Kracik and Potucek. The second meeting was held on December 11 at a restaurant named U Platize. Emil Prochazka told the 30 delegates from 12 clubs present that Bohemia had become members of the LIHG (November 15, 1908). Their LIHG membership predated the official creation of the federation. Dr.Petrik from Sparta was selected as a temporary president at the second meeting, only to resign along with the entire committee at the third meeting on December 30.
The Czech newspaper Narodni Politika from early 1909 (January 2-3) wrote the following after the fourth meeting: "There is a saying that you get it done in three times, but this wasn't enough for the people who want to found the Czech Ice Hockey Federation. After three meetings they decided that they needed a fourth, where they will replace the resigned president and committee. The idea is that all hockey clubs who want to be in the federation will be in the committee, something that was decided during the third meeting on December 30. By this everybody hopes that the tensions between some clubs will ease up a little. It is already decided that Dr. Petrik and Mr. Prochazka will not run for presidency."
At the fourth meeting the committee chosen was Jaroslav Potucek (BZK), Emil Prochazka (Slavia), Meisner (Mlada Boleslav) and Herites (Novomestsky SK). They accepted an invitation to play in the 1909 Coupe de Chamonix international tournament.
It was also decided that a Czech delegate would go to Chamonix for the LIHG congress.
A young medical student named Josef Gruss was chosen as the delegate. He was the goaltender for the Czechs in their first real international ice hockey game. Gruss had also tried to form a Czech Ice Hockey Federation years earlier but had failed.
===Between the two world wars===
After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak Hockey Association (CSSH) was established in 1919 as an organization under which, in addition to ice hockey, the bands and ground hockey also fell. Ice hockey was run by about a third of 25 member clubs. Following the success of the ice hockey team in the 1920 ice hockey tournament, the Ice Hockey Section, under the chairmanship of the successful representative of Jan Fleischmann in 1921, was named the Czechoslovak Canadian Hockey Association (CSSKH).
In the last month of 1923, the union split, when the Czechoslovak Association of Canadian Hockey (ČSAKH) separated from it under the leadership of Karel Hartmann of Sparta. The calm of the situation did not contribute to the fact that in January of the following year a union championship was held, which was the first time to fight for the trophy cup donated by the president T. Masaryk. The disputes also affected the nomination for the ice hockey tournament of the 1924 Winter Olympics, despite the fact that the Czechoslovak Sporting Village tried to prevent it. Of the clubs that leaned toward the ČSAKH, only Maleček, who received a soldier of the attendance service, attended an order from the Ministry of Defense. The unification of the Union took place after a year, mainly under the influence of the European Ice Hockey Championship 1925.
Domestic championship decorated with gold medals has greatly helped the Union to promote ice hockey at the expense of the band in Slovakia, where it took place after some peripetials. In 1927, the union brought together twice the number of clubs to the state after the First World War, but this did not match the number of registered players. So registration was declared a necessary condition for each player to take part in a match. In the following year, ice and ground hockey structures were separated. At the same time, the problem of the parallel existence of the associations of national minorities on the territory of Czechoslovakia began to be solved. German clubs associated with Deutscher EisHockey Verband (DEHV) threatened international boycott from LIHG, but the situation has improved rapidly. In January 1929, for example, a match was played between the teams of Prague and Opava, where the best hockey players of German origin were in the Czechoslovak territory. At the 1929 European ice hockey championship, four Opava players went out with the Czechoslovak representation team, with another title largely deserving of key goals in two extensions in the decisive games Wolfgang Dorasil.
After a successful championship, the union also had the final promise of building a winter stadium with the first artificial ice in Czechoslovakia. The construction of the stadium in Štvanice in Prague has faced a number of problems. These, among other things, made it impossible for the European Ice Hockey Championship 1932 to be held in Prague. In the fall of 1931, the Czechoslovak League of Canadian Hockey (ČSLKH) was established, which merged clubs from the Czechoslovak and German associations. Jaromir Citta was the chairman of the then Czechoslovak club, LTC Praha, for the last five years. His work has also begun by the Corps of Judges, who associated the judges as other important participants in each hockey match. On November 6, 1932, the official and permanent opening of the winter stadium in Štvanice took place. A quarter of a year later, the Ice Hockey World Championship took place in 1933, when Czechoslovak hockey players won another title of European Champion.
While the number of hockey clubs distributed was around 15, the number of hockey clubs under ČSLKH and registered ice hockey players increased until 1938. At that time, Hungarian hockey clubs operating in the Czechoslovak territory were also involved in ČSLKH. Overall, ČSLKH held in 1938 with 361 member clubs a remarkable European primacy. This was due to the organization of the World Championships and the involvement of Canadian ice hockey players, especially by Prague clubs. Both of these facts could have led to the popularity of ice hockey popularity among the public. Among the Canadian players, Mike Buckna was instrumental to the development of ice hockey in Czechoslovakia and coached the national team to the bronze medal at the 1938 Ice Hockey World Championship, gold at the 1947 Ice Hockey World Championship, and silver in the ice hockey tournament at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. 
The association has managed to establish and complete at least two years of the National Leagues as a new national ice hockey club competition under these favorable conditions. This was in the conditions when the only permanent artificial ice area in Czechoslovakia was a great success.
==Presidents==
* Jaroslav Potůček (1909–1911)
* Emil Procházka (1911–1913)
* Adolf Dušek (1913–1920)
* J. Říha (1920–1921)
* Jan Fleischmann (1921–1923)
* Karel Hartmann (1923)
* Adolf Dušek (1923–1925)
* Jan Fleischmann (1925–1927)
* J. Both (1927–1928)
* Adolf Dušek (1928–1931)
* Jaromír Citta (1931–1936)
* Rudolf Kraffer (1936–1945)
* Josef Loos (1945–1948)
* František Cvetler (1948–1949)	
* K. Klíma (1949–1954)
* F. Kocvera (1954–1956)
* Vincenc Zeman (1956–1957)
* Karel Velebil (1957–1961)
* Zdeněk Andršt (1961–1980)
* Vladimír Kostka (1980–1988)
* Václav Říha (1988–1990)
* Miroslav Šubrt (1990–1991)
* Vladimír Šubrt (1991)
* Pavol Učeň (1991–1992)
* Stanislav Burdys (1993–1994)
* Karel Gut (1994–2004)
* Vratislav Kulhánek (2004–2008)
* Tomáš Král (2008-2022)
* Alois Hadamczik (2022-present)
==References==
==External links==
* Official website
Category:International Ice Hockey Federation members
Category:Ice hockey governing bodies in Europe