PRAGUE — Josef Černý, one of the highest-scoring forwards in the former Czechoslovakia who helped his country win three Olympic medals, has died. He was 85.
His former Czech club, Kometa Brno, announced his death on Thursday.
Černý hit 75 goals in his 210 appearances for Czechoslovakia. With 478 goals in the domestic league and in international games, he was the sixth best scorer in the country, according to the Sport daily.
He said he considered his “biggest one” to be the second goal in a memorable 2-0 victory over the Soviet Union at the 1969 world championship in Stockholm.
That was the first major tournament after the Soviet-led occupation of Czechoslovakia in August of the previous year that crushed a period of liberal reforms known as the Prague Spring.
“I scored more than 400 goals but the Russian one I value the most,” he once said.
Černý played in the team that finished runner-up at the Olympic tournament in Grenoble in 1968, and claimed bronze in 1964 in Innsbruck and in 1972 in Sapporo. He also won four silver medals and four bronzes at world championships.
He retired from international hockey briefly before the 1972 worlds in Prague that Czechoslovakia won.
In his 21 seasons in the domestic league, he became the first player to score 400 goals.
Černý rejected an option to emigrate in fear of the persecution of his family, he once said.
After retirement, he turned to coaching at home and in Austria and Italy.
In 2007, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The Czech ice hockey association offered condolences to his relatives, calling him “a legendary forward.”
