A second citizen of the Home of Champions has been inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame.
In a ceremony at the World Championships in Prague Czechoslovakia, Trail native Mike Buckna was among 12 builders, players and referees inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame. Having the ceremony in the Czech capital only adds to Buckna's induction.
Buckna was nicknamed the "Father of Czechoslovak Hockey," for his efforts in helping the sport grow in Eastern Europe. Buckna was chosen for turning his ancestral Czechoslovakia into a global hockey powerhouse in the 1930's, said the Zurich-based IIHF.
IIHF spokesmen added it was recognizing Buckna for his overall contribution to the development of the sport, alongside Miroslav Subrt of the Czech Republic and of Slovakia. Czechoslovakia split into the two countries in 1993.
Buckna now joins legendary Trail goaltender Seth Martin as the two Home of Champions natives in the IIHF's Hall of Fame.
"For a little town in the mountains it quite a feather in or cap," said Jamie Forbes of the Trail Historical Society.
Buckna, whose parents hailed from the central European country - then part of the Austrian Empire - was born in Trail in 1913.
His legendary accomplishments began after a trip to Prague in 1935 where he was a spectator at an exhibition hockey game. Afterwards he asked for a tryout and impressed the coaches so much that they asked him to coach their national team and reorganize the countries hockey system.
As player/coach with the Czech Nationals in 1938 and 1939, Buckna lead the team to it's first two European titles and norrowly lost a bid for the 1939 world crown - dropping a 2 - 1 decision to the Trail Smoke Eaters, who were representing Canada.
He returned to Trail prior to the outbreak of the Second World War and turned down offers from the Chicago Black Hawks and Boston Bruins to play for the Senior Smokies, who captured the provincial championship in 1940 and 1941.
After the war, Buckna returned to Czechoslovakia and coached the national team to the 1947 world championship and a silver medal at the 1948 Winter Olympics.
Buckna, who died in 1996, is credited not only with developing the style of play for the Czech teams but also with advancing the game of hockey across Europe, said the IIHF.
Years after his playing and coaching days were over, Buckna was still idolized in European hockey circles. The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation presented him with a scroll inscribed "To the man who made the greatest achievement in European ice hockey," and in 1978 the Czech Hockey Federation invited him back to Prague for a ceremony honouring him as "The Father of Czech Hockey." In 1989 he was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame as both an athelete and builder.
"It's nice to be remembered ... I tried to make a difference," Buckna said with characteristic modesty after being introduced to the Czech National Under-18 team at Cominco Arena in 1993.
"The thing was, I put my heart into it. I took hockey seriously, and I figured if the Czechs were going to pay me to do a job I should do the best job I knew how."