Prior to World War II

On November 9, 1935 the Association for Skating and Ice Hockey

Croatian Ice Hockey Federation

Croatian Ice Hockey Federation is the governing body of ice hockey in Croatia.Croatian Ice Hockey Federation was established on November 9, 1935 in Zagreb. It has been a member of IIHF since May 7, 1992. It is based in Zagreb, Trg Krešimira Ćosića 11....

 was founded in Zagreb

Zagreb

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...

, although ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 in Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

 had been inherent for some 30 years, considering that dr Franjo Bučar

Franjo Bucar

Franjo Bučar was a Croatian writer and sports popularizer of Slovenian origin. He is considered to be the father of Croatian sport and olympism....

, the father of Croatian sport, had founded skating section in 1894.

First game on natural ice was played in the winter of 1916 between HAŠK (Croatian Academic Sport Club) and PHŠD (First Croatian Sport Society). In 1922, Zagreb Winter Sub-federation was founded which included skating

Ice skating

Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...

, ice hockey and alpine skiing

Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...

.

The first game by Canadian rules was played on February 3, 1924 between HAŠK and ZKD (Zagreb Skating Society) on ice next to the former Esplanade Hotel, which HAŠK won with 4:1.

The real uplift of the Croatian ice hockey was in 1930 when 3 clubs were founded, but as sections within the major sports companies: Marathon, Concordia and Karlovačko Športsko Udruženje. Other clubs were Sisak founded in 1931 as a part of Slavija Sports Society and KHL Varaždin

KHL Varaždin

KHL Varaždin, former known as KHL Varaždin, is a Croatian ice hockey team that is located in Varaždin.It was formed in 1935. The strongest the club got was while it played in the Yugoslavian Hockey League, though it did not remain there long. In the 1948/49 Yugoslav 1st league the club was called...

 founded in 1935.

In the late 1930s hockey teams from Croatia participated in the Yugoslav Hockey League

Yugoslav Ice Hockey League

The Yugoslav Ice Hockey League was the top ice hockey league in the old Yugoslavia.In 1939 Yugoslavia became a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. That year also, the country held his first national League, with Ilirija Ljubljana emerging as champion.The League folded in 1991, when...

. Initially the best clubs from various republics were promoted to the playoffs. Croatia hence had its own division in this league with clubs from Zagreb, Sisak

Sisak

Sisak is a city in central Croatia. The city's population in 2011 was 33,049, with a total of 49,699 in the administrative region and it is also the administrative centre of the Sisak-Moslavina county...

, Karlovac

Karlovac

Karlovac is a city and municipality in central Croatia. The city proper has a population of 49,082, while the municipality has a population of 59,395 inhabitants .Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County...

 and Varaždin

Varaždin

Varaždin is a city in north Croatia, north of Zagreb on the highway A4. The total population is 47,055, with 38,746 on of the city settlement itself . The centre of Varaždin county is located near the Drava river, at...

.

After World War II

A period of years after the Second World War is considered as the most prosperous for Croatian ice hockey and is associated with the name of Dragutin Friedrich

Dragutin Friedrich

Dragutin Friedrich was a Croatian footballer who represented the national team of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the 1924 Summer Olympics.-References:...

. In 1946 he founded KHL Mladost

KHL Mladost

KHL Mladost is a Croatian ice hockey team that currently plays in the Slohokej League and the Croatian Ice Hockey Championship.The club was founded in 1946 as part of HAŠK Mladost and in 1986 became the independent under the name HKL Mladost - Zagreb....

 which was a champion of SFR Yugoslavia in 1947 and 1949.

In 1947, SD Zagreb was founded and the club won the championship of Yugoslavia in 1956. In the early 1960s due to the crisis and the lack of funds for this sport, KHL Zagreb and the new KHL Medveščak Zagreb

KHL Medveščak Zagreb

KHL Medveščak Zagreb is a Croatian ice hockey team. It is by far the most successful and the most popular ice hockey team in Croatia. Currently the team plays in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, and is the only Croatian team in the league. Last season club attracted over 200,000 spectators on live...

 merged and the new club continued to work under the name KHL Medveščak. The same club got the first artificial ice in Croatia in Šalata

Šalata

Šalata is an upper-class residential neighborhood in Zagreb, Croatia. It is administratively part of the Gornji Grad - Medveščak city district in the northern part of Zagreb and it has a population of 1,929....

.

After that in 1966 Zagreb got the organization of a World Championship

1966 World Ice Hockey Championships

The 1966 World Ice Hockey Championships was the 33rd edition of the Ice Hockey World Championships. The tournament was held in Hala Tivoli, Ljubljana, SR Slovenia, Yugoslavia from March 3 to March 14, 1966...

, group B. Due to completion of Dom Sportova

Dom Sportova

Dom Sportova is an indoor sporting arena, located in Zagreb, Croatia. The venue was built in 1972, on Trešnjevka, in the western part of the city. It has 32,000 m² of floorspace, and it features six halls...

 in 1972 players got second artificial ice and in 1984 Croatian Ice Hockey Federation became independent.

In 1986, KHL Zagreb was established.

Then, with significant economic support, KHL Medveščak won the championship of Yugoslavia in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and Yugoslav cup in 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991.

Post 1991

With disintegration of Yugoslavia Croatian Ice Hockey League was established and since it 1991 operates under its present name. In 1992 Croatian Ice Hockey Federation became a member of IIHF.

External links

• Ice Hockey Fights Its Way Back in Croatia (The Wall Street Journal
  The Wall Street Journal
  The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
  
  )
• Croatian Hockey: The low-down ( Pro Hockey News )