Erik Ronald Pettersson (16 April 1935 – 6 March 2010) was a Swedish

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. He played 252 international games for Sweden between 1955 and 1967, including thirteen

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and three

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. Between 1951 and 1967 Pettersson played for

Surahammars IF Surahammars IF is a sports club in Surahammar, Sweden. The club was officially founded on 4 June 1914, although the activity started in 1911. The focus now of the club is ice hockey, although they have had the highest success with association foot ...

Södertälje SK Södertälje Sportklubb, also known as Södertälje SK and often referred to as SSK, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club playing in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest level of pro hockey in Sweden. Södertälje were charter members of El ...

and

Västra Frölunda IF Västra Frölunda Idrottsförening () is a Swedish football club based in Gothenburg. Founded on 2 January 1930, the club has spent a total of ten seasons in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. As of the 2025 season, Västra Frölund ...

. He won the Swedish championship twice, in 1956 with Södertälje and in 1965 with Västra Frölunda. He won

Guldpucken Guldpucken (''The Golden Puck'') is awarded annually to the ice hockey player of the year in Sweden. It is similar to the NHL's Hart Memorial Trophy The Hart Memorial Trophy, originally known as the Hart Trophy, is an annual award for the most ...

in 1959–60 as the most valuable player in Swedish Championship playoffs.Ronald Pettersson
sports-reference.com After suffering a career-ending injury in 1967, Pettersson took on the role as head coach for the Swedish national junior team from 1968 to 1974, the Swedish national senior team from 1974 to 1976, and the Norwegian national men's team from 1978 to 1981. He was inducted into the

IIHF Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Interna ...

in 2004,Ronald Pettersson
Swedish Olympic Committee and his jersey #14 was retired by Västra Frölunda in 2002.

Early life

Pettersson was born in

Surahammar Surahammar ( or ) is a locality and the seat of Surahammar Municipality in Västmanland County, Sweden, with 6,179 inhabitants in 2010. History During the reign of Gustav Vasa, there was a hammer in Surahammar. However, it is not known when th ...

, a rural industrial town where the name Ronald was unusual, thus the locals nicknamed him Collman, after the famous actor

Ronald Colman Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States where he had a highly successful Cinema of the United ...

. Pettersson was a natural athletic talent, in his youth he played tennis and table tennis with good results. He started playing

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two team sport, teams wearing Ice skates#Bandy skates, ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The playin ...

as a goalkeeper since his skating was of poor quality, as he developed his skating ability he moved to the outfield. He played his first ice hockey game with

's senior team in an exhibition game against

Avesta BK The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian: ()) is the text corpus of religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Modern editions of the Avesta are based on t ...

during the autumn of 1952.

Playing career

During the 1952–53 season Pettersson debuted at age 17 for his hometown team

in Division 1, the highest level of ice hockey in Sweden at the time. He played five games, scoring no goals. The following season Pettersson played ten games, scoring nine goals, only one goal shy of the team's scoring leader Arne Holmgren. Surahammar were relegated to Division 2 for the 1954–55 season, where Pettersson set a new club record as he scored 23 goals in seven games. In 1955 Pettersson left Surahammar as he was enlisted to do conscript service in the

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy () is the maritime service branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet (), formally sometimes referred to as the Royal Navy () – as well as marine units, the Amph ...

, stationed in Stockholm's archipelago. In Stockholm he was supposed to sign a contract with

Djurgårdens IF Djurgårdens Idrottsförening, commonly known simply as Djurgårdens IF, Djurgården (), and (especially locally) Djurgår'n (), Dif or DIF – is a Swedish sports association with several sections, located in Stockholm. Djurgårdens IF is an s ...

, but rival club

were faster with the transfer papers and Pettersson signed with them instead. In 1956 he won the Swedish Championship with Södertälje, scoring one goal in the decisive game against Djurgården which Södertälje won 3–1.

International play

Pettersson played for Sweden in all thirteen international championships between 1955 and 1967, totaling 252 games for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

. Pettersson, a right winger, together with centre

Nisse Nilsson Nils Erik "Dubbel-Nisse" Nilsson (8 March 1936 – 24 June 2017) was a Swedish ice hockey forward and footballer. Between 1954 and 1967 he played 205 international matches and scored 131 goals, which is the second-best scoring result, behind ...

and left winger Lars Erik Lundvall, formed the legendary ''ungdomskedjan'' (youth line), one of the most successful and considered as Tre Kronor's best line ever. He made his debut for Juniorkronorna in February 1954, and for Tre Kronor when they played two games against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

in Stockholm on 26 and 27 November 1954. He was selected to Tre Kronor's roster for the 1955 World Championship, he scored his first tournament goal, assisted by Sven "Tumba" Johansson, in a 9–0 win against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in the last game of the championship.

Playing style

Pettersson was a hard-working right winger, who played an efficient game and made every minute on the ice count. He was a fast skater, and had a well-developed goal-scoring ability.

Legacy

With his 252 games Pettersson is ranked fourth all-time in games played for Tre Kronor. His feat was long considered an unbreakable record, but he was surpassed by

Thomas Rundqvist Per Thomas Rundqvist (born 4 May 1960) is a retired Swedish professional ice hockey player and now sporting director of Färjestads BK. Rundqvist started his senior ice hockey career in 1978 with the Swedish club Färjestads ...

in 1993 and later by

Jonas Bergqvist Jonas Pär Bergqvist (born 26 September 1962) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey right winger, who twice won an Olympic medal in his career. Playing career Bergqvist played for Rögle BK and Leksands IF between 1981 and 1989. He play ...

and

Jörgen Jönsson Ulf Peter Jörgen Jönsson (born 29 September 1972) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey player who last played for Färjestads BK of the Swedish Elitserien. He has represented the Team Sweden 285 times, making him the ...

. He was inducted to the

International Ice Hockey Federation The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; ; ) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries. The IIHF maintains the IIHF World Ranking based on international ice hockey to ...

's (IIHF)

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

in 2004. He became the fiftieth ice hockey player to receive

Stora Grabbars Märke Stora Enso Oyj (from and ) is a Finnish and Swedish forest industry company. It develops and produces various materials, mostly based on wood, for a range of industries and applications worldwide. It has headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, and ...

. His jersey #14 is retired by Frölunda. In 2003 he was inducted as an honour member in Surahammars IF.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Football career

Pettersson had a two-year stint with

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

, the top-level football league in Sweden. When Pettersson was acquired by Västra Frölunda IF in 1960, Västra Frölunda's manager Anders Bernmar had talked IFK Göteborg into helping Västra Frölunda with the acquisition, after convincing them that Pettersson not only was a good ice hockey player but a good football player too. During the 1960 season, his first season with IFK, he scored two goals in eight matches in Allsvenskan, and fourteen goals in seven friendly matches. IFK Göteborg finished eight in Allsvenskan. The following season Pettersson scored two goals in six matches in Allsvenskan and matched the numbers in friendly matches. IFK Göteborg won bronze this season, Västra Frölunda had won promotion to Division 1 in ice hockey and Pettersson did not play football again.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pettersson, Ronald 1935 births 2010 deaths 20th-century Swedish sportsmen Allsvenskan players Footballers from Västmanland County Frölunda HC players Ice hockey people from Västmanland County Ice hockey players at the 1956 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1960 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 1964 Winter Olympics IFK Göteborg players IIHF Hall of Fame inductees Medalists at the 1964 Winter Olympics Men's association football players not categorized by position Norway men's national ice hockey team coaches Olympic ice hockey players for Sweden Olympic medalists in ice hockey Olympic silver medalists for Sweden People from Surahammar Municipality Swedish ice hockey coaches Swedish ice hockey right wingers Swedish men's footballers