Pertti Jarmo Sakari Wasama (December 2, 1943 in

Elimäki Elimäki (; Swedish: ''Elimä'') is a former municipality of Finland. It was located in the province of Southern Finland and was part of the region of Kymenlaakso. The municipality had a population of 8,199 and covered an area of 391.74 km� ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

– February 2, 1966 in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

, Finland) was an

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 who played in the

SM-sarja SM-Sarja was the top level of ice hockey in Finland from 1928 to 1975. SM-sarja is a common abbreviation for ''Suomen mestaruussarja'', "Finnish Championship Series". There was variable number of teams playing for the Finnish championship dur ...

. He played for

Ilves Tampereen Ilves, commonly known as Ilves, (; Finnish language, Finnish for "Eurasian lynx, Lynx") is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Tampere. They play in the Liiga at the Nokia Arena (Tampere), Nokia Arena. The colors of Ilves, ...

. He was inducted into the

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame The Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is housed in and administered by the ('Finnish Ice Hockey Museum'), a part of the Vapriikki Museum Centre, in Tampere, Finland. The mission of the Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame is to record, document, and exhibit ...

in 1985. Wasama won two championships (one after death), one silver and two bronzes. He was elected to all-star team 5 times (one after death). Wasama possessed good skills for a defenseman in Finland and it is much speculated would Wasama have been the first Finnish player in the NHL. He competed in the men's tournament at the

1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 (), were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in Innsbruck, Austria, from January 29 to February 9, 1964. The city was a ...

. In February 1966, Wasama lost his life in an automobile accident that resulted from foggy weather conditions. While on his way home from practice, Wasama's car struck a

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

which had stalled on the road. Wasama's car also had a passenger, his father, who did suffer some injuries but survived the accident. Wasama's father, Matti was also a former Ilves-player. Wasama's jersey number 2 was immediately retired from use by Ilves. The trophy which is handed out to the best "rookie" player in

SM-liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mest ...

is named as Jarmo Wasama memorial trophy in honour of Wasama.

International play

Despite his young age by the time of his death Wasama had already played 74 times for national team including 3 World Championship tournaments and 1 Olympics. The list included the 1965 World Championship tournament which was the first one held in

International statistics

Career statistics

References

External links

Finnish Hockey Hall of Fame bio
1943 births 1966 deaths People from Elimäki Ice hockey people from Kouvola Finnish ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey players with retired numbers Ilves players Olympic ice hockey players for Finland Ice hockey players at the 1964 Winter Olympics Road incident deaths in Finland {{Finland-icehockey-defenceman-stub