James I. Malacko (May 27, 1930 – December 25, 2016) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

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 with the

Lethbridge Maple Leafs The Lethbridge Maple Leafs were, at times, a senior, intermediate, and junior ice hockey team in Lethbridge, Alberta. They are best known for winning the 1951 World Ice Hockey Championships. The Maple Leafs were a men's senior ice hockey team fro ...

. Known as "Shorty", he was on the team which won a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

at the

1951 World Ice Hockey Championships The 1951 Ice Hockey World Championships was the 18th World Championship and the 29th European Championship in ice hockey for international teams. The tournament took place in France from 9 to 17 March and the games were played in the capital cit ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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. The defenceman from Lethbridge started playing with the Lethbridge Maple Leafs in 1950 in a season which culminated with his team representing Canada and winning the gold medal at the World Amateur Hockey Championships in Paris, France in 1951, and where years later this team was inducted into the

Alberta Sports Hall of Fame The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, dedicated to the preservation and history of sports within the province. It was created in 1957 by the Alberta Amateur Athletic Union (AAAU). The museum w ...

in 1974. The team was dominant throughout, winning all six of its games, outscoring its opponents by a 62-6 margin to win the gold medal. The Maple Leafs went on that same year to win gold at the Sir Winston Churchill Cup Competition, in London, England. During their European tour, the team played 62 games, winning 51. Malacko stayed in Europe after that big win, playing with the Harringay Racers in England and moving to Germany a year later to help that nation with its Olympic program for the 1952 Winter Games in Oslo. A year later, Malacko returned to Canada, married, and settled in Nelson, where he went on to play senior hockey for 12 years with the Nelson Maple Leafs, including 1964-1965 season when their team made it to the Allan Cup finals before losing to the champion Sherbrooke Beavers. After retiring as a player, he became the general manager and coach for the team and still later he was very influential in minor hockey in Nelson. Malacko died on Christmas Day 2016 in

Nelson, British Columbia Nelson is a city located in the Selkirk Mountains on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake in the British Columbia Interior, Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. The city is known for its collection of restored heritage buildings that date ba ...

, aged 86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malacko, Jim 1930 births 2016 deaths Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Lethbridge 20th-century Canadian sportsmen