Josef Kompalla ( Polish: ''Józef Kompała'', born 13 March 1936 in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

) is a retired Polish-German

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 and

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. He officiated for 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 ...

, and the Summit Series between the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. He received the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

in 1992, and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2003.

Career

Kompalla began his

career as a player with Gwardia Katowice in 1951. Playing as a defender, he won three Polish junior championships with Gwardia before joining the stronger senior team of Górnik Katowice in 1956 and consequently became Polish champion in his final season in 1958. Together with several other Polish-born players, he then emigrated to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

and joined Preussen Krefeld in the German

Eishockey-Bundesliga The Eishockey-Bundesliga ("Federal Ice Hockey League") was formed in 1958 as the elite hockey competition in the Federal Republic of Germany, replacing the '' Oberliga'' in this position.Klein, p. 12 From the 1994–95 season, it was in turn re ...

. He also played a few international games for both

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 ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

at "B" level. Already before his retirement as a player, Kompalla attended a refereeing course in 1969 and subsequently abandoned his playing career joining the German Ice Hockey Federation as an official in 1970. In 1972, Kompalla was selected by the

to officiate at the 1972 World Ice Hockey Championships, including both games between eventual gold and silver medalists Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. That same year, he was also selected to officiate the Summit Series between the

and

. His officiating partner during this series was Franz Baader. Both Kompalla and Baader received criticism from Team Canada during the series, which resulted in Kompalla pairing up with Rudolf Baťa for the final game. During the final game, he called a penalty against Canadian J. P. Parisé who responded by angrily swinging his stick in a threatening gesture at Kompalla. This resulted in a game misconduct for Parise, although Team Canada still won the series securing also Kompalla a memorable place in Canadian sports history and folklore. He also refereed the

1974 Summit Series The 1974 Summit Series was the second competition between Soviet and Canadian professional ice hockey players. It used the same format as the 1972 Summit Series, with four games across Canada and four in Moscow. The Soviet team won the series ...

. Over his long refereeing career he officiated some 2000 German league games as well as 157 international games including at three

Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in ...

(

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

) and twelve IIHF World Championship tournaments (Group A:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

, 1974,

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, 1986, Group B:

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

). He ended his active career at the 1992 Deutschland Cup and subsequently served at the IIHF Referee Committee until 1998. Kompalla remains active as a referee supervisor. For his achievements he received the German Federal Cross of Merit in 1992 and was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2003. Kompalla's daughter Nicole Kompalla made career as a German league referee in the 1980s, as the only female referee in all of professional ice hockey at the time. Nicole married 2. Bundesliga top scorer Benoît Doucet in 1990. Doucet eventually represented Düsseldorfer EG whose fans were known as especially hostile towards Kompalla.

References

External links

IIHF Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kompalla, Josef 1936 births 1972 Summit Series Living people German ice hockey officials German ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Silesian Voivodeship IIHF Hall of Fame inductees People from Silesian Voivodeship (1920–1939) Polish emigrants to Germany Polish ice hockey players Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Sportspeople from Katowice