class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>
Alfred ‘Putz’ Gfeller (81) leans over his memories on the large table in the living room. The Davos resident has distributed photos, newspaper clippings, books, lists and notes to document his 36 years of involvement with the Spengler Cup in various capacities.
This will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding from December 26 to 31. Gfeller helped write more than a third of the tournament’s history and has experienced an incredible amount during this time. “The changing rooms used to be small. I still have images in my head of the HC Milano Inter players running along the boulevard to the ice stadium with their skates on their shoulders. They preferred to change in their hotel.”
Broom instead of Zamboni
The Spengler Cup took place on a natural ice rink in the 1950s. “Everything was a size smaller.” There are no cleaning machines yet; instead, volunteers sweep the ice surface with brooms. As a twelve-year-old, Gfeller already played with the adults, in the third team at Davos. “Junior teams were introduced much later.” He also likes skiing, but the sport is too expensive for his parents. To her he is the ‘beauty’ – Gfeller suspects because he looked ‘so slim and therefore so cute’. So he goes to ice hockey, to HC Davos.
Started as a tea runner and cabin cleaner
At the Spengler Cup, the teenager will work as a tea runner and cabin cleaner and will experience the teams up close. For example the ACBB Paris. “I saw Canadian defender Stewart Cruikshank smoking a huge cigar during the break of a match,” says Gfeller, “and then he went back out and did his part to ensure that the Parisians became serial winners.” Or the episode with Jiri Kren: The Czechoslovak no longer feels like returning behind the iron curtain and breaks away from his team Sparta Prague after the final match. He hides for days with the mayor of Davos, Christian Jost, until he finally flees to Germany.
Double package against Krefeld
Gfeller has been very impressed with these stars from the start and wants nothing more than to play at the home tournament. In 1963 the time had come and it was used for the first time. He will be an integral part of the Davos team in the coming years. “And I even scored two goals in one match against Preussen Krefeld. It was the only double in my career.” Gfeller is a loyal person, which shows in many things. He has been together with his wife Paulette (72) for 38 years: “We met in the indoor pool. I wanted to go to the sauna, she worked behind the cash register.”
He worked at the Swiss Bank Company for 24 years. And so it goes without saying that he was also responsible for the Spengler Cup when he ended his playing career in 1973 – first as secretary, then as technical coordinator and finally as OC chairman of the renowned tournament for eight years. He also has a lot to say about this long time behind the scenes. In the early days of his work, the teams played on the ice rink, which did not yet have a roof. “That could become a problem,” says Gfeller, “as became clear in December 1974.”
When the snow still decided competitions
Switzerland is hopelessly inferior to Poland in their game: after 30 minutes the score is already 1:5. But the snowfall is so heavy that the ice machines can no longer do anything: after another five minutes the game is stopped. The Polish players are furious and don’t want a repeat. “All attempts at persuasion were futile,” Gfeller recalls, “not even a financial push could convince them to flee again.” All the better that the new ice stadium with the impressive wooden roof structure was built in 1979. “A big leap forward – also for the Spengler Cup,” he says and suggests “taking a look around the room.”
This has recently been converted into a real gem. Marc Gianola (50) greets him warmly at the entrance: “Nice to see you, Putz!” Gianola played for HC Davos for 17 years and was OC chairman for eight years, making him one of Gfeller’s successors. He doesn’t have to tell us what the weeks before the start of the tournament will look like. He does it anyway: “An intensive time with little sleep, but all the more meetings and conversations.” Because the Spengler Cup is now a huge box: with a budget of eleven million, the tournament ranks third among annual sporting events, behind the Swiss Indoors in Basel (17 million francs) and the Omega European Masters (12 million francs), the golf tournament in Crans Montana. “Putz is a legend,” says Gianola, pointing to a sign in the stadium’s hall of fame that lists Gfeller’s achievements: “Responsible for modernizing the traditional tournament.”
High Noon and “Gold for the best”
In fact, he is responsible for a few kilometers in the history of the Spengler Cup. “My creative years were between 1981 and 1989,” he says. Gfeller overcame the resistance of the other OK members and planned a final match under the slogan “High Noon”, “because the tournament had already been decided after six of the ten matches”. He introduces the prize for the best player after a match, who will receive a gold bar of 10 grams each. “We were the first to introduce this in Switzerland. Nowadays every club does this, up to and including the third division.”
Team Canada as a counterweight to the Eastern Europeans
At that time, Alfred Gfeller also came up with the idea of creating a new force to counterbalance the Eastern European teams that had dominated the tournament for years: Team Canada. For three years he initiates request after request, traveling behind the team during their guest appearances throughout Europe. In 1984, after negotiations at the Olympic Games in Sarajevo, the time had come: Alfred Gfeller received confirmation, and costs also increased. “The Canadians usually stayed on New Year’s Eve and let it go,” he recalls. Today, Team Canada is the only Spengler Cup record holder with 16 titles.
In the late 1980s, “Putz” ended his involvement because a few things came together: the Swiss Bank Company centralized some departments, so he had to look for a new job, and there was also what he calls a “village intrigue.” “We were accused of not getting enough out of the tournament in terms of marketing.” The Gfellers moved to Grosshöchetten BE, where he subsequently headed the branch of the Berner Kantonalbank for 17 years. As soon as he retired, he returned to his beloved Davos with his wife.
Nowadays the intrigue has long been put aside, which is also reflected in the fact that he regularly attends the games as an honorary member of the HCD and is a member of the patrons’ association Club ’89. Alfred “Putz” Gfeller will also be in the stands at the Spengler Cup. “I am still proud that I contributed to what this tournament has become.” Namely one single success story.
|
team
|
SP
|
T.D
|
PT
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
 Team Canada
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
1
|
 Frölunda HC
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
1
|
 HC Davos
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
team
|
SP
|
T.D
|
PT
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
 HC Ambri-Piotta
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
1
|
 HC Pardubice
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
|
1
|
 KalPa hockey
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
