EC Graz

Ice hockey team in Styria, Austria

Owner(s)Hannes Kartnig

EC Graz was an Austrian ice hockey team from Graz, Styria, playing in the Austrian Hockey League and Alpenliga in the 1990s.

History

The EC Graz (also called "the elephants") emerged in 1990 when the UEC Graz and ATSE Graz were merged.^[2] ATSE Graz finished 2nd in the Austrian National League and therefore qualified for the Austrian Hockey League season 1989/90. UEC Graz, which was founded in 1985,^[3] qualified for the Austrian National League the same year.^[4] Both clubs united in April 1990, in the following season ATSE was removed from the name. The club experienced its heyday under President Hannes Kartnig, finishing three times the runner-up title in the seasons 1991-92, 1992–93 and 1993–94 despite running at a high financial cost. Accompanying marketing made ice hockey popular in Graz in this period, but in 1998 the club went bankrupt shortly after the departure of its president Hannes Kartnig.^[5] The EHC Graz was established in 1998 to rescue ice hockey in Graz, just to become bankrupt the same year. In 1999 Jochen Pildner-Steinburg founded the Graz 99ers as the successor club of the EC Graz to offer Hockey League back in the Styrian capital.

Former players

Neil Belland
Daniel Berthiaume
Bill Gardner
Brent Gretzky
Wayne Groulx
Don Nachbaur
Kent Nilsson
Todd Reirden
Matthias Trattnig
Martin Ulrich

References

^ Austria Press Agency APA333 1990-04-26/15:46 0024/0176/1408, "ATSE und UEC fusioniert: Grazer Eishockeyzukunft heißt EC Graz"
^ Austria Press Agency APA333 1990-04-26/15:46 0024/0176/1408, "ATSE und UEC fusioniert: Grazer Eishockeyzukunft heißt EC Graz"
^ * Gerd Renner: 50 Jahre Eishockey in der Steiermark, 1956 - 2006, ISBN 3950216111
^ Austria Press Agency APA233 1989-03-05/20:39 0018/0112/0902, "UEC Graz in der Eishockey-Nationalliga"
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-11-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)