Krista, Frank

BORN FRANTISEK KRISTA ON AUGUST 7TH 1923 in Czechoslovakia, he took to skating as soon as he was big enough to leave the house. A natural at ice hockey, he played for HC Roudnice nad Labem until 1948. This town is one of the oldest in the country, located north-west on the left bank of the Elbe River. His club, founded in 1931 in the u Vágnerů restaurant in the Zlin district of Czechoslavakia, played in front of crowds of 1,700 spectators in the Prague 1st Division (Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League), against teams such as AC Sparta and LTC Praha.

Fleeing Czechoslovakia's political repression and poverty, Krista arrived in Australia on January 24th 1954. The Victorian officials, Alwyn Stewart and Sid Percy, met him on arrival at the Bonegella Migrant Centre, and presented him with skates and a full kit of gear. He signed with the Pirates on the spot, playing Centre for the club captained by Clarrie King, and later Johnny Nicholas with Graham Argue, Cliff Percy and Vic Ekberg. Described as a "brilliant and determined forward", back home he had played against some of Europe's best, and also fellow countrymen Jan Kurzweil of Sparta and 1960 Olympian Ivo Vesely, both of whom also migrated to Melbourne. Clarrie King considered him the best centre forward Australia has ever seen.

Krista also played professional soccer for Slavia in Czechoslovakia and Germany for three years, earning enough to live on. In Melbourne, he joined the Slavia A-grade club in 1951. He scored over 100 ice hockey goals in his first eight seasons in Melbourne in a league dominated by talented Europeans during the state's all-time boom years. He drew only three penalties over the same timeframe. He did not win a Goodall Cup, in fact there is no record he even represented Victoria, but he did play the 1955 season with the Prague Bombers in Sydney, where he competed for the Goodall Cup representing New South Wales at the age of 32.

When the Glaci in Sydney closed in 1956 leaving the state without a rink, he returned to the Pirates with Vlad Slapnicka, then moved over to Hakoah in 1963 during the Vesely era. That season he won his first Victorian premiership, the Australian Club Championship, and toured New Zealand with Hakoah, playing several televised matches against local teams in Christchurch and at Tekapo. A back-to-back premiership with Hakoah followed the next season. Appointed coach of Hakoah in 1956 when Vesely left to coach the Swiss EHC Chur club, he guided them to the championships during the late Sixties and early Seventies. "When Frank Krista, the cagey non-playing coach of Hakoah, makes a shift in player personnel," wrote Jim Matthews in 1972, "he comes up smelling like a rose".

A quiet and modest man, yet popular, "he settled in well, speaks perfect English, established himself in business, and married an Australian girl named Judy Brannigan on September 6th 1955". A master painter, he decorated the Vesely's marital home. In 1954, Stan Gray remarked that Victoria "could strip at least two teams that would beat the present NSW team. What chance would you give them against the following: Campbell, T. Endrei, Mulloy, Nicholas, Krista, Stuart, Ekberg, Derrick, G. Endrei, Snooek and Sengotta?"

Frank Krista died on May 7th 2012, at Mentone in Melbourne. He was 88. He once remarked "The game here is going ahead fast and, through the efforts of the association and its very keen members, will continue to do so — especially if the 'old' players pass on their knowledge and experience to the younger men". His contribution to Australian ice hockey spanned well over 20 years during its heyday, as both player and coach.