Remove ads
Holger "Hogge" Nurmela (28 October 1920 – 1 March 2005) was a Swedish ice hockey, football and bandy player and manager, known for representing Hammarby IF in all three sports.
Holger Nurmela | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Holger Nurmela in 1949. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 28 October 1920 Stockholm, Sweden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 1 March 2005 (aged 84) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ice hockey
In 1937, Nurmela made his debut for Hammarby IF in Elitserien, Sweden's top tier.[2] He won three Swedish championships – 1942, 1943 and 1945 – with the club.[3] He formed a feared line together with right winger Stig Emanuel Andersson and centre Kurt Kjellström.[4]
Nurmela was known as a versatile player with great skating abilities: a sniper, playmaker and grinder combined.[1][5] He won the scoring league in the Swedish top division in both 1949 and 1950.[1] In total, he made 204 competitive appearances for Hammarby, scoring 154 goals.[6]
In 1950, Nurmela joined rivals AIK, which caused some upset among the Hammarby supporters.[7] He stayed with the club for two seasons, after which he played three years with Saltsjöbadens IF in the lower divisions.[8]
He returned to Hammarby in 1955–56 as a player-coach, before retiring from hockey after the Elitserien season.[9] He worked as the head coach of Hammarby between 1955–1957 and 1966–1971.[8]
Nurmela played 121 international games for the Sweden national team, scoring 84 goals, and regularly captained the side.[5][1] Nurmela represented his country at several major tournaments, such as several World Championships. He competed at the 1948, 1952 and 1956 Winter Olympics and won a bronze medal in 1952, finishing fourth in 1948 and 1956.[5]
He is a recipient of the honorary award "Big boy" and was inducted into the Swedish Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012; both awards are handed out by Swedish Ice Hockey Association.[10][1]
Football
In 1939, at age 18, Nurmela debuted in the senior football team of Hammarby IF.[11] During his full first season, in 1939–40, Hammarby competed for one season in Allsvenskan, the domestic top league, with Nurmela playing 16 of 22 fixtures and scoring 7 goals, but was relegated immediately.[12][5]
Up until 1950, Nurmela made a total of 111 league appearances for Hammarby, mostly in the Swedish second tier Division 2, scoring 77 goals playing as a forward.[13]
Bandy
Nurmela was also a prominent bandy player for Hammarby IF between 1940 and 1950.[6]
Remove ads
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads