The Deutscher Eishockey-Bund mourns the loss of former national coach Markus Egen. The Füssen native died on Friday at the age of 93. Egen had a very successful career both as a player and as a coach and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame Germany in 1989 for his services. Egen was one of the defining figures of his time in German ice hockey. The 99-time national player achieved legendary status at his hometown club EV Füssen; as a player and coach, Egen was involved in 13 of the traditional club's 16 German championship titles.
Egen looked after the national team from 1963 to 1969, including together with Xaver Unsinn at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. As a player, he experienced four World Cups and the Winter Olympics in 1952 (Oslo), 1956 (Cortina d'Ampezzo) and 1960 (Squaw Valley). At the 1953 World Cup, Egen won the silver medal with the German team, and the following year the striker played his most outstanding World Cup tournament and became the third best goalscorer. In his almost 100 games for the DEBEgen, whose sons Uli and Hans-Peter were also well-known ice hockey players, scored 72 goals.
"It was with great sadness and sympathy that I received the news from the Egen family on Friday evening. It makes me very sad, because I personally admired and valued Markus very much. His advice and his special, direct humor were always a welcome addition. In Markus Egen, German ice hockey is losing one of its outstanding and influential personalities, both in terms of sport and humanity," said DEB-President Franz Reindl.
Egen's club career in Füssen was at least as impressive as his international career. In the 50s, when well over 10.000 spectators watched the games in the stadium on Kobelhang, his reputation even spread to North America and he had the opportunity to move to the NHL. Family and ties to home were ultimately the deciding factor in not taking up the offer.
In 1949, Egen won his first championship as a player with EV Füssen, and by the end of his playing career he had won seven more. He then led Füssen to five more titles as a coach. Egen was also known for a real innovation: as a player he used a slightly curved blade, which is normal today but was completely unusual at the time. After his career, his ideas were put into practice at the EGEN ice hockey stick factory, which manufactured wooden products that were in demand around the world.
The DEB Markus Egen will always have an honorable memory.
