Jaroslav Drobny was one of the standout players at the Spengler Cup between 1946 and 1948, leading LTC Prague to three consecutive titles. After an extremely successful and eventful sporting career, he became not only a Hall of Fame member of the IIHF and – since last December – also of the Spengler Cup, but, as a Wimbledon champion, was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame as well.

Jaroslav Drobny took part in the Spengler Cup three times – and won it three times. In 1946, LTC Prague did not lose a single game; in 1947, the Czechoslovaks won the final narrowly but deservedly against HC Davos with 3–2. And in 1948, the Prague side again proved a class of their own and clinched the title in dominant fashion.
These three titles were only one chapter in Drobny’s great sporting career, one that is virtually unmatched worldwide. In winter he was a successful ice hockey player, and in summer an equally successful tennis player – excelling at both sports on a world-class level.

Jaroslav Drobny was only 16 years old when he won his first hockey championship with Prague in the spring of 1938. That same year, he played his first Davis Cup match for Czechoslovakia. Saving three match points, he won his singles match in five sets. Soon after, he made his first appearance at Wimbledon. A year later, the Second World War broke out and interrupted his international career. But Drobny was fortunate: instead of being sent to the front, he was assigned to work in an arms factory. Between 1938 and 1945, he added four more hockey championships with Prague to his name, and in 1942 he was even the country’s top goal scorer.

After the war, Drobny continued collecting titles – now also abroad: in 1946, his first Spengler Cup win with LTC Prague; in 1947, Czechoslovakia’s first ever World Championship title in Prague. With 15 goals, Drobny ranked third among the tournament’s scorers, and in the decisive 6–1 final victory against the USA, he contributed a hat trick. In December, he celebrated another triumph in Davos. After that season, the Boston Bruins offered him the chance to become the first European to play in the NHL, with a $20,000 contract. But Drobny declined, wanting to pursue his other passion in the summer – tennis.

And with a racket in hand, Drobny may have been even better than with a hockey stick. Yet the political situation in Czechoslovakia made life increasingly difficult, even for him. The country’s most popular athlete began to contemplate escaping to the West:
“I had many sleepless nights. In Prague I had my parents, an apartment, a car. I was one of the most popular athletes in Czechoslovakia and earned good money without much effort,” he later recalled. “I often asked myself if I really wanted to give all that up. But I hated how the Communists used me for their propaganda. As long as you win, you’re king. If you start to lose, they take everything away from you.”

In 1948 he played his last hockey season in Czechoslovakia, winning his seventh title with Prague, his third Spengler Cup, and an Olympic silver medal at the Winter Games in St. Moritz.
His escape came in 1949 during the tennis tournament in Gstaad, just three weeks after he had reached the Wimbledon final for the first time (losing in five sets to Ted Schroeder). When embassy officials appeared in the Bernese Oberland, he hid in the boiler room of the Palace Hotel. His attempts to secure Swiss, American, or Australian citizenship failed. Finally, Egypt offered him a passport. Drobny could travel again – at least his tennis career could continue.

As an Egyptian, he won the French Open in 1950, repeated the feat in Paris in 1952, and reached his second Wimbledon final. In 1954, Jaroslav Drobny’s greatest moment in England arrived. By then he had married an Englishwoman, and the Wimbledon crowd embraced him as one of their own.
The seasoned Czech and the rising 19-year-old Australian Budge Patty fought a tough battle. The final lasted two hours and 37 minutes – the longest ever at Church Road up to that point. With no tie-breaks in those days, Drobny triumphed 13–11, 4–6, 6–2, 9–7.

In 1956 he returned to Gstaad, won the tennis tournament again, and became player-coach for EHC in Switzerland’s second hockey league. In 1960, at age 39, he competed at Wimbledon for the last time – this time as a Briton, having been naturalized by the United Kingdom.
In 2001, Jaroslav Drobny – Spengler Cup and ice hockey world champion as a Czechoslovak, Wimbledon champion as an Egyptian – passed away in London at the age of 79.

To mark the 100-year history of the Spengler Cup, the “Spengler Cup Hall of Fame” was inaugurated in December 2023 at the Davos ice stadium.
The shortlist for the Hall of Fame includes 50 players and nine officials. From December 2023 (100 years of the Spengler Cup) until the 100th edition of the tournament in 2028, a group of players who shaped the history of the Spengler Cup and world ice hockey will be honored each year in six stages.
The exhibition at the Davos ice stadium is open to the public daily.