The Fantomet Ice Hockey Puck was produced by Koho in Finland in 1982. The Puck was sold in one of the retail shops within the Helsinki arena, to commemorate the 1982 Ice Hockey World Cup, held between the 15th of April thru till the 29th of April, 1982
The Fantomet Ice Hockey Puck was manufactured in Czechoslovakia but formally produced by ‘Koho’. The Finnish ice hockey brand Koho was founded by the Karhu Company in the 1950s. It initially introduced ice hockey sticks and by the mid-1970s thru the 1980’s, the company extended its product line to goaltending equipment and pucks. During the 1980s Koho was the largest manufacturer of Finnish ice hockey equipment. In 2008, the retail company ‘GoalieMonkey’ purchased the rights to the Koho brand.
1982 was a ‘HUGE’ year for Finland. Mauno Henrik Koivisto was elected president; the first Social Democratic Party member to be elected President of Finland. The Saab 900 Turbo automobile was produced and the Ice Hockey World Championship Cup was held in Helsinki and Tampere.
Eight of the world’s elite hockey teams played each other once, then the four best teams played each other once more; a semifinal and then a final. The final standings in concurrent order were Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Canada (reinforced by Wayne Gretzky), Sweden, Finland, West Germany, Italy, and United States. Below we see a Promotional Poster for the event.
The standard ice hockey puck, a black vulcanized rubber is 1 inch thick, 3 inches in diameter, and weighs 5.5-6 ounces. Strangely enough the ‘puck’ is named after a character from Shakespeare. In ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’, ‘Puck’ was a flighty and mischievous elf. Unlike pucks of modern day which are often seen in retail stores and online platforms, pucks of decades ago were primarily sold at the hockey events themselves. Today collecting ice hockey gear particularly those of ice hockey pucks is a huge pastime.
Thank you Christopher Smith for assisting with images and information.
The Phantom 