정몽원 초대 구단주 & 한라그룹 회장 IIHF 명예의 전당 수락 연설

Acceptance Speech delivered by Mongwon Chung

IIHF HALL OF FAME 2020/22
Tampere, Finland


First of all, I want to thank God for all his blessings . And many thank s to the President Luc Tardif and IIHF for arranging the ceremony. It’s a great honor to me and I want to share this honor with the players, staffs and friends of Korean hockey. Also, I’d like to congratulate my fellow Class of
2020 inductees for their contribution to the world of hockey.

Today’s ceremony was postponed two times so I thought it was never happening. You can imagine how happy I am to be here today.
When I heard the Hall of Fame announcement, I was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. And after a while, I began to reflect what hockey meant to my life. My hockey life started in 1994 , when a group of young employees suggested making a hockey team. After internal review, we decided to accept their suggestion and Anyang Halla team was born. One of the employee s who suggested the idea is with me today. Thank you Mr. Yang for leading me into this invaluable adventure!

When my friends heard that I was supporting a hockey team, they were afraid that I was being dragged into an unpopular sport and I will end up burning cash. Contrary to their belief, however, I fell in love with the game. Watching the game rejuvenated my energy and it was my peace of mind. I loved it so much that I continued to support our hockey team, even during the Asian financial crisis in 1997. And later in 2008, it was my source of energy when buying back our major company, Mando, after recovering from the financial crisis.

Hockey and business have many things in common. They both require speed, intuition and most of all, good team work. So it has influenced my management philosophy a lot. For instance, when our company launched an autonomous test vehicle, we named it “hockey” and our patrol robot “goalie”. So you could tell that hockey that hockey is my life.

I served served as the president of Korea Ice Hockey Association for 2 terms, 8 years in total. It was a challenging path which was filled with despair, happiness and a series of enlightenment. Hockey has a very steep learning curve where we need a lot of experience with tough teams to move on to the next phase of the curve. And with a help of our friends, Korea hockey followed this curve meticulously. As a result, we moved up from from 33rd to 16th place in the IIHF ranking. We were promoted to the Top League in 2017 and earned our spot in the 2018 Winter Olympics. In addition, our women’s team represented a unified Korea. It goes without saying that this opened the door for dialogue between South and North Korea, promoting peace in the region. We didn’t win any games, but we gained a valuable experience and insight. I also felt like we returned the the favor to all the friends who helped us.

Now, I am deeply worried about the sustainability of Korean hockey. COVID-19 cancelled many leagues which weakened our team’s performance. But I believe our players and staff will never give up and they can continue to rise. I sincerely hope this moment will reignite the passion of Korean hockey. In this regard, I ask for your continuous support for Korean hockey.

Finally, I would express special thanks to IIHF and its council members for the support they have provided so far. They were wise and considerate mentors to Korean hockey.

Last but not least, I want to close by dedicating this honor to my wife. She is a true hockey fanatic and without her approval, I couldn’t have loved hockey as much as I love her. Thank you.

#안양한라 #아이스하키 #IIHF명예의전당 #한라그룹 #IIHF #IIHF_HALL_OF_FAME_2020/22