Raoul Le Mat
Birth dateSeptember 3, 1875
Birth placeParis, France
Death dateFebruary 15, 1947 (aged 71)
Death placePanama City, Panama
OccupationFilm director, ice hockey coach
Known forIntroducing ice hockey to Sweden

Raoul Le Mat (September 3, 1875 – February 15, 1947)[1] was a French-American film director, and ice hockey coach, most famous for introducing ice hockey in Sweden during the early 1920s.[2]

Together with Ernest Viberg and Thomas Cahill, Le Mat introduced ice hockey in Sweden, and coached the Swedish national team in their first international tournament at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. He was also the founding member of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association.[2] When the first Swedish Championship in ice hockey was played in 1922, Le Mat refereed the final game.[3]

The Swedish Hockey League's Le Mat Trophy is named after Le Mat and was donated by him, with the monetary support of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in 1926.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Raoul Le Mat" (in Swedish). Filmdatabasen. Swedish Film Institute. Retrieved January 17, 2009.
  2. ^ "A to Z Encyclopaedia of Ice Hockey – Le". AZhockey.com. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved March 17, 2007.
  3. ^ "Nu börjar jakten på Le Mat" (in Swedish). Hockeyligan.se. Archived March 21, 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 17, 2007.