Ice hockey legend Puschnig has died at the age of 79.

Austrian ice hockey legend Sepp Puschnig has died at the age of 79 in his hometown of Klagenfurt. His long-time club, KAC, announced his death on Monday. Puschnig was the driving force and heart of the record-holding Austrian ice hockey champions, attracting interest from the NHL while remaining loyal to his home club throughout his career.

Sepp Puschnig was the most outstanding Austrian player in the 1960s and 70s and was voted Austria’s Ice Hockey Player of the Century in 2012.

Decades after his retirement in 1977, Puschnig received more honors than any player before him. In 1999, he became the first Austrian player inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation’s (IIHF) Hall of Fame. As part of the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation’s (ÖEHV) centenary celebrations, Puschnig was named Player of the Century in September 2012.

] In December 2016, for the first time in the KAC’s over 100-year history, a jersey number was retired. A banner bearing the number 7 was raised in the arena and has not been issued since.

Puschnig (born September 12, 1946) was one of the greatest players in Austrian ice hockey. Puschnig, whose real name was Josef Pusnik, made his debut for the “Red Jackets” first team in the 1961/62 season at the age of 15. He scored his first of many league goals in January 1962 against Zell am See. The burly forward, affectionately nicknamed the “Karawanken Bear,” quickly became a fan favorite, always approachable.

Puschnig led the KAC to numerous titles.

He went on to play 13 seasons with 190 goals and 296 assists in 299 Austrian Hockey League games, all for the KAC. With the Red Jackets, Puschnig won multiple championships (twelve titles) and reached the European Cup final in 1969, which was decisively lost against the dominant CSKA Moscow.

According to KAC, he scored a total of 387 goals for Klagenfurt. Puschnig played 123 games for the national team (50 goals, 55 assists), participated in three Olympic Games and eleven World Championships.

Even the North American NHL took notice of him, but Puschnig stayed in his homeland. “What would I, a Carinthian, do in America? I prefer Klagenfurt to New York,” he is said to have once explained his rejection. Puschnig passed on his hockey genes. His son Andreas played 144 international games and also captained the national team, while his grandson Julian Pusnik (26), who was trained at local rival VSV, has been a key player for the Black Wings Linz for years. The first “Austro-Canadian” in Austrian ice hockey, Adelbert Saint John, who died in 2009, was a KAC teammate and later brother-in-law of Puschnig.