Ilves can even less afford to pay its neighbor for the number of championships.
Tappara is the champion of Finland again. Mika Kylmäniemi/AOP
In Tampere, the championship of the men’s SM league is celebrated once again, and this time too, the 2000s perennial success team Tappara lifted the Canada Cup. Ilves supporters, who last celebrated gold in 1985, finally have to state that their old argument no longer holds much weight in the calculation of championships.
Tampere has been talking for years about which club from Tampere will eventually have more men’s hockey Finnish championships. The number of 16 for Ilves, founded in 1931, is simple to check, but in the case of Tappara, it has been a struggle whether the previous TBK’s championships also belong to the organization’s balance.
Tammerfors Bollklubb won three championships in 1953–55. When its and Tappara’s championships are added together, Ilves is unaided in second place. That’s why some have argued that Tappara, which got its shape directly from TBK in 1955, started from zero championship when it was born.
Now there has been a ceasefire in the debate, because with his recent achievement, Tappara single-handedly reached 16 championships, equalizing the situation in first place with tassel ears.
A total of 19?
The championship pennants of Ilves and Tappara/TBK remained in storage during this season’s regular season. Mika Kylmäniemi/AOP
The Tampere Tappara website also says that the club has won 18 (now 19) championships, the first three of which were under the TBK name. The same is stated on the League’s website, so based on this, the first place in gold medals has been held by Tappara since spring 2017.
The championship pennants reminding of TBK’s peak years hung next to Tappara’s own in the Hakametsä ice hall and they were also installed in the new Nokia-arena for the spring playoffs.
Interestingly enough, TBK’s pennants sported the Tappara logo even at the turn of the 1990s, until the club finally got its logo on them.
– Tappara opposed it, so the matter was twisted tightly. In the end, the people of Tappara understood why TBK wanted their own pennants on the roof of the hall. TBK became active in the matter when the club, which was very active in the 80s and 90s, wanted to respect and emphasize its roots, TBK’s chairman Matti Ahlstedt said in a 2016 interview.
At that time, Ahlstedt was of the opinion that the championships of TBK and Tappara should not be counted together, even though Tappara only continued TBK’s puck operations from 1955 onwards.
At the moment, it doesn’t matter much in Tappara. In the next season, it can rise to the top in the championship all by itself, without any mention of its predecessor.
In the women’s hockey Finnish championships, Ilves, on the other hand, dominates Tappara 10–0.
In the men’s European championships, Tappara is ahead 1–0.