1972 Summit Series 50th Anniversary Thread

[plusandminus]

Many here probably know that Firsov - like several other Soviet and Swedish stars at the time - started out as a bandy player. You really can see in the Summit Series how bandy influenced the Soviets play, in the way they attack, how they defend, their great skating, etc. I think the Soviets in the 1970s were better than the Canadians in skating.

Overall, the Summit Series showed that the best Soviets were as good as the best Canadians, which isn't too unnatural or surprising considering the Soviets' long history of skating, bandy/hockey, and getting new influences and ideas by playing against other nations like Czechoslovakia, Sweden and even Canadian teams during international tournaments.

 

[Big Phil]

Neat story. Do you rub shoulders with these kinds of guys often? It seems like you know where to look.

No, not really. Every 6 months there is a huge sports memorabilia show in Toronto and I go to it. Marcel Dionne always has a booth set up where he is selling things. Marcel is 5'8" he is not a big guy, very unassuming, not someone you figure is a lock cinch HHOFer, but of course I know these guys just by seeing them. So there are other players kicking around signing autographs. I never care about the autographs, I tend to try and catch them at the end when they are walking away, or wandering around the show afterwards. Maybe have a quick chat with them. Big Pete was talking to Marcel and he is very hard to miss at 6'5". So I chatted with him for a minute. Bobby Hull was at the recent one in June as well.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

No, not really. Every 6 months there is a huge sports memorabilia show in Toronto and I go to it. Marcel Dionne always has a booth set up where he is selling things. Marcel is 5'8" he is not a big guy, very unassuming, not someone you figure is a lock cinch HHOFer, but of course I know these guys just by seeing them...

Yes, this is it. Guys were so much more identifiable in the pre helmet days. I wonder what it must be like for them to see how this changes over their lives. For a while everybody knows you. Then not quite everybody. Then many. Then not so many. What's it like walking the street if you're a ridiculously talented Marcel Dionner these days?

I wonder if they miss the old days, attention-wise. If they like the relative anonymity better. I'd be okay with that, I think, if I were Marcel Dionne et al. So much to be grateful for looking back.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

Of the 1972 team, at least on Canada, I am trying to think about who has passed and if I miss someone, then correct me: Bill Goldsworthy, Gary Bergman, Rick Martin, Tony Esposito, John Ferguson (asst. coach), Pat Stapleton, Stan Mikita, Bill White, Rod Gilbert, JP Parise, Brian Glennie.

After 50 years, that's still a lot of players that were on that team.

This confirmation from Ken Campell -

'It's the last hurrah for all of us'​

"Henderson points out that of the 35 players who were on the team, 10 of them are gone. Bill Goldsworthy was the first to die, in 1996 of complications of AIDS, which still seems a little unfathomable. The latest to go was Rod Gilbert, who died in August of 2021, nine days after Tony Esposito died of pancreatic cancer. Gary Bergman, Pat Stapleton, Bill White, Stan Mikita, J-P Parise, Rick Martin and Brian Glennie died in the years in between. And that group of 10 doesn’t include assistant coach John Ferguson, who died in 2007. Johnston, who turns 87 in November, is the oldest of the group. Martin, who would be 71, was the youngest. Coach Harry Sinden turned 90 eight days ago."

[Sinden was born on Sept 14 32 ]

 

[Big Phil]

Yes, this is it. Guys were so much more identifiable in the pre helmet days. I wonder what it must be like for them to see how this changes over their lives. For a while everybody knows you. Then not quite everybody. Then many. Then not so many. What's it like walking the street if you're a ridiculously talented Marcel Dionner these days?

I wonder if they miss the old days, attention-wise. If they like the relative anonymity better. I'd be okay with that, I think, if I were Marcel Dionne et al. So much to be grateful for looking back.

Depends where Dionne lives. I am not sure where it is either. I know he was going to a sports show in Boston that same day I last saw him. So perhaps he's busy. But if he is living in Quebec, I would assume he often is recognized, to the point where the locals are used to seeing him (Andre the Giant lived his private life in a small town in North Carolina I believe, and everyone knew him there to the point where people were used to it). If Dionne lives in L.A. or California somewhere, then I suspect he could walk down the street a lot easier.

This confirmation from Ken Campell -

'It's the last hurrah for all of us'​

"Henderson points out that of the 35 players who were on the team, 10 of them are gone. Bill Goldsworthy was the first to die, in 1996 of complications of AIDS, which still seems a little unfathomable. The latest to go was Rod Gilbert, who died in August of 2021, nine days after Tony Esposito died of pancreatic cancer. Gary Bergman, Pat Stapleton, Bill White, Stan Mikita, J-P Parise, Rick Martin and Brian Glennie died in the years in between. And that group of 10 doesn’t include assistant coach John Ferguson, who died in 2007. Johnston, who turns 87 in November, is the oldest of the group. Martin, who would be 71, was the youngest. Coach Harry Sinden turned 90 eight days ago."

[Sinden was born on Sept 14 32 ]

Goldsworthy I believe had a bit of a Derek Sanderson-style of womanizing if I recall. Could have easily picked something up along the way. But yeah, still young.

The funny thing is, this team wasn't old in 1972. It wasn't young, it was just normal. Johnston, who never played but was a back up for a game or two is the oldest like you said. But there weren't a lot of guys north of 30 on this team. Plenty in their late 20s, and 30 years old, like Phil Esposito, but I think after Johnston it was Frank Mahovlich who was the next oldest at 34 at the time.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

Goldsworthy I believe had a bit of a Derek Sanderson-style of womanizing if I recall. Could have easily picked something up along the way. But yeah, still young.

Maybe it's just my Vancouver blood, but I have always felt the most for BG. So glad to seem him on the bench fist pumping after Henderson scored.

I thought of him when I heard some quote from - I think - Tony Esposito, or someone who said that the Summit Series changed some players permanently. Whoever said it used the plural. Made me wonder, who are the likely candidates? BG's name came up in my own mind.

 

[Big Phil]

Maybe it's just my Vancouver blood, but I have always felt the most for BG. So glad to seem him on the bench fist pumping after Henderson scored.

I thought of him when I heard some quote from - I think - Tony Esposito, or someone who said that the Summit Series changed some players permanently. Whoever said it used the plural. Made me wonder, who are the likely candidates? BG's name came up in my own mind.

The Vancouver crowd in general wasn't fair with the team. 50 years later it still isn't forgotten how they booed the team off the ice. And even when they were first introduced on the ice where was a bit of jeering. I get it, you feel betrayed that these guys aren't giving their "all". But they were, they just weren't a team yet, and the Soviets were, and they were darn good. Still love the Esposito speech to this day.

But yeah, who knows, Goldsworthy could be one of those guys. I know that Vic Hadfield said that years later he always felt welcome at the anniversaries and that no one treated him any different despite the fact he was one of the ones who left the team. So it probably wasn't anything internally, but just the overall emotion of it all. Phil Esposito said he would have killed one of them to win and that it scared him to think that way. Frank Mahovlich had a lot of paranoid thoughts while in Moscow about how they were being watched and such (probably pretty accurate now that you think of it). Henderson obviously had his life changed permanently over this series. Clarke with the slash and such. Heck, Rod Gilbert fought, Bergman got his leg bloodied. Pete Mahovlich high sticked some Russian guards trying to take Eagleson away. I mean..............yikes, these guys did things they didn't do in an NHL game.

Tony Esposito has said that some of the guys were never the same after this series emotionally. Is that good or bad? I don't know. Everyone who played in that series still says it the highlight of their life.

 

[Big Phil]

Funny thing coming out of that "Summit 72" documentary. Phil Esposito is interviewed during training camp, so this would be August of 1972. He is told that the Soviets get up at 6am every day and train and the reporter suggested that perhaps this is around the time a lot of you guys (the Canadian players) are getting back from being out all night. Esposito laughs and says "Well, that's their fault for waking up at 6am every day!"

It's a little funny, because to tell you the truth we tend to think of the Canadian players as just lazy loafers compared to the Soviets. The Soviets trained intensely and that was and is something to be admired to this day. But we just didn't compare to them that way training wise. Not that the players were lazy, most of them had full-time jobs in the summer at that time to make ends meet. But in comparison to the Soviets at the time there was a big difference for sure.

 

[PrimumHockeyist]

A French CBC montage of Summit Series clips:

La Série du siècle, bien plus qu’une série de hockey

Retour en archives sur la série de hockey Canada-Russie diffusée par Radio-Canada du 2 au 28 septembre 1972.

ici.radio-canada.ca