NOVEMBER 2008
www.celtic-connection.com
Page 19
Legacy of the 1972 Summit Series
The success of the 1972 Summit Series between the USSR and Canada would lead to the development of the Canada Cup hockey championships. It also led to regular series "Soviet clubs vs the NHL," known as the Super Series, that also were held since 1976, as did the Canada Cup.
As time passed, the significance of the series grew in the public consciousness, and the term "Summit Series" became its unofficial accepted name.
In Canada today, the Summit Series remains a source of much national pride, and is seen by many as a landmark event in Canadian cultural history. In Canada, Paul Henderson's goal is likely the most well-known in the history of the game.
Then I saw Ed Ritchie, the Under Secretary of State for External Affairs Canada, with his head in his hands, and I thought this is the end of my world. The whole place went totally mad, with the Russians whistling and the Canadians shouting and waving Canadian flags."
rest of his life, and so would millions of Canadian hockey fans because that simple act of dropping the puck between Esposito and Petrov started the clock on the greatest hockey series in history: Team Canada versus the USSR National Team.
So how did Patrick Reid - who didn't even play hockey - find himself in the middle of the action?
"This is another case where I was more or less minding my own business," said Reid, "a fellow named Ed Ritchie called me. He was of Irish descent and the Under Secretary of State for External Affairs - a wonderful man - who later became Ambassador of Canada to Ireland.
"He called me to his office and said 'Reid, you've worked on lots of promotional things. I want you to accompany this Canadian team and ensure that there will be no diplomatic or other incidents during this four game hockey tournament in Canada and four in Russia'.
"My son played hockey, but I never had a hockey stick in my hand in my life, but Ritchie was insisting that I do this. Harry Sinden wasn't at all keen on my accompanying the team, he kept questioning me as to what my capabilities were in the hockey arena.
"I assured him that I was only along to try and ensure that nothing went wrong diplomatically, but Alan Eagleson was prepared to take a chance on me.
"So, I became the interface between the hockey organization and the hockey team and anyone else floating around, from the Ambassador of Canada to Moscow, to an old friend of mine, B.A. Borison, who was chairman of the U.S.S.R. Chamber of Commerce, whom I had met at exhibitions.
"Everything went relatively well at the four games in Canada, except that our team was getting beaten into the ice. We actually only had one incident when Peter Mahovlich sat on one of the Russian players and wouldn't let him move."
But things changed dramatically for Patrick Reid when the Canadian team and 5,000 Canadian fans arrived in Russia for game four of the series.
For some reason, the Canadian players suspected that Reid was a spy on them and only there to gather intelligence.
In fact, he was busy organizing the front desk at the Intourist Hotel in Moscow and staffing it with Canadians who spoke Russian, in order to take care of the players and the hordes of fans as they arrived.
During his time in Moscow, Reid was kept running from one incident to the next in an effort to put out fires and ensure that there were no international incidents.
"Peter Mahovlich caused a real stir by believing that his room was bugged," said Reid. "It probably was since all the rooms were bugged by one sort or another."
Mahovlich began tearing his room apart in an effort to find the bug and eventually managed to unscrew the top part of a chandelier which fell down into the main lobby of the hotel. Reid said, "the people running the hotel were driven demented at this sort of thing."
"Personally, I had two representatives of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs assigned to me, but they were really KGB, and they followed me around like Mutt and Jeff. I didn't mind since I couldn't speak Russian and they could help me.
"In fact, they sat beside me at the games. I was in the third row, right behind Bobby Orr who wasn't playing. So I gave him a lot of Canadian pins to hand out because in Eastern Europe exchanging pins is very big.
"From a diplomatic point of view, everything went right as far as hockey was concerned, until the last game. This was when Jean Paul Parise threatened to behead West German referee Josef Kompalla with his stick and was given a game misconduct. The Russians showed their displeasure with deafening whistling.
"Initially we had an agreement with the organizers that all the Canadians would sit together. In the first two games the Canadian fans created an enormous din, so when the tickets came out for the third game, the Canadians were scattered all over the arena.
"I complained bitterly about this, but in the end I shut-up because in fact, it was better. Even though they were separated around the arena, the din was even worse.
"The night of the fourth game, a goal was scored and the red light didn't go on. Alan Eagleson, who was down a bit from me, started shouting and running down towards the ice and the militia closed in on him.
"Just then Peter Mahovlich was cruising by on the ice, he raised his stick in a menacing way at the mob and plucked Alan Eagleson out of way of the militia men and hauled him across the ice. The red light went on and there was Alan Eagleson giving the crowd the finger.
"I thought oh my God, I'm going to be fired. But finally they got Eagleson into Sinden's bench out of the way. I looked up at the box where Aleksei Kosygin, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, was seated along with all the Russian hierarchy, and they were all watching the whole affair with large eyes.
"Then I saw Ed Ritchie, the Under Secretary of State for External Affairs Canada, with his head in his hands, and I thought this is the end of my world. The whole place went totally mad, with the Russians whistling and the Canadians shouting and waving Canadian flags.
"Anyway, the play went on, and in the last few seconds, Paul Henderson out of a scrum really
almost unprecedented in the dying seconds of the game, there didn't appear to be any way, but somehow the puck trickled in past Vladislav Tretiak, the Soviet goalie...and we won. There was just bedlam.
" So, out came the Canadians from the Luzhniki Sports Palace and God help us, we were ringed by soldiers with fixed bayonets. I asked the henchmen that were shadowing me what the soldiers were doing, and he said that the hockey authorities thought there might be a riot and that things would get out of hand.
"In fact they did get out of hand later at the Intourist Hotel where a young Canadian broke up the bar.
"While all of this was going on, I was invited to dinner with B.A. Borison and, with great fanfare, he presented me with a hockey stick with all the signatures of the Soviet players. I was very touched by all this since I was the only one presented with such a stick signed by the Soviet players.
"We had a very fine dinner and I forgot about all the trials and tribulations of being a Canadian diplomat. At the end of the dinner, I got up to leave, and the hockey stick was mysteriously gone.
"The next morning, we left from the airport and we were missing one hockey player called Bill White. He turned up late in a taxi cab, white faced. We don't know what he was doing all night because he wasn't with the team.
"When the plane started to roll down the runway for take-off, everyone was so relieved to be leaving that the team started to sing the Canadian anthem in both French and English.
"Everything was going along fine until they discovered that the West German referee who had caused so much trouble in the first place was aboard the plane and two or three of the more senior players had to hold the rest of the team back from him.
"When the plane landed in Montreal, we were met by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and about 8,500 fans. The players from Montreal disembarked and the plane went on to Toronto where twice as many fans were at the airport to greet the players there.
"The rest of us went on to Ottawa. What we found out later to our amazement, was that Canada had literally closed down to watch the games, even the schools had television sets to watch the series.. .it was just incredible."
Patrick Reid was later presented with a hockey stick signed by all the Canadian players which he says may someday end up in a museum.
Some years ago, Patrick Reid published his memoirs entitled The Wild Colonial Boy, but unfortunately the book is now out of print. He is working on his second book about Irish soldiers in the British Army which has a working title of Irish Soldiers but may change as it is still another year away from completion.
PHIL ESPOSITO argues to no avail with the West German referee at the 1972 Canada-Russia series.
PAUL HENDERSON scores the winning goal for Canada at the historic Canada-Russia series in 1972.