Have your say - the responses
Here is what globeandmail.com readers had to say about their memories of the 1972 Summit. To contribute your own, click here.
I was 11 years old at school, and we had a substitute teacher that day. With about 10 minutes remaining in the game, she refused to let us watch further and sent us outside to play . It may have been recess. We were fuming and, in hind-sight, I still think that she had no business being a teacher. I became aware of the result when my school bus dropped me off at the corner of my rural street at Finch and Staines in Northeast Toronto and a car drove past with a large Canadian flag held out the window. I felt an incredible feeling of euphoria coupled with a deep pain that I had missed a critical point in Canada's history. That teacher is lucky that none of us remember who she is. A few apologies are certainly due.
Martin Weller
For sure, the Summit Series will remain memorable to me. First, I predicted the score of the first game in Montreal(7 -3) for Russia. Second, Canada was been one nation, as John Diefenbaker used to say, for a little moment when Paul Henderson scored on Yvan Cournoyer's pass.
Denis Forget
I was 11 years old during the Summit Series. Every time the Russians got the puck, I had my heart in my throat. The possession game the Soviet Union played was so different than the "get the puck and blast it at the goal" style played in the NHL at that time. Ever since then, I have been a huge fan of international hockey and a diehard Canada fanatic. I was so depressed in 1981 when we were waxed by the Soviets, and so elated when we got the Olympic gold BACK WHERE IT BELONGS this year. It took us 30 years, but we did it. Canada forever!
M. Joyce
Bobby Clarke is an idiot. His slash on Kharlamov, his involvement with the '70's Flyers, which was hockey's darkest period, his alliance with Eagleson and comments about Roger Nielson are all testament to what a clueless, classless jerk he is. Stay home from the reunion Bobby.
Patrick McDonald
It was an awesome series. I was all of 11 years old but well aware of the significance of these games. I have so many memories, but the best has to be racing home from school to find out we had tied it up, and then seeing Henderson score. I ran out my front door screaming, and spent the rest of the day playing road hockey with my pals on the street. We were all so proud of Canada.
Joe MacLeod
I was in high school in Montreal and my dad picked myself and three friends up before lunch to go home to watch the final game. I would say it was the most exciting hockey event in my life then and still to date 30 years later. By the way, what on earth is Paul Henderson thinking by opening his yap about Bobby Clarke's "slash"? That series was a war more than any one of us will ever know. And Paul was there, on the ice. Go figure. Thanks for the memories!!!
Ron Freitag
As an eight year, I remember skipping school that day. There was no way I was going to miss that Game 8 as I knew there was way on earth that Mrs. Ferguson (a Grade 4 teacher at Centennial Public School in Ottawa) was going to let us watch that game. I watched the game alone as I was afraid to call any friends in case there parents answered the phone.
J. Evershed
Great anticipation, shock at first, anger for a while, then building excitement and crazy relief when Henderson scored his final winning goal. I was in Grade 9 at CCI in Chatham, Ont. We were given periodic updates over the school intercom for the games in Russia that were played while we were in school. For Game 8, they let us all watch televisions set up in the school auditorium. One funny fellow, who's name I can't remember but sounded Russian, stood with his hand over his heart during the Soviet anthem at the start of the game. We all had a good laugh at that. Then we alternately lived and died emotionally through the game. I still remember being enveloped in a kind of haze, like when you're in a movie theatre and the movie is so engrossing that you forget it's a movie you're watching. As tension built towards the famous goal, you could have cut the atmosphere in that auditorium with a knife. People were almost afraid to breathe. We were so captured by the grainy image on those old TV sets on the wheeled carriages. Then Paul Henderson scored the goal and the place erupted like we'd all won a million dollars (1972 dollars that is). But I felt, and I firmly believe everyone else in that room felt, that it was CANADA as a country that scored that goal. That somehow it was heavenly ordained that we should pass through the fires of hell to arise victorious. As corny as it sounds, I loved Canada more than I ever had at that moment, as if we had won a war, not some game on frozen water. I was proud to be Canadian, that our guts could beat Communist treachery and dirty tactics, like the refereeing controversy. I was proud of Alan Eagleson then too, for standing up to the thugs, though he has managed to completely tarnish that memory with more recent revelations about his criminal business dealings. To sum up the whole experience, from that series on, I took a whole lot more interest in Canada, as a country, and my role in it. The way guys with diverse names like Savard, Henderson, Esposito, Makita, and Bergman could be kicked and down, but work together, dig down and struggle back, and show what they were made of on the other side of the world. Now that's Canadian!
Harry Jennings
Canadian History has been shaped with the notion of political events, past wars and past leaders. This has always been the case, but where would we have been if the Summit Series never toke place? The Summit Series led us the path in which we live today. The sport, which we have for so long watch dominant and intrigue other countries, has led a large influx of immigrants to our country of freedom and multi-national pride. Hockey has shaped Canada into a leader among other nations and the Summit Series opened another door towards establishing our selves as friends and not as enemies. The Series started as us versus them, but it ended with joy, and a pride between two nations that went up against each other not in war but in a battle of supremacy against two great hockey countries. Like in war, no one wins. That was the case in the Summit Series. We might have won in '72, but Russia established itself as a force to be reckoned with. They won more than just a game. They won themselves to be part of a major point in Canadian history. One day, history teachers will include a chapter on the Summit Series and tell their students what the effects of it had on Canada, Russia, and the rest of the world. In '72, I was 16. My father gave me the okay to miss school that day. I watched a game that day with my entire family, watching not only the TV set but my father's eyes. You see my father was a person who was always in control, but that day there was this look that he was not in control and he felt helpless all he could do is watch in anger, in fear and then in joy. I saw tears of joy rolling down his face and the streets erupted with a parade. My father told me that hockey was just a sport, but that day it was for the pride of a nation and that we had witnessed the beginning of European players to our country. That night, I asked my father that same night after a long day parading if I could take the day off the next day from school. He told me, "Son, today you watched history but tomorrow is your future and go to school or you'll be history." The next morning I was up early ready to start a brand new day, except this day we were champions.
Anonymous
As an eleven year old growing up in Orangeville, Ont., this series snowballed into the greatest show on Earth. What started with a lousy, bitter beginning and rode a roller coaster of emotional results for 26 stirring days, and ended with a storybook ending was a great memory for me. Our entire country hung out the "closed" or "out to lunch" shingle on Sept. 28, 1972. Like the late, great Foster Hewitt quoted before Game 8, "I wouldn't miss this for all the tea in China!" Then imagine our stuffy old school principal running around with 400+ screaming school kids when Henderson bagged that winning goal. It was a groundbreaking series, never to be repeated for emotion, politics, grit and intensity. I am sorry Canadians not born in '72 couldn't experience what I went through. That wasn't a normal quote from Canada's finest sports commentator. It really was a special time for all.
Christopher Preston
I was in Grade 3 in Drumheller, Alta. On the afternoon of Game 8, it was never announced that classes would be cancelled, but somehow all the kids and teachers gathered in a hallway for the game. We watched it on a black-and-white school TV, the kind that sat way up high on a metal stand with rollers and one of those early reel-to-reel video tape players on the bottom. When Henderson scored, I swear bricks fell off the school.
Barrie
What I recall best were two things - the incredible comeback and Clarke's slash. Clarke's whole career consisted of cheap shots and cowardly play. No action was taken by him without the protection of a number of goons on his teams or in the case of the Russians, the unwillingness to fight back or lower themselves to his ability or level. Henderson should not apologize for what he said - it's true. Clarke is an embarrassment to Canadians who like fair play. To this day, I'm amazed at the idiots in Philly who pay him to manage a hockey team which constantly underperforms under his "leadership". Booby Clarke - always a loser in my eyes. Henderson- you're right. Don't let his whining change your opinion.
Joe Speziale
My abiding memory is that of Foster Hewitt's voice calling the games, and struggling to pronounce the Soviet players' names, just like the rest of us from coast to coast. By the time the series was over, I had experienced genuine homesickness for the first time ever. Having watched the first four games in Canada, I was in London, England, during the second half of the series. Trying to find the scores in miniscule print in the UK papers the day after the game was pretty disheartening. In fact, I didn't know the circumstances of Paul Henderson's famous goal until some time after the series was over! I was 20 years old that September. It was a watershed experience in terms of what it meant to be Canadian.
Alan Millen
I think Paul Henderson is a joke. He should look at those DVDs he's promoting and it will show him what a great linemate he had in Bobby Clarke. Bobby Clarke was vital in not only the team's success but also Henderson's. Then again Clarke came back and won Stanley Cups and what did Henderson do? Nothing!!! Henderson isn't even in the same league
Tony Martinez
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