WE’VE HAD A CHANCE TO RELIVE SOME OF THE GREAT memories of the 1972 Summit Series thanks to the Henderson Jersey Homecoming Tour, sponsored by SmartCentres. Our travels have taken us across this great country of ours, and it’s been a lot of fun.
The jersey I wore in Moscow was bought by Mitch Goldhar, the owner of SmartCentres, for $1.275 million. It was a tremendous gesture on his part; he wanted Canadians to be able to relive the experience of the series and he wanted to educate those people not alive in 1972 about it as well.
In the official release after he purchased the jersey through Classic Auctions, Goldhar was very flattering toward me and what the 1972 Canada–Russia series meant to all Canadians.
“I am pleased and proud to bring this important piece of Canadian history home,” he said. “As a lifelong hockey fan, I know what Paul Henderson’s winning goal against the Russians in 1972 meant to all Canadians.”
I was very pleased that the jersey was brought home to Canada. I had given the jersey to our Team Canada trainer, Joe Sgro, as a gift, and he eventually sold it to someone in the United States. The owner decided to put it up for auction through Classic Auctions, and Mitch Goldhar’s bid was the winning one. It was truly humbling to see the level of interest that auction generated – not to mention the incredible amount of money it fetched.
Recently, the Guinness Book of World Records declared that it was the highest amount ever paid for a hockey jersey, and it may be the highest amount ever paid for any sports jersey. And by Mitch Goldhar buying it, it gave us a chance to put together this Henderson Jersey Homecoming Tour.
I made it to a lot of the cities and towns across the country to meet people and hear their stories, and that has been a lot of fun. I dropped the puck at several NHL games and did numerous radio and television interviews to promote the tour. I have to say, it’s been really heartwarming. When you walk out onto the ice and get a standing ovation from the fans after all these years, it’s something pretty special. To be able to travel to all those cities and get that close to the game once again is tremendous. I’ve had a chance to talk with coaches and reminisce. In Ottawa, when I dropped the puck just before the start of the game, Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson came up to me and said it was a great pleasure to meet me, a very nice gesture on his part. How can you not feel good about that?
Eleanor travelled with me on some of these stops, and that makes everything extra-special, as we have been a team through all this – and she always asks me, “How does it feel when you walk out on the ice and hear those cheers. Does it bring back the memories?”
It sure does. It’s very satisfying to be appreciated and remembered like that. And when you think that maybe 60 to 70 percent of people in the building weren’t even born when The Goal was scored, it makes you realize that hockey is in our DNA in this country. We love the game like no other country in the world.
I found that out once again when I helped write a book last year called How Hockey Defines Canada, and the title is very appropriate, I think. Hockey really does define our great country, and I see proof of that whenever I travel in Canada.
I have embraced this recognition. I have enjoyed it – I always have, but maybe we get even more nostalgic as we get older, so it means more. I have never shied away from the publicity that this goal has brought to me, and I still enjoy sharing the moment with people after all these years.
The Henderson Jersey Homecoming Tour was housed in a forty-eight-foot trailer with double wide-outs that we took around the country, making 104 stops from the time we opened up in Lucknow, my hometown, on my birthday – January 28, 2011 – to our last stop in Georgetown, Ontario, on February 18, 2012. At several stops along the way, other players associated with the series were also on hand, including guys like Yvan Cournoyer for the stops in Quebec, Ron Ellis, Dennis Hull, and even Vladislav Tretiak, who did his best to stop us from winning that series back in 1972.
We started the tour in my hometown of Lucknow and went to Kincardine and Goderich, my old stomping grounds, and then to every province in the country. The trailer was filled with rare Canadian hockey memorabilia and several screens showing highlights from the series and interviews with the players; interactive games and activities; and, of course, the jersey I wore to score the Goal of the Century in Moscow. The fans came out in great numbers wherever we were, and there were always a lot of pictures taken and stories told. The trailer was usually open for five hours at each stop, and I would talk to the crowd and answer questions and then take hundreds of pictures with people and the sweater.
And before anyone asks, no, I do not get tired of hearing the stories of where people were when the goal was scored – even after forty years! And I get new stories all the time. I wonder sometimes how I could still hear one I haven’t heard before, but I do, from right across the country. Recently, I found out that several people were fired from their jobs for taking time off to watch the game in the middle of the day! I know the country was engulfed in hockey fever, but I guess there was the odd boss out there who just didn’t get it. But even though it cost them their jobs, the people who told me that story all don’t regret it for a single minute. Wow, now THOSE are hockey fans!
I met two women who told me they were university students in Windsor at the time, and they just decided they had to find a way to get to Russia to see the games there, even with the cost of going and missing classes. They told me they weren’t going to miss it, no matter what. “For some reason we just had to do this,” one told me.
It really was a special time, and a unique thing that we won’t see again in our lifetimes. It really was us versus them, our way of life versus theirs. Yes, there have been a lot of great moments in hockey in this country and a lot of accomplishments, but it is called the Goal of the Century and we were the Team of the Century.
Sidney Crosby’s goal was huge for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and Mario Lemieux’s goal at the Canada Cup in 1987 was beautiful to watch. I went nuts cheering for both of those goals and felt proud to be a Canadian when they both went in. But our 1972 Canada–Russia series was a unique, once-in-a-lifetime event that we’ll never see again, and I was fortunate to have played a part in it, as I have been riding that one goal for forty years!
With two grandchildren in Oakville playing minor hockey, Eleanor and I see more kids’ hockey than we do NHL games, for obvious reasons. I still enjoy getting down to the Air Canada Centre the odd time to see the Maple Leafs, and when I do watch, I have to say that the product put out by the National Hockey League today is, by and large, pretty good.
The game is so quick and fast now. The transition game most teams have is terrific – they get the puck out of their own end so fast and in a couple of seconds it’s up the ice, just like that. Like most fans, I don’t like teams that play the trap, but when the game is opened up, it really is great to watch. There is incredible parity in the NHL because of the salary cap, which is a good thing – there are always two or three or four teams trying to make the playoffs on the last night of the season, and that makes it very exciting for the fans. There are no dynasties anymore in the NHL, and so many teams have a shot at the Stanley Cup.
If you asked me to pick a Stanley Cup winner, I’d have to pick five or six teams – maybe more – before I felt comfortable that I had the winner. In 2011, not many predicted the Boston Bruins would win the Stanley Cup, but the reality is, they did it. There is no prohibitive favourite anymore, and all in all, that is a good thing for the NHL. It gives hope to a lot of hockey fans that their team’s turn might come one day.
In my heart, I am still a Leafs fan. As somebody who lives in Mississauga, I’d like nothing more than to see the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup someday. Now wouldn’t that be something to see!
I like their team speed now. In the 2011–12 season, they had a competitive team, and most nights were really fast, which is why I enjoy going to the games these days. It looks like the team is enjoying playing and they have each other’s backs. I think the Leafs have a lot of character people and a lot of skill, but I just wish they could learn how to win more often, as once again they missed the playoffs.
I live in Canada and I’m an alumnus of the Maple Leafs organization, so I’m going to cheer them on. I do hope that one day they’ll come through for all their great fans across the country. I’d like nothing more.
As I said earlier, Maple Leaf Gardens is a very special place to me, and now it may be coming back into vogue again.
The Gardens has recently been redeveloped, with a Loblaws grocery store on the main floor and athletic facilities for Ryerson University, including a hockey arena, due to open in the fall of 2012. I think it’s fantastic, I really do.
The Gardens has a special place in my heart and I have great memories of it, stretching back to when I was a kid and went there for the first time. Of course, playing in the building was special, but it was always a classy place to be, and as it would have been for so many other youngsters, my first trip there was very special.
We were living in Lucknow and I was twelve years old. We had a coach who knew Bobby Bauer, the former Boston Bruin, who had arranged for us to get tickets for a game in Toronto, between the Leafs and the Bruins. Well, six of us jammed into a car and off we went for the three-hour drive to Toronto. It’s quite a drive even today, and this was before Highway 401 opened, so it was a major trip for some kids and their coach, to be sure.
When we set foot in Maple Leaf Gardens, I swear, our eyes were as wide as saucers! Our tickets were in the second row from the top of the greys, so we couldn’t have been farther away from the play, but we loved every minute of it. Don’t ask me who won the game because it was so long ago now I don’t remember the details, but I never slept a minute on the long drive back home. We were still so excited afterwards that we talked about that trip for days.
There are so many great memories associated with the Gardens, and I was fortunate to be a part of many of them as a player and as a fan. I was at the Muhammad Ali–George Chuvalo fight, for instance.
The electricity in the building that night was unbelievable. And the fact that the fight was held in such a historic building made it all the more amazing to me. It was just a great battle to see in person. You really had a sense that you were seeing history in the making that night.
The Air Canada Centre is a terrific building, but anyone with memories of Maple Leaf Gardens was saddened to see it close and sit for so long with nothing happening inside it. I’m really, really glad to see it open again and being used, at least in part, as a hockey arena once again.
It would be impossible to duplicate the 1972 Canada–Russia series just because of the kind of event it was. It really was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But that doesn’t mean international hockey isn’t just as great as ever.
I love international hockey today mostly because it gives players a chance to represent their country. Hockey is in our blood in Canada, and players always want to prove that Canada is the best hockey country in the world. It is a source of pride when you get a chance to wear the maple leaf on your jersey.
Other countries are getting better all the time, though. We were surprised by the strength of the Russians in 1972, but there are no surprises anymore in international hockey. The other countries we play all have tremendous pride too, and would love nothing better than to knock Canada off the pedestal.
I thought the hockey at the last few world junior tournaments was as good as I’ve ever seen, and the Olympics are the same. There is great parity in international hockey now among the top teams, and while that might be tough for some Canadians to take, it’s good for the growth of the game overall.
In 1972, we had our eyes opened to just how good the skill level was outside of Canada when we played the Russians. Now we see it all the time. The athletes of today are so much better conditioned and so much better prepared from such a young age – kids nine and ten and eleven years old basically play pro-style schedules now – and the skill level in Canada and around the world is greatly improved as a result.
I love to watch Canada in international competition any time. It’s still our game, and having to answer the challenge from countries that have improved so much over the years just makes us that much better.
There isn’t a more polarizing debate in hockey than the subject of fighting. There are those who think fighting is a part of hockey and those who think it has no part in the game.
Simply put, I don’t think the game of hockey needs fighting anymore. I think we’re past that now because the game has changed so much in so many ways over the years.
For one thing, it’s such a fast game now. And think about when the best hockey anywhere is played: in the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Olympics. Now think about how the game is played during these events. There is hardly any fighting in the playoffs and none in the Olympics because it’s not needed.
It takes away from the game, in my mind, and besides, players today are just too big and too strong. I’m really afraid somebody is going to get killed out there.
Staged fighting in particular just drives me crazy. What’s the point of that – a staged fight that everybody can see coming? Those kinds of fights are definitely not necessary.
We also have to ask, seriously, just how many blows to the head players can take before it affects them psychologically. We’ve seen how players who have been enforcers all their careers have turned out. Some of these guys have admitted that they were up all night, worried to death, knowing that they would have to fight the next night and how that would go. During my career, I’d never thought of it from that viewpoint – I just looked forward to playing. But it must have been really tough on some players, especially as they got older. To hear that guys were losing sleep over whom they had to fight next – well, life is just too short for that kind of stuff.
I have always believed that the game will police itself, and I think there is still accountability within the game without the need for fighting. A lot of young kids are quitting the game because the idea of fighting is just not in their makeup, and that is a real shame. I would hate for my grandchildren to have to fight just to play the game of hockey, so why would I wish that burden on somebody else’s grandchildren?
We teach our children that they don’t have to fight in life to be men, and hopefully we are evolving in a lot of ways on that front. The defenders of fighting in hockey will say that it’s always been a part of the game and therefore it should always be. I say no to that. There is no excuse anymore to keep fighting in the game of hockey. We don’t need it. It’s time to get beyond that mentality.
Mainly because of that goal I scored in Moscow forty years ago, I understand what fame is. There is both good and bad in fame and I have accepted it all.
But that fame and my achievement in hockey have not been enough to get me into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The 1972 Summit Series team has been recognized and honoured throughout the hockey world, including inside the Hockey Hall of Fame. Heck, being named the Team of the Century is certainly getting recognized. None of us, myself included, suffer for a lack of recognition in this great country of ours. We were national heroes when we returned from the Soviet Union and we are still recognized and saluted wherever we go for the achievement. The twenty-fifth-anniversary celebrations in 1997 were tremendous, and the upcoming fortieth anniversary promises to be the biggest yet. We all love the attention, even after all these years.
Wherever I go across the country, I guess nine out of every ten people tell me I should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It is flattering to me that people would think that way and let me know how much they support me. I appreciate their thoughts, I really do. But let me state here, clearly, for the record, once and for all: I have no problem with not being in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Hall has a selection committee, and that committee has its criteria. I understand that. I also understand that if it were not for the 1972 series and what I did, I wouldn’t even merit consideration for the Hockey Hall of Fame. I was a good NHL player, but I don’t have the numbers or the All-Star status or major trophy wins to be a candidate. I feel there are many retired players more deserving than me who still haven’t been inducted.
I had a month for the ages, that’s for sure, but the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee criteria is all about great careers. Don’t take that to mean that I don’t appreciate all the support, or that I am not proud of the career I had in the game. I’m still very proud of my NHL accomplishments. I’m especially proud to have played on two top lines, with Norm Ullman and Bruce MacGregor in Detroit, and then with Norm and Ron Ellis in Toronto.
I thought the Henderson–Ullman–Ellis line was as good as any in the NHL. We were defensively responsible and we could play any style and play with any forward unit in the league. I get great satisfaction in knowing that, and in the way we all contributed. While we were playing together in Toronto, Ellis had 152 goals and 147 assists, Ullman scored 152 and had 267 assists – he was always the playmaker! – and I had 157 goals and 150 assists. How is that for consistency and sharing the wealth!
There was one season where I led the league in game-winning goals with nine out of the twenty-two goals I scored overall. I was an opportunist in that sense, and I really tried to score important goals. I think everybody wants to be on the ice at key times, but I really thrived on that during my entire career, not just in Russia.
I always enjoyed when the pressure was on, and I didn’t shrink away from those situations. I also played with some great linemates who felt the same way, and that made it a lot easier to succeed in those situations as well.
It was tough playing on some teams that didn’t win, but any player would feel the same way about that. The Toronto teams I played on were generally older and, thanks to Harold Ballard, were generally in disarray. Nobody was going to win any championships in that situation.
I thought we had a great team in Detroit before I got traded to the Leafs. We seemed to be really close to winning the Cup, but then Doug Barkley lost an eye, Marcel Pronovost got traded, and Bill Gadsby retired. We just couldn’t get over those losses, but I thought we really had a chance to do something special there.
But there are really no regrets from that standpoint either. I had a long career, I made some decent money, and I had the kind of life that the vast majority of people in the world would be very envious of.
Thanks to September 1972, I had lots of fame too! And I had my time in the spotlight, which gave me recognition and a platform in this country to do the work I have been doing with my ministry for many years now, to an extent that wouldn’t have been possible without that recognition.
Every player would love to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but the fact that I’m not seems to bother other people a lot more than it bothers me. The bottom line is, I’ve had a wonderful life and career in hockey that I am very proud of. I’ve been a very fortunate guy.
Even after forty years, the 1972 Summit Series is still receiving accolades for what it meant to the game of hockey.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) recently introduced an IIHF Milestone Award, to be granted periodically “to a team or teams that have made a significant contribution to international ice hockey or had a defining impact on the development of the game.” The council decided that the first such honour would go to the teams of the 1972 Summit Series.
The timing of this first award was intended to help mark the forty-year anniversary of the series, and it really is quite an honour for all of us to receive, especially after all these years.
IIHF president Rene Fasel was gracious in his comments as he outlined the rationale for the award: “The IIHF has honoured individuals since 1997 with inductions to the IIHF Hall of Fame, but we felt we were missing an award which recognized great events, great teams, or defining moments which have shaped our game. This is why we introduced this new award, and the council felt it was appropriate that the historic 1972 Summit Series would receive the inaugural honour.”
The award was presented as part of the IIHF Hall of Fame induction ceremony on May 20, 2012, in Helsinki, Finland, on the day of the gold medal game of the seventy-sixth IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. In 1972, Canada was sitting on the sidelines as far as international hockey went, so when you consider how much has happened since then – with Canada earning both respect and gold medals at the Winter Olympics, world championships, and world junior championships – the tournament seems to be a perfect setting for the teams of the Summit Series to be remembered.
My good feelings about our accomplishment in Moscow only get deeper as the years go on. But as I watch today’s players at the Air Canada Centre, it is really hard to believe how time sure flies, especially as you get older.
And my goodness, to think that the fortieth anniversary of that series is upon us! Now where did that time go? It certainly is a perfect time for reflection and looking back, that’s for sure.
Eleanor and I will look in the mirror some days and say, “Who are those people?” We’ve got a lot more wrinkles, and sometimes it does make you wonder where the years have gone. I’m sure my teammates think the same thing some days, although we really have been blessed. In those forty years we’ve only lost three players and one coach from Team Canada ’72: Bill Goldsworthy, Gary Bergman, and Rick Martin, along with assistant coach John Ferguson. But time catches up with all of us, and several of us are battling cancer. We know this fortieth anniversary is likely our last hurrah, so we’re all looking forward to it.
There really is a certain amount of luck that comes with just being around as long as we’ve all been, and having the opportunity to celebrate an event forty years after it ends. When you look back and see all that we have survived, from injuries to illness to other challenges, and you realize that we’ve all made it and had such great lives, you just say “Wow!” to yourself.
When you are young, you think you are immortal. You get a real sense of appreciation for everything in life as you get older, as you realize just how lucky you have been in your life, even just to have played in the NHL for as long as you did.
The Goal in 1972 was an epic moment. We knew that then, but we know that even more so today. I certainly cherish it more today, that’s for sure. It is such a thrill even to be able to share it with my grandchildren, who are so proud of me for the accomplishment. It’s another generation being exposed to what happened, and when I saw all the young people walking through the Henderson Jersey Homecoming Trailer, well, it really made an old man feel good.
But as you reflect back on your life, it’s the friendships and relationships that really matter the most, isn’t it? That is true of all of us. It’s not how much money you have made, it’s how many friends you have made over the years that is the important thing.
Look, whenever there’s a fire in a house and people have to leave in a hurry, what’s the first thing they grab? The pictures. That says a lot about what is really important to people, doesn’t it?
As I get closer to the end of my journey, I’m so fortunate to be able to spend my life now doing what I want to do with it. Eleanor and I spend so much time together travelling and enjoying our family (and especially watching the grandchildren play hockey now as the younger generation takes to the ice!), and we’re always together – well, except for golf, which is my thing alone – but we do just about everything else together, which is really wonderful. I love my work and I’ll continue to do that until I can’t do it anymore. That shows how much I love what I’ve been able to do for so many years now.
This – our lives on earth – is not the game. It’s just the warm-up. Christ wants us to get to know Him. I believe there is an eternity ahead of us where we will really get to know God intimately, and what He has prepared for us there will absolutely blow us all away. All the hassles, problems, tragedies, failures, and bad breaks that we have had will never even be thought of. Thoughts of heaven and of eternity make living with cancer here on earth seem very insignificant.
The Bible says in many places that we should not fear, not worry, not even be anxious about anything, and that is how I try to live every day. When we are able to do that, there is nothing that happens to us that we cannot handle with God’s help.
As the thirty-fourth Psalm says, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
I have a simple mantra now: “Start small. Go deep. Think big. Finish well.” That is the way that I try to live my life spiritually every single day.
The Goal of My Life was scored on September 28, 1972, in Moscow. It was such a fantastic moment for me and for all Canadians, and I am so thankful for it. I will cherish it forever.
But to live my life the way I have since I became a Christian, to live a life that pleases Him, to be His Godly world change agent – that is the real Goal of My Life. And I thank God that I’ve been able to pursue that goal for so long.