Walling: Henderson did it 35 years ago
 Paul Henderson 1972 Alex J. Walling
9/25/2007 4:49:28 PM
Memorable dates in history.
If you are around 60 you recall November 22, 1963 and the Kennedy assassination. Less than three months later it was Ed Sullivan on February 9, 1964, introducing some foreign group to this North American soil, "The Beatles".
If you are in the 40-45 or older you will remember where you were this Friday some 35 years ago. It was Game Eight of the first and only Summit Series.
Somehow as a 24-year old reporter I ended up in Moscow. The real story on how a person hired as a sports guy on a Halifax radio station (CHNS) ends up in Moscow is long but the much abbreviated version is in those days there were not Canadian Press/Broadcast News bureaus all over the land and none in Atlantic Canada.
The radio station I worked for got CP/BN to pay half the cost in exchange for tons of material from the series. The radio station also got a bunch of sponsors, the biggest being Moosehead Beer.
I spoke to players and Canadian fans (over 3000 made the trip). I even, with help of an interpreter, chatted to the Muscovites in and outside the arena. The most common word they knew was "Esposito" referring to Canada's Phil who was by far the most popular and known player from the Canadian team to the Russians.
It seems between CP/BN all I did was sit in my room and file reports.
File to start the day.
File after practice or skate and chatting with Team Canada.
File colour pieces on the 'Russian lifestyle'.
File pre game.
File post game.
Now, in Canada or most of the English speaking world this is not a problem but in Moscow, circa 1972, the simple act of getting a telephone line out of the city and country was an excursion in itself.
So I spent most of my non-working and interview-gathering time in my room. Yes, I had my notes and my trusty tape recorder and the alligator clips.
To those who may not know what these "alligator clips" are, they were the lifeblood of a radio reporter.
We would interview someone on a tape recorder (A Sony 110- or 110b) and then would attach a wire from the tape machine to the phone.
The tape machine had a simple plug in but we would to undo the mouthpiece part of the phone and attach two little clips to pieces on the phone underneath the diaphragm.
With that connection the interviews would go from the tape machines to the phone without an extraneous noise.
Believe me, one could work miracles with this system.
The trouble was once you dialed and got an operator for an "international call" in Moscow you had to wait for the operator to call you back.
There was no such thing as "instant gratification".
You waited, and waited and waited.
Once in a while your line came through within 15 minutes but most of the time it took hours.
I don't know what the trouble was, probably all media (mostly print) wanting to get out at the same time and so few lines.
And there wasn't anything one could do about it. It was the same for all of us but the trouble is most media had one, if not at the most two, calls a day. I had tons.
It wasn't so much that I was at the game because most listeners to the radio station I worked for watched the game on TV. But the benefit to the radio station was the next morning when I was on live with the morning man, in this case, Don (Mabee in the Morning) Mabee.
We realized the wait wasn't as long when the morning man called me so after a few days that is what we did.
As for that final Game Eight there are two stories that come to mind. One is the morning skate and my getting 'tape' or interviews from the players about the biggest game in the series.
For whatever reason I didn't have a special pass that would get me into the dressing rooms when the teams were practicing. I had a media pass, I was allowed to go anywhere during the games but the morning skate was another thing.
So, as I headed down to the Team Canada dressing room I was stopped by a big burly Russian guard who let the guy right behind me go through but didn't allow me.
That guy was a fairly young reporter working for CHUM radio. His name, Brian Williams. This would be the first of two encounters with Williams that day.
Williams looked at the Soviet guard, pointed to me and said: "He's with me, I'm from CHUM radio and we're going to the dressing room."
Now think about this. The Russian guard has never seen Williams in his life and has no clue about the radio Rock n' Roll legend 1050 CHUM.
He just stared at Williams as I watched. Then Brian tried again, this time with more bravado, more bellicose, more bluster and the same line. And it worked!
Lo and behold, the guard moved aside and allowed Brian and me to go through. A much belated (what's 35 years) thank you, Brian.
Fast forward 7-8 hours later and Game Eight is underway. I know that most Canadians have the Henderson moment as their best one. I don't because I never saw the goal! And most media people didn't. You see many of us were up against the glass, ice level near the Dryden end. We saw bodies, legs and sticks. But the light never came on which teed off Alan Eagleson. It was only when Team Canada jumped over the boards and started mobbing all on ice that we realized something big had taken place.
Yes, "Henderson had scored for Canada".
My biggest memory of the series was when Canada was down 5-3 and Russia came over the Canadian blueline with a 2 on 1. They were #9 and #13. (Petrov and Mikailhov, I believe).
They made a series of fast passes that had Dryden way out of position and the shooter had 60% or more of the empty net. I remember the shooter, the empty net and thinking 6-3 USSR and game over.
The Soviet player took the shot, it was going to the empty top shelf, to the right of Dryden and...it went over the net. He missed it by inches.
The puck caromed of the glass, ended up on the right wing, Yvon Cournoyer got it and seconds later Canada scored. Instead of a 6-3 game it was 5-4. To me, from rinkside, that was my biggest memory.
Then as we know, Canada tied it and then came the Henderson Heritage moment.
But the game wasn't over, we had 34 seconds left and I had a major decision facing me.
Here was my decision. Do I stay in my seat at ice level (next to the late Toronto radio sportscaster Jim Hunt or leave it to try to be around Team Canada for interviews as soon as the game was over?
Would the Soviets allow me on ice? We're talking Moscow in 1972.
There would be no doubt that the Soviets would pull Tretiak from his nets and with the extra man, try to get the equalizer.
So, the chance to see lots of action, right in front of me, was an intriguing prospect.
I looked behind me and saw the crowd of over 17,000 and I knew once the game was over they would be blocking every exit and lane available in their exodus. And I would be stuck in my seat for 10-20 minutes.
I gambled and left my seat and headed down to the area behind where Dryden was. It was also where CTV had their booth. Remember, there was no press box in this arena. In fact they had a very small one built for Foster Hewitt. The other part of the broadcast crew was to the left side of Dryden.
As I was running down the halls to the bowels of the building I heard the ahs and ooohs as the Soviets tried to get the equalizer. Then it was over and again another mob scene on the ice by Team Canada. While that was going on, Paul Henderson came through the doors behind the Canadian net and CTV interviewed him. I made the right choice.
Maybe it was the cost of satellite time back then but the TV interview with Henderson was a very brief one, maybe 1:30 at the most and then there he was walking towards us. Us, was Brian Williams and myself.
We were the only media people there. The rest were still around their seats, blocked and stranded, as the crowds were leaving the building.
Williams knew Henderson from covering him with the Leafs and asked the first few questions. I simply took my CHNS radio mic and put it up with Williams' microphone. It was a two-person scrum.
When Williams finished his questions I fired one, and another and another. In all, Williams and I had the hero of the country to ourselves for over five minutes. That would be impossible today. After that time some of the media who had tried to get through the exiting crowd arrived.
Like everyone else I have seen the goal, hundreds of times on replays. So my Henderson memory is a different one than most Canadians. But, still, a very enjoyable one.
Alex J can be reached via email at: ajw@eastlink.ca
|