Dear Paul Henderson: A Fan's Letters to a Hockey Legend

De: Andrew Kavchak

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

In September 1972 the Soviet national hockey team played a series of eight games against a team of Canadian NHL professionals known as Team Canada. The “Summit Series” was the first ever contest between the best hockey players of both countries and was intended to settle the question of who was better.

The first four games were in Canada and the last four games were in Moscow. Many Canadian sportswriters predicted an easy Canadian victory in the series. However, the Soviets won the first game on September 2 by a score of 7-3. Team Canada had its hands full. By the fifth game, Team Canada had only won one game and had tied another. What followed was the greatest comeback in Canadian sports history. Canada had to win the remaining three games to win the series. Team Canada won each of the three games by a single goal. Each one of those game-winning goals was scored by Paul Henderson. The best goal of his career was the game-winning goal in Game 7. However, it was Henderson’s series-winning goal on September 28 in Game 8 with just 34 seconds left on the clock that every Canadian who watched the series remembers.

Floyd was a ten-year-old boy in Grade 5 in September 1972 and was captivated by the series. The players on Team Canada were his hockey heroes. He followed the trials and tribulations of Team Canada through each game and endured the ups and downs of an emotional roller coaster like no other. A photograph of Paul Henderson jumping up in celebration after scoring the final goal of the series was published in the newspaper the following day. Floyd cut it out and stuck it on his bedroom wall. At Christmas that year he decided to write a letter to Paul Henderson. He did so every five years on the quinquennial anniversaries for the next half century. In them, he reflects on what Team Canada’s performance meant to him, the evolving legacy of the series, the state of Canadian national unity, the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet empire, and developments in Russia. Throughout the letters Floyd thanks Paul Henderson for his contribution to Team Canada’s victory and tells him how the photograph on his wall has provided a lifetime of inspiration.