Paul Henderson celebrates his game-winning goal in the 1972 Summit Series (Image Credit: Frank Lennon)

By Chad Klassen/CFJC Today

1972 SUMMIT SERIES

Hockey players remember Henderson goal 50 years later

Sep 29, 2022 | 1:30 PM

It’s a goal most Canadian hockey fans have seen over and over again — an iconic moment in the country’s history — and for those old enough, they remember when Paul Henderson scored the series winner.

“I remember Paul coming around the corner behind the net, the puck was passed to him and it went in. It was a fast goal, it was a rough series,” noted 84-year-old Kamloops native Tim Redford, who was in the Yukon at the time.

Robert Hamaguchi, who was a 24-year-old UBC student watching the game added, “When he scored there was bedlam in the building. All the classes were cancelled and we were all watching the hockey game.”

So was the entire country, hoping Canada would get the bragging rights. Outside the arena of play, the series occurred during a tense political atmosphere with the Cold War.

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“It was a big deal,” noted Hamaguchi. “If Canada would’ve lost, I think it would’ve been the end of Canada as far as I’m concerned.”

The goal was scored on Sept. 28, 1972 — 50 years ago on Wednesday.

The players in the Kamloops Senior Hockey League remember where they were when the goal went in.

“I had just started a job on the railway as a trainmen. I was in Prince George and I got called to Fort St. James to go up to re-rail some cars,” said Kamloops native Kevin Rhodes. “I got to watch the first period, was in a taxi for the second period, and just as we got those cars re-railed the dispatcher came on the radio to say Canada had won.”

The ’72 Summit Series was an eight-game battle with the former USSR. Canada needed to win three straight games, including the eighth one in the Soviet, and Henderson came through to give Canada the series win.

Rhodes felt that series changed how the game was played.

“There was an underlying political current to it for some people anyway. For me it was just hockey, and I was interested in the effect it had on hockey,” he said. “In those days, if you were a left winger, you stayed on the left side. These Russians were buzzing back and forth, and it changed hockey forever.”

As did the Henderson goal.

Fifty years later, Canadians in that age group look back at the goal with fond memories and great pride.