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Soviet Union left wing SERGEI KAPUSTIN (8), the 1982 draft choice of the New York Rangers who scored six goals in as many contests at the 1976 Winter Games and registered 66 goals in a dozen appearances at major international tournaments for the U.S.S.R., and his former Spartak Moscow linemate Viktor Shalimov both returned to the same city in the Alps in which they won an Olympic gold medal a decade later when the aging pair each switched to EV Innsbruck of the Austrian Bundesliga.
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After a three-year moratorium, the Soviet Union once again, at the outset of the 1979/80 campaign, began the low-key transfer of a very limited number of select players to ice hockey clubs in the carefully chosen countries of Austria, Finland and Japan.

With the second wave of the so-called Cultural Exchange program, however, the Soviet ice hockey authorities started sending more of the nation’s top shelf, international star skaters abroad. Both YURI LIAPKIN and his Spartak Moscow teammate VLADIMIR SHRADIN, the top goal-getter at the 1976 Winter Olympics, had been integral members of the U.S.S.R.’s gold medal squad at the Innsbruck Games. Three other players from the team that won the Olympic title for the Soviet Union a record-tying fourth consecutive time were also later rewarded with the opportunity to play at Innsbruck’s Olympiahalle again via a season or so in the Austrian Bundesliga.

It is interesting to note that, by now, the U.S.S.R. had expanded the scope of their cultural exchanges to include West Germany. The Soviets had always been willing to allow re-unification so long as the West Germans de-camp the North American Treaty Organization and the new Deutschland join the Warsaw Pact immediately. In the meantime, 35-year-old veteran Torpedo Gorky winger ALEXEI MISHIN broke new ground with his transfer to 2.Bundesliga outfit EHC Hamburg.

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Long-time Soviet Wings forward YURI LEBEDEV (11) totaled 10 goals and 26 points in 47 games over the course of his eight appearances for the Soviet Union national team at major international tournaments in his career. The Moscow native who began his career with the famous army club CSKA did not make the Soviet squad for the 1976 Winter Olympics despite having been on the U.S.S.R. teams which had won the title at the last three prior IIHF World Championships. Lebedev, who would go on to appear at Lake Placid, missed out on the gold medal at the Innsbruck Games after being left behind by his club coach in the domestic league, Boris Kulagin.
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It is also significant to point out that, of all the Soviet legionnaires sent abroad throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s, none had been transferred from the powerful CSKA Moscow club; such a move would have required, on top of the sanction from the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation, additional approval from the might Red Army, as well :

Vladimir SHRADIN – 31 ……… Oji Seishi Tomakomai (Japan) ……. 79/80, 3 yrs
Yuri LIAPKIN – 34 ……………. Oji Seishi Tomakomai (Japan) ……. 79/80, 3 yrs

Alexander YAKUSHEV – 33 …. EC Kapfenberg (Austria) …………. 80/81, 3 yrs
Alexander BARINEV – 28 ……. VEU Feldkirch (Austria) …………… 80/81, 4 yrs

Alexei MISHIN – 35 ……………. EHC Hamburg (West Germany) …. 81/82, 1 yr
Alexei KOSTYLEV – 33 ………. EC Kapfenberg (Austria) …………. 81/82, 3 yrs

Nikolai MAKAROV – 33 ………. Jokerit Helsinki (Finland) ………….. 82/83, 3 yrs
Yuri LEBEDEV – 32 …………… EHC Hamburg (West Germany) …. 82/83, 1 yr
Sergei KOROTKOV – 31 …….. EHC Hamburg (West Germany) …. 82/83, 1 yr

Sergei KOTOV – 35 …………… EV Innsbruck (Austria) …………… 85/86, 1 yr
Viktor SHALIMOV – 34 ………… EV Innsbruck (Austria) …………… 85/86, 3 yrs
Anatoli DEMIN – 31 ……………. VEU Feldkirch (Austria) ………….. 85/86, 2 yrs

Sergei KAPUSTIN – 33 ………… EV Innsbruck (Austria) …………… 86/87, 2 yrs
Oleg ISLAMOV – 33 …………… EHC Hamburg (West Germany) … 86/87, 1 yr

Vladimir LAVRENTIEV – 33 …… IF Mondal (Sweden) ……………… 87/88, 4 yrs
Fedor KANAREIKIN – 33 ………. Jokerit Helsinki (Finland) ………… 87/88, 1 yr

On the heels of three Soviet leaders passing away in as many years, the reform-minded MIKHAIL GORBACHEV became Communist Party General Secretary upon election by the Politburo in March of 1985, just a short time before Czechoslovakia stopped the U.S.S.R.’s streak of five consecutive titles won at the IIHF World Championships. Gorbachev’s new policy of “Perestroika”, announced at the Party Congress in the spring of 1986, would have a dramatic impact on all aspects of life in the Soviet Union, ice hockey notwithstanding, soon enough. By the end of the decade, the trickle of talent heading West had evolved into an outright flood.

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Soviet Union left wing ALEXANDER YAKUSHEV (15) of Spartak Moscow, who racked up 64 goals over the course of twelve appearances for the U.S.S.R. at major international tournaments in his career, netted a pivotal goal for the Soviets in the de facto Gold Medal Match against Czechoslovakia on the final day of the ice hockey programme at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games hosted by Innsbruck, Austria.

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Several high ranking, confidential sources inside the Kremlin have confirmed that former KGB First Chief Directorate superstar VLADIMIR PUTIN has started training very hard in the hopes of landing an amateur tryout contract with the American Hockey League’s Phantoms when the Philadelphia Flyers’ top minor league affiliate relocates to ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania, to play in CHAIRMAN PAWLOWSKI’s expensive $ 160.0 million dollar PALACE OF SPORT.

Reportedly, the current Prime Minister of Russia has expressed enthusiasm about boosting ice hockey’s popularity among the ever-expanding Latino Population in the CTIY WITH NO LIMITS. Hispanics, who are said to already comprise nearly 50% of Allentown’s citizenry at present, are not traditionally known to follow the fast-paced sport as much as, say, Beisbol or Futbol. Still, Putin is thought to remain undaunted by the obvious challenges that lay ahead.

“My Spanish is excellent and, naturally, Cuban dictator FIDEL CASTRO continues to remain a great friend of mine,” Putin has allegedly proclaimed. “I really look forward to playing in a city such as Allentown where the courageous local heavy-handed authority has, without hesitation, the intestinal fortitude to seize private property efficiently through the use of Eminent Domain. I am sincerely and truly inspired by the Chairman and his compliant Rubber Stamp Council of Apparatchiks to achieve ice hockey excellence and have every confidence that I will fit in quite well at the grand Palace of Sport.”

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The pricey arena in Allentown is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2013-14 AHL season. Ironically enough, that will also be an Olympic year with the Games of the XXII Winter Olympiad scheduled to be hosted by Sochi in Russia. But Putin has, apparently, put his priorities in order and squarely set his sights on attaining even greater glories.

Minor league ice hockey analysts and the BROOKS GROUP both know that the Phantoms will need to build up product recognition and blend in seemlessly with the local community upon arrival in Allentown. Chairman Pawlowski has made bold predictions of 2.5 million people attending the Palace of Sport which are bound to be forgotten by Pravda, er, ah, THE MORNING CALL, if necessary, but the pressure is on, nevertheless. The addition of an already well-known international figure like Vladimir Putin to the fledgling Allentown Phantoms would certainly put an influential face on a franchise which will be desperate to sell tickets and fill the building each and every night, no question about it.

“If you think I am any good at engineering elections and so forth,” Putin is said to have bragged to his trainers, “just wait until the Phantoms and the Chairman get a good load of what I can do to manipulate the American Hockey League attendance figures.”

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SERGEI PRIAKIN, the 25-year-old captain of the Moscow-based Soviet Wings club, made National Hockey League history when given permission by the proper authorities in the Soviet Union to join the powerful Calgary Flames, who went on that season to later lift the coveted Stanley Cup, in the spring of 1989.
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Soviet national team winger-to-be SERGEI PRIAKIN was but six going on seven years old at the time.

Communist Party General Secretary LEONID BREZHNEV was rather busy pursing a specific foreign policy known as “Razryadka”, which was better known in the West as “Detente”. In conjunction with this aim, the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation quietly began to allow a very limited number of veteran players the unique privilidge of a season or two of play in certain, carefully selected countries. And so, a lucky handful were chosen to become, in many respects, diplomats on skates.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had never been “slow to capitalize on international sporting success by using its outstanding sportsmen as ‘ambassadors of good-will’, not infrequently as a ‘try-out’ for political initiatives,” wrote author JAMES RIORDAN in his book, “SPORT IN SOVIET SOCIETY : DEVELOPMENT of SPORT AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN THE U.S.S.R.” (1977, Cambridge University Press).

And thus, although the transactions never did receive much, if any, publicity in the official Soviet press or, for that matter, anywhere else, these “Cultural Exchanges” with Western clubs approved by the government had, in fact, arrived long before the Calgary Flames even existed as a National Hockey League club.

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VLADIMIR YURZINOV
Dynamo Moscow and USSR
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It is interesting to note that the very first Soviet ‘legionnaire’, EVGENY MAYOROV, was sent not only to neighboring Finland, but, specifically, the TUL Vehmajsten Urhejliat club of Tampere, as well.

Of course, Finland and the Soviet Union had fought the Winter War (November 1939 thru March 1940), an event that resulted in the expulsion of the U.S.S.R. from the impotent and irrelevant League of Nations. This conflict was follwed by the further hostilities known as the “War of Continuation” (June 1941 thru September 1944). The net result of these two wars saw Finland, who were, as a Grand Duchy, part of the old Russian Empire from 1809 until 1917, cede significant-enough as well as strategic territory to the Soviets.

Throughout the long period known as the Cold War, the official foreign policy of Finland, the so-called “Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line”, was based on strict neutrality between East and West. With this as a backdrop, the very first Soviet to play in Finland arrived in Tampere for a single, unproductive 1968/69 campaign with TUL Vehmajsten Urhejliat. Mayorov, the 1964 Olympic gold medalist whose brother, Boris, was the captain of the U.S.S.R. national team in the late 1960s, would register just two goals (with no assists) in 16 games for VehU Tampere, who were relegated at the end of their one and only season ever in the top flight of Finnish hockey.

“Suomen Tyovaen Urheiluliito”, known by the accronym TUL, would be the Finnish Workers’ Sports Federation, which was founded in 1919 and has a very strong labor union background; the organization is also affiliated with the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (Suomen Ammattiliittojen Keskusjarjesto or SAK) as well as the Social Democratic Party of Finland (Suomen Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue or SDP).

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The # 14 sweater worn by Soviet Union defenseman VALERY NIKITIN of Khimik Voskresensk during the 1970 IIHF World Championships as displayed at www.classicauctions.net; the game jersey had been acquired by a Swedish dignitary at the conclusion of the tournament won by the U.S.S.R. in Stockholm.
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The lions’ share of the first contingent of ice hockey players from the U.S.S.R. to be allowed to skate for clubs in the West went to Austria, a Central European nation that was well-known as a hub for spy activities of Soviet agents during the Cold War era :

Yuri MOROZOV – 32 ………… AT Stadlau Vienna (Austria) ….. 70/71, 2 yrs

Valery NIKITIN – 32 ………….. AT Stadlau Vienna (Austria) ….. 71/72, 2 yrs

Viktor TSYPLAKOV – 35 ……. AC Klagenfurt (Austria) ……….. 72/73, 2 yrs
Anatoli KOZLOV – 33 ……….. ATSE Graz (Austria) …………… 72/73, 4 yrs
Vladimir YURZINOV – 32 ……. Koo Vee Tampere (Finland) ….. 72/73, 2 yrs

Vladimir VASILIEV – 33 ……… AC Klagenfurt (Austria) ……….. 73/74, 2 yrs

Igor DIMITRIEV – 33 …………. AC Klagenfurt (Austria) ……….. 74/75, 1 yr
Viktor KUNGURTSEV – 33 ….. ATSE Graz (Austria) …………… 74/75, 1 yr

Valentin KOZIN – 35 …………. AT Stadlau Vienna (Austria) ….. 75/76, 2 yrs
Valery KUZMIN – 34 …………. Jokerit Helsinki (Finland) ………. 75/76, 1 yr
Vychslv STARSHINOV – 35 … Oji Seishi Tomokomai (Japan) … 75/76, 3 yrs

With the lone exception of VYACHESLAV STARSHINOV, the first wave of Soviet players were not of top international class. In addition to the two-time Olympic gold medalist Starshinov, only VALERY NIKITIN, VIKTOR TSYPLAKOV and VLADIMIR YURZINOV could claim IIHF World Championship medals won for the U.S.S.R. on their resume. Most of the pioneering players initially sent abroad would go on to become successful trainers in the Soviet system; both Yurzinov (Sarajevo ’84) and IGOR DIMITRIEV (Calgary ’88) were assistant coaches for title-winning squads at the Winter Games.

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VLADIMIR YURZINOV stands behind defenseman ZINETULA BILYALETDINOV (14) of Dynamo Moscow while assisting Soviet Union national team trainer VIKTOR TIKHONOV, who is standing in front of the bench to the right of standout young defenseman VYACHESLAV FETISOV (2) of CSKA Moscow, during an early 1980s Izvestia Cup match at the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium in the capital city of Moscow.
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One productive benefit of the Cultural Exchange program for the Soviet Union was the immediate acquisition of much-valued Western hard currency. VLADIMIR VASILIEV, who had been a top goal-scorer for Khimik Voskresensk and later went on to serve as trainer of the 1987 U.S.S.R. junior national team involved in the infamous PIESTANY PUNCH-UP, reported in his book that his AC Klagenfurt employers paid the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation a fee of 35,000 Austrian schillings for his services. According to Vasiliev, however, authorities in the U.S.S.R. confiscated all but five thousand of this total sum.

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The four-times consecutive Olympic champion squad from the UNION of SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS pose for a proper team photograph just after being awarded the coveted set of gold medals by I.O.C. big-wigs during the official ceremony for the 1976 Winter Games ice hockey competition at the Olympiahalle in Innsbruck, Austria.
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For the very first time ever at the Winter Olympics, the ice hockey team of the U.S.S.R. at the ’76 Innsbruck Games was not steered by ANATOLI TARASOV, the legendary “Father of Soviet Hockey” who had been replaced as trainer of the national team after the 1972 Winter Olympics in the wake of a dispute with the powers that be in the Soviet Sports Committee over cash bonuses.

It was, of course, BORIS KULAGIN of the Moscow-based Soviet Wings (Krylya Sovetov) club who had been in charge of the U.S.S.R. national side ever since his appointment ahead of the 1974 IIHF World Championships. But the listing for the above photograph is inaccurate, then, as the coach assisting Kulagin was actually KONSTANTIN LOKTEV of CSKA Moscow, who had taken over the powerhouse army club from Tarasov to start the 1974/75 hockey season. Both Kulagin and Loktev had taken their Soviet domestic clubs on the historic tour of North America to face professional National Hockey League teams just a couple of months prior to the 1976 Winter Olympics in Austria.

All of the gold medal-winning Soviet players at the ’76 Innsbruck Games had also participated in that landmark meeting with the NHL clubs.

’76 SOVIET UNION Olympic squad
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Vladimir PETROV – 28 – ctr …….. CSKA Moscow …….. 6 ga 6 go 3 as 9 pts
Boris MIKHAILOV – 31 – rw ……… CSKA Moscow …….. 5 ga 3 go 1 as 4 pts
Valery KHARLAMOV – 28 – lw ….. CSKA Moscow …….. 6 ga 3 go 6 as 9 pts

Vladimir SHRADIN – 27 – ctr …….. Spartak Moscow ….. 6 ga 10 go 4 as 14 pts
Viktor SHALIMOV – 24 – rw ……… Spartak Moscow ….. 6 ga 7 go 5 as 12 pts
Alexander YAKUSHEV – 29 – lw … Spartak Moscow ….. 6 ga 4 go 4 as 8 pts

Viktor ZHLUKTOV – 21 – ctr …….. CSKA Moscow …….. 6 ga 2 go 6 as 8 pts
Alexander MALTSEV – 26 – rw ….. Dynamo Moscow …. 6 ga 7 go 7 as 14 pts
Sergei KAPUSTIN – 22 – lw ……… Soviet Wings ………. 6 ga 6 go 1 as 7 pts

Boris ALEXANDROV – 20 – lw …… CSKA Moscow ……. 5 ga 2 go 3 as 5 pts

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Gold medalist BORIS ALEXANDROV (11) of CSKA Moscow was one of a only a very select few of all the Olympic ice hockey players from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics who was not Russian. After the fall of the old U.S.S.R., the 20-year-old winger who had begun his senior career in the Soviet system with Torpedo Ust-Kamenogorsk was later appointed the national team trainer of his native Kazakhstan. Alexandrov was the only skater for the Soviet Union not to appear in the de facto Gold Medal Match with Czechoslovakia on the final day of ice hockey competition at the 1976 Winter Games at Innsbruck.
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Gennady TSYGANKOV – 28 – def …. CSKA Moscow ……. 6 ga 1 go 2 as 3 pts
Vladimir LUTCHENKO – 27 – def …… CSKA Moscow ……. 6 ga 0 go 2 as 2 pts
Alexander GUSEV – 29 – def ……….. CSKA Moscow ……. 6 ga 1 go 2 as 3 pts
Valery VASILIEV – 26 – def ………….. Dynamo Moscow … 6 ga 1 go 2 as 3 pts
Yuri LIAPKIN – 31 – def ………………. Spartak Moscow …. 6 ga 1 go 3 as 4 pts
Sergei BABINOV – 20 – def ………….. Soviet Wings …….. 6 ga 2 go 2 as 4 pts

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26-year-old defenseman VALERY VASILIEV (6) of Dynamo Moscow, who appeared at the Olympics for the Soviet Union three times in his distinguished career and before captaining the 1981 Canada Cup champion team, did much to solidy the U.S.S.R. blueline during the 1976 Winter Games hosted by Innsbruck, Austria.
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Vladislav TRETIAK – 23 – gk ………… CSKA Moscow … 4 ga 240 min 2.50 avg
Alexander SIDELNIKOV – 25 – gk …… Soviet Wings ….. 2 ga 120 min 2.00 avg

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Soviet Union goaltender VLADISLAV TRETIAK (20) of CSKA Moscow, one of nine returning players from the title-winning team at the 1972 Sapporo Games, scored the second of what would be a hat trick of Olympic gold medals over the course of his accomplished career with strong work between the pipes for the U.S.S.R. at the 1976 Winter Games hosted by Innsbruck, Austria.

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In order to help celebrate the legendary career of Germany’s Mister Eishockey, XAVER UNSINN, the blog is busy organzing a movement to effectively and thoroughly Occupy the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Some groundwork has been previously posted here at this blog already, including detailed works on the dramatic GOLD MEDAL MATCH from the historic Olympiaeishalle featuring the mighty Eastern bloc rivals of CZECHOSLOVAKIA and the SOVIET UNION.

The memorable ice hockey tournament in the Austrian Alps also included a boycott from both Canada and Sweden in response to the continued ban against “professional” players, a failed drugs test by the team captain of Czechoslovakia as well as a three-team photo finish between Finland, the United States and West Germany for the 1976 Olympic bronze medal.

As always, no passports are required and all are invited en masse to share in the magical moments of international ice hockey history which are joyfully replayed continuously here.

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WEST GERMANY national team captain ALOIS SCHLODER of EV Landshut ascends to the top of the podium at the Olympiahalle to accept the bronze medal for ice hockey from I.O.C. officials during the 1976 Wiinter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria; the silver medalists from CZECHOSLOVAKIA (white sweaters, left) and the gold medal squad from the SOVIET UNION (red sweaters, center), led by captain BORIS MIKHAILOV (K, # 13) of CSKA Moscow, applaud having already received their respective rewards.
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While the U.S.S.R. won the gold medal at the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck for a record-tying fourth consecutive time, the set of bronze medals earned by the Bundesrepublik Deutschland in the Austrian Alps marked the first time in 44 years and only the second occasion, ever, that a German ice hockey squad had finished inside the top three at the prestigous Olympic tournament.

The proceedings in the Austrian Alps also played host to the so-called Elimination Game for the last time ever at an Olympic event. These once and done qualification matches, initially implemented by the I.O.C. at the Innsbruck Games of 1964, were meant to give countries that traditionally competed in the lower B Pool at the IIHF World Championships the opportunity to pull off a big upset and reach the final round at the Winter Games. What often (and predictably) resulted were lopsided blowouts.

Such as the 14-1 beating Czechoslovakia issued to Bulgaria at the Olympiahalle on February 2, 1976, or the 16-3 thrashing that the Soviet Union inflicted upon host nation Austria the very next day in Innsbruck … but that would be another Olympic story.

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West Germany’s flower-bearing Olympic bronze medal trainer XAVER UNSINN (left) and five of his 1976 Bundesliga champion squad SC Berlin — forwards ERNST KOEPF, FERENC VOZAR, LORENZ FUNK, MARTIN HINTERSTOCKER and goaltender ERICH WEISHAUPT — return triumphantly from the 1976 Winter Olympic Games hosted by Innsbruck in neighboring Austria.

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At the scene of a legendary triumph, West Germany trainer XAVER UNSINN watches intently from the bench at the Olympiahalle in the Austrian alpine city of Innsbruck during the memorable 1976 Winter Olympic Games.
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Sadly, the man known as “Mr. Eishockey” has passed away in Fussen at the age of 82 after a long illness.

XAVER UNSINN, who first stood out for his country as a player, is, easily, the most successful ice hockey trainer in his nation’s history and will always be best remembered for directing a surprising West Germany squad to the bronze medal at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

The native of Fussen was highly successful as a forward for the hometown club and was a part of eight domestic championship teams from 1949 thru 1959; Unsinn also served as captain of EV Fussen from 1956 until 1959 before joining ESV Kaufbeuren for two final seasons as a player/coach to start the 1960/61 season.

Unsinn scored 24 goals in 72 international matches, altogether, and competed at five IIHF World Championships for West Germany from 1952 thru 1960 with two of those appearances at major international tournaments also coinciding with the Winter Olympic Games, as well; when Czechoslovakia contingent went home early during the already sparsely attended four-team 1953 IIHF World Championships in Switzerland, Unsinn and West Germany were able to end in second place and depart with the silver medals.

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West Germany forward XAVIER UNSINN (# 8, left) of EV Fussen storms the Canadian goal during the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland.
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The man who would became famous for his trademark Pepita hat had three different tours of duty as trainer of the West German national team after his playing career was concluded starting with the 1964 Winter Olympic Games hosted by Innsbruck, Austria. There, Unsinn formed a trio with former EV Fuessen and national team constituents Markus Egen and Engelbert Holderied for the “Equipe unifee d’Allemagne” team which ended in seventh place. After first leading EG Dusseldorf and then SC Berlin to Bundelisga titles in 1972 and 1974, respectively, Unsinn was given sole control of the West Germany national team to begin the 1974/75 campaign.

Unsinn steered SC Berlin to a second domestic title in the following season and, in that same season, also enjoyed what was to be his signature international tournament at the 1976 Winter Olympic Games, as well. There, an upset victory over the United States in the final round enabled West Germany to earn what was a most unlikely set of bronze medals at Innsbruck. That triumph also marked the very first time a German ice hockey team had been able to defeat an American squad at the Olympics after eight consecutive losses dating back to the 1932 Winter Games at Lake Placid and remains a landmark moment in the ice hockey history of Deutschland.

Unsinn was replaced following West Germany’s poor showing at the 1977 IIHF World Championships in Vienna and would flee to Switzerland after a disastrous 1977/78 Bundesliga season with SB Rosenheim. But the by-now veteran trainer landed on his feet with SC Bern and celebrated a Nationalliga A title at the very first attempt in die Schweiz. Suitably impressed with his work across the border, the Deutsche Eishockey Bund restored Unsinn to the national team trainer post to start the 1981/82 season and would not be disappointed as West Germany went on to enjoy its most sustained decade of success, ever, under the direction of the man with the iconic hat.

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West Germany national team trainer XAVER UNSINN consults with forward ERNST HOEFNER of SB Rosenheim, the leading point scorer during the 1983 domestic Bundesliga playoffs, from the bench at the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
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West Germany national team trainer XAVER UNSINN, on the bench in the center wearing his trademark Pepita hat, consults with players including team captain UDO KIESSLING (4) and goaltender KARL FRIESEN (27), both of whom by this time had already appeared in the National Hockey League previously for the Minnesota North Stars and New Jersey Devils, respectively, during the 1988 Winter Olympic Games hosted by Calgary in western Canada.
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TOP TEN RESULTS for XAVER UNSINN with WEST GERMANY
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W … 4-1 … United States ………… 1976 Winter Olympic Games
W … 4-2 … Czechoslovakia ……… 1982 World Championships
T …. 3-3 … Czechoslovakia ……… 1983 World Championships
T …. 1-1 … Sweden ……………….. 1984 Winter Olympic Games
T …. 4-4 … Czechoslovakia ……… 1984 Canada Cup
W … 4-3 … Czechoslovakia ……… 1986 World Championships
W … 5-3 … Canada ………………. 1987 World Championships
W … 2-1 … Czechoslovakia ……… 1988 Winter Olympic Games
W … 4-1 … United States ………… 1988 Winter Olympic Games
T …. 3-3 … Sweden ……………….. 1989 World Championships

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West Germany national team trainer XAVER UNSINN stands on the bench during the 1984 Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia …… Nationalmannschaft Trainer von der Bundesrepublik Deutschland steht auf der Bank waehrend der Olympische Winterspiele in Sarajevo, Jugoslawien.
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The results of all Federal Republic of Germany national team trainers at major international competitions (Winter Olympic Games, World Championships and Canada / World Cup) since the end of the Second World War …… die Ergebnisse aller Bundesrepublik Deutschland Nationalmannschafttrainer an den hauptsaechlichweltweiten Konkurrenzen (Olympische Winterspiele, Weltmeisterschaft und Kanada / Welt Pokal) seit dem Ende des zweiten Weltkriegs :

Joe AITKEN (CAN, 52-53) ………………. won 2, lost 11, tied 1
Frank TROTTIER (CAN, 54-57) ……….. won 5, lost 15, tied 3
Gerd KIESSLING (58-59, 71-74) ………. won 5, lost 26, tied 0
Karl WILD (60) …………………………… won 1, lost 6, tied 0
Vic HEYLIGER (CAN, 61-63) ……………. won 3, lost 15, tied 3
M.Egen, X.Unsinn, E.Holderied (64) …… won 3, lost 5, tied 0
Ed REIGLE (CAN, 65-68) ……………….. won 2, lost 12, tied 1
Vladimir BOUZEK (CZE, 69-70) ………… only in B Pool / nur auf in B Gruppe
Xaver UNSINN (75-77, 82-89) ………….. won 33, lost 57, tied 12
Hans RAMPF (78-81) ……………………. won 10, lost 16, tied 5
X.Unsinn, E.Kuehnhackl (90) …………… won 1, lost 8, tied 1
L.Olejnik (Cze), E.Kuehnhackl (91) …….. won 0, lost 8, tied 2
Ludek BUKAC (CZE, 92-94) …………….. won 16, lost 16, tied 1
George KINGSTON (CAN, 95-98) ………. won 9, lost 22, tied 2
Hans ZACH (99-04) ………………………. won 12, lost 21, tied 5
Greg POSS (USA, 05) ……………………. won 1, lost 4, tied 1
Uwe KRUPP (06-11) ……………………… won 13, lost 28, tied 2

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KEY / SCHLUESSEL
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won = gewonnen
lost = verloren
tied = unentschieden

CAN = Canada / Kanada
CZE = Czechoslovakia / Tschechoslowakei

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Vier deutschen olympischen Teilnehmer stehen ausserhalb des Eishockeyhauses, die BLYTH ARENA, waehrend der 1960 Olympische Winterspiele in dem kalifornischen Squaw Valley. Das Foto gibt von links : SIEGFRIED SCHUBERT, XAVER UNSINN, ERNST TRAUTWEIN und KURT SEPP. Alle vier Spieler kamen aus EV Fuessen, die sieben deutsche Titel in Folge von 1953 bis 1959 gewonnen hat.
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Es ist sehr traurig, dass XAVER UNSINN gegangen ist. Unsinn hat viel fuer Deutschland als beide Spieler und Trainer getan. Er bleibt immer, ein echte und ausgezeichnete Nationalheld.

KURT SEPP hat das 1960 deutsche olympische Mannschaft mit drei Tore gefuehrt. Sepp hat das einzige Tor fuer Deutschland in dem Spiel gegen die Amerikaner, die die Goldmedaille auf dem Haupteis gewonnen hat, an der Blyth Arena geschossen. Unsinn, der 30 Jahre alt jetzt war, hat die Vorarbeit mit diesem Tor gemacht.

Spaeter, Unsinn hat einen grossen Erfolg mit den Amerikanern an den Olympische Winterspiele als deutsche Trainer … aber dass ist ein andere Geschichte.

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The legendary BLYTH ARENA was a most distinct as well as historical barn while serving as the site of the ice hockey competition at the 1960 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES in SQUAW VALLEY and is, all but assuredly, something which the world will never see again.

Although it must seem strange to contemporary fans of the sport, the facility on the West Coast of the United States was intentionally left open-faced for a very specific reason — the International Olympic Committee had a regulation at the time which stipulated that no official compeition could be conducted under an enclosed roof.

And so an entire side of the building spanning the entire length of the ice rink, itself, was actually completely exposed to the outside elements. Long ropes suspended from the roof sustained the Olympic symbol and were meant to form a sort of curtain which was supposed to lessen the impact of the sun’s glare on the ice. This measure, however, would prove to be only partly successful.

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The victorious UNITED STATES squad, including game-winning goal-scorer BILL CHRISTIAN (6) of Warroad, Minnesota, and team captain JACK KIRRANE (3) of Brookline, Massachusetts, celebrate their surprising 3-2 triumph over the defending Olympic gold medalists from the Soviet Union during the ice hockey tournament at the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley.
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The memorable Winter Games at Squaw Valley actually marked the very first time that the Olympic ice hockey tournament had ever been played on an artificial, man-made surface. In the planning stages for the event in 1960, it had been historically noted that temperatures during winter in this mountain region of northern California could often reach the high 30s and low 40s (Fahrenheit) in the daylight hours. That would make for unwanted, if not unplayable, slushy conditions and so modern ice-making technology was called upon.

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A view from one of the two Olympic ski jumps on the mountain at Squaw Valley in 1960 provides an ideal vantage point for both the south side of the open-faced BLYTH ARENA as well as the 400 meter speed skating track just outside the ice hockey rink … Just two years after the Winter Games held in northern California, the speed skating track was replaced by a parking lot servicing recreational skiers in 1963. Meanwhile, the ski jumps made of wood were left to deteriorate with the passage of time.
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A splendid view, then, of the front (north) side of the BLYTH ARENA depicts national coats of arms for the competing countries at the 1960 Olympic ice hockey tournament in addition to a fine sampling of some of the contemporary automobiles to be found in the United States at that point in time.
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The following two pictures, if cut out and pasted side by side, create an outstanding sense of appreciation of what it must have been like to be in the audience at the open-faced Blyth Arena in Squaw Valley for the ice hockey tournament at the 1960 Winter Olympic Games; the facility boasted an official capacity for 8,500 spectators but after the United States upset neighboring Canada 2-1 behind the sensational goaltending of former University of Minnesota netminder JACK MCCARTAN, the final two games for the host nation against the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, repsectively, resulted in overflow, standing-room-only crowds of a reported 10,000 people.
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This particular piece easily affords one the opportunity to observe the ropes which hang down from the roof at the Blyth Arena to support ths Olympic symbol while attempting to stop the sun from creating too much glare on the ice. And the 400 meter speed skating track situated just behind the stands on the south side of the rink. One may also note that, here at the Squaw Valley Winter Games of 1960, the corners of the rink are not anywhere closed to being as rounded as they are now today.
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After rallying for six unanswered goals in the third period against Czechoslovakia on the final day of tournament play, the 1960 Olympic gold medal-winning squad of the United States gathers jubilantly for a photograph at the open-faced Blyth Arena in Squaw Valley.