Coming Down the Mountain: Rethinking the 1972 Summit Series

June 2014
324 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-86-8

Was the 1972 Summit Series our “Canadian Iliad,” one of our formative myths as a country? Or was it the start of the politicization of hockey, a time when people could see the problems of a country in the rise and fall of its sport? And how did it play out in Quebec? Does everyone there remember where they were when Henderson scored the goal? Was this just a hockey game, and, to younger eyes, not that impressive a series, or was it a titanic battle of two systems of government taking place on ice? And why do we have these bobble-head dolls? The thirteen essays in the anthology examine the series from every angle, questioning its legacy and giving fresh insights into the way the Summit Series has impacted both hockey and Canada.

List of Contributors:

Michael Buma, Iri Cermak, Jamie Dopp, Tim Elcombe, Richard Harrison, Andrew C. Holman, Brett Kashmere, Brian Kennedy, Alexander Kubyshkin, Anna H. Lathrop, Daryl Leeworthy, Richard Lehman, Don Morrow, J. Andrew Ross, Tobias Stark and Julie Stevens

Contents

1. “Yeah, I’ve Got That, Too”: What’s Left (Over) from the Summit Series?
2. Da, Da, Canada; Nyet, Nyet, Soviet: From Hagiography to Reality in the Canada-Soviet 1972 Hockey Series
3. Pluralism and the 1972 Summit Series
4. Canadian Iliad: The Summit Series as Canadian Epic Poem
5. Watching Weekend: The Summit Series as Discourse on Modernity
6. Les Russes et Nous: The 1972 Summit Series and the Birth of Hockey Sovereignty in Quebec
7. Lions in Winter: the Summit Series, Professionalism, and the Renewal of Hockey in 1970s Britain
8. Boom or Bust? The Impact of the 1972 Summit Series on the Development of Women’s Hockey in Canada
9. From Sweden With Love: The Summit Series and the Notion of the Contemporary Canadian Hockey Player in Sweden
10. Hot Ice during Cold War: Soviet Reflections on Summit Series 1972
11. Media Retrospectives of the Summit Series
12. (Mis)Deeds of Gods and Heroes: Religion and the Suspension of Disbelief in the Summit Series
13. Lessons from Valery’s Ankle
14. Unintentional Epic: Ken Dryden’s Struggle with Words and the Myth of Team Canada
15. Reflections on Canadian Moral Nation-Making on the Occasion of the Summit Series’ Seventy-Fifth Anniversary
16. Do the Young People Still Believe? The Rise and Shift of Mythic Tradition

Reviews

"Book Review: Coming Down the Mountain" (Anatoliy Metter, The Hockey Writers, 23/09/2014)
“From cultural pluralism to national identity to concepts of unity, Kennedy masterfully organizes his book into four easily digestible sections. By utilizing a wide array of narratives, Coming Down The Mountain succeeds chiefly by protesting the simplicity of the good vs. evil approach as well as the antiquated view of the Summit Series as little more than a reassertion of Canada’s dominance of the hockey world.”

About the Author

Brian Kennedy’s prior books include Growing Up Hockey (Folklore, 2007) and Living the Hockey Dream (Folklore, 2009), and he has contributed to the hockey anthology, Now is the Winter: Thinking about hockey (Wolsak and Wynn, 2009). He has also appeared in the documentary film Hockey: More Than a Game, which was screened on PBS stations in the United States during 2012. Brian Kennedy is also Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College.

Other Titles by Jamie Dopp

Now is the Winter: Thinking about Hockey (2009)

Other Titles by Richard Harrison

25: Hockey Poems, New & Revised (2019)

On Not Losing My Father's Ashes in the Flood (2016)

Secret Identity Reader: Essays on Sex, Death and the Superhero (2010)

Now is the Winter: Thinking about Hockey (2009)

Worthy of His Fall (2005)

Hero of the Play: 10th Anniversary Edition (2004)

Big Breath of a Wish (1998)