April 30, 2005

We Wuz Robbed (Who Knew?)

According to the CBC, the IIHF will hold a special ceremony later this year to honour the 1964 Canadian Olympic ice hockey team.

If you're like most Canadian hockey fans (including me) you might be asking yourself what's so special about the 1964 team. It turns out that in Innsbruck — the first time Canada sent a national select team instead of a club side — the 5-2 Canadian team was relegated to fourth place after a last-minute change to the agreed-upon tie-breaking formula. The unorthodox rule change was initiated by John Francis "Bunny" Ahearn (an Irishman).

In 1964, the historical dominance by Canada in ice hockey was nearing its end; the national team came back to take the bronze medal in 1968 in Grenoble, and then was shut out of the medals until 1992.

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