Word: penticton
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Krefeld. Germany, the Penticton Vs (TIME, March 7) beat Russia's amateur hockey champions, 5-0, and took the world title back to Canada...
Residents of Penticton (pop. 14,000) grow fruit to earn their living, but they live for hockey. On road trips the team is ferried by volunteer drivers in private cars; a women's auxiliary washes the players' jerseys and darns their socks. During the playoffs for the Canadian championship last May, when an elderly lady collapsed of a heart attack, she surprised no one with her last words: "Go see who scored that goal!" The entire team attended her funeral...
With spirit such as that, Penticton quickly earned a reputation as a fine place to play. Skaters drifted in from all over Canada. Veterans came out of retirement. Bernie ("Boom Boom") Bathgate brought 15 years of experience to the team; Mike Shebaga, 32 years old and scrawny as hockey players go, pulled on his pads and turned out to be a stickhandling Houdini...
Bawling Burgher. This month, hometown boosters followed the team to West Germany at their own expense to watch them fight to get the championship back. Wherever the Vs tuned up in practice games, Penticton rooters made a loud and loyal crew. To their surprise, they got a lot of outside support. While the Vs were trouncing a pickup team of Berliners, German spectators screamed: "Beat the Russians! Beat the Russians...
...where President Antonin Zapotocky himself attended the games, the arena was packed with Heroes of Labor, Deserving Teachers of the People, Communist Activists. Cheers for the Canadians were diffident, and the game was rough. Czechs, who object to the Canadians' enthusiastic body checking, climbed up the backs of Penticton players and slashed with their skates, an unforgivable sin in the West. The Czech referees' whistles were remarkably silent. After the Vs had tied one game, 3-3, and won the next, 6-0, Penticton's player-coach, Grant Warwick, had to skate around the ice blowing kisses...