SIHR Blog Did Eduard Ivanov play Forward at the 1964 Olympic Games?

Theokritos

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Eduard Georgievich Ivanov (1938-2013) was a staple on the defence of the Soviet national team from 1962/3 until 1966/67. A curious episode from the 1964 Olympics in Innsbruck, however, has led some to falsely assume he played as a forward in that tournament. The confusion was caused by no-one else but the Soviet coaching staff. As Bryan Lawrence writes in a 2014 SIHR Blog Entry:

One unusual postscript is that the Best Forward of the tournament was awarded to Soviet defenseman Eduard Ivanov. The story goes that the directorate went to the dressing room to present the award to Boris Mayorov and the coaches took it and gave it to Ivanov instead. I have read reports that Ivanov was used as a forward during the tournament and was given the award for his versatility. [1]​

Now, Eduard Ivanov was indeed known in the Soviet Union for his two-way ability. A 1977 Russian Hockey Handbook calls him a „hockey-universalist, equally strong and useful in both defence and attack.“ [2] Sources highlight his accurate passes and his powerful shot. What distinguished him from other Soviet defenceman was his willingness to join the attack. Decorated forward Boris Mayorov would later write in his autobiography:

Others among our defencemen manage to give the puck to one of the forwards, but that's where it ends. Whether it is convenient for me to receive the pass or not, whether I can develop a further attack from my position – that's no longer his concern: 'Now you've got the puck, do something with it, my job is already done.' Ivanov didn't play like that, it was alien to his entire way of thinking. If the timing was bad for me and I wasn't ready to receive a pass, he would try it on his own and he would try everything, but he would keep the puck to himself and not pass it to me." [3]​

Ivanov is also described as physically strong and as playing a gritty and passionate game. The downside of his passion and his involvement in the attack: he was prone to take risks that would sometimes cost his team.

ivanov-png.379743

Eduard Ivanov. Photo: RIA Novosti

Perhaps Ivanov's fondness of attacking is explained by the fact that he did indeed play as a forward in his junior days – until he was discovered by Nikolai Epstein, coach of the club Khimik in the top league. Epstein was very high on versatility. He loved defensive forwards and offensive defencemen. Under his guidance, Ivanov switched from right wing to defence. Two years later, in 1957, Ivanov moved to another club, Krylya Sovietov, where he was paired with Alfred Kuchevsky, a veteran of the Soviet national team. Finally, in 1962, Ivanov joined to the mighty Army club CSKA Moscow under Anatoli Tarasov and received a call-up to the national team.

After the 1963 World Championship, the 1964 Olympic Winter Games were the second major tournament for Ivanov with Team USSR. Anatoli Tarasov, not only CSKA head coach but also assistant coach of the Soviet national team, was full of praise for the commitment and heart Ivanov showed during the Olympics:

As tight-knight and selfless as this team was, Ivanov still stood out with his amazing courage. He willingly threw himself in front of the puck, not just in desperate situations. Constantly looking for an opportunity to show his bravery and selflessness, he didn't spare himself in search of the toughest combat. And he did it all with a smile and inspired the other players with his enthusiasm. [4]​

However, Eduard Ivanov did not play as a forward at the 1964 Olympics. So how did he end up with the Best Forward award?

In the explanation that Anatoli Tarasov gives, the Soviets didn't even acknowledge that the prize in question was supposed to be for the best forward.

He simply says that the tournament directorate could not decide which of the Soviet players was deserving of „a special prize“ – a testament, as Tarasov is happy to interpret it, to the strong collective game of the Soviet team. He continues:

A Salomonic decision was reached: the prize was handed to our team captain Boris Mayorov, so that he could transfer it to the team and we would then decide who our best player was. At the general meeting, the players agreed with the coaches that the prize should be given to Eduard Ivanov. [5]​

Why the Soviets decided to ignore that the award was for the best foward isn't clear. What is clear though is that Eduard Ivanov did not play forward at the 1964 Olympics. An 1968 overview over the Best Defencemen and Best Forwards at the World Championships and Olympics from the Russian magazine Футбол-хоккей („Football-Hockey“) confirms this [6]:

picture2-png.379740

Left column: Defencemen (=Защитники). Right column: Forwards (=Нападающие). In 1964, no forward is named but two defenceman are listed: František Tikal/ČSSR, the original honoree chosen by the IIHF tournament directorate, and Eduard Ivanov/USSR.

[1] Bryan Lawrence: Watching the 1964 Olympic Hockey Final (2014), available via Watching the 1964 Olympic Hockey Final
[2] Arkadi Komarov (editor): Хоккей. Справочник (1977)
[3] Boris Mayorov: Я смотрю хоккей (1970), chapter День седьмой
[4] Anatoli Tarasov: Совершеннолетие (1968 = 2nd edition), chapter Ответ Морису Ришару, subchapter Могут ли у нас быть «звезды»?
[5] same as 4
[6] Футбол-хоккей 8/1968 (February 25, 1968), page 5

Posted on Behind the Boards (SIHR Blog)
 
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Theokritos

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The version on the SIHR Blog has English translations of the Russian book titles by the SIHR editor. Which is fine with me & certainly more reader-friendly for the vast majority of English-language readers. I just hope it doesn't give people the false idea that those are actually books available in English language. "Anatoli Tarasov's book Coming of Age? Sounds great, where can I order that one?"
 

DN28

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Jan 2, 2014
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It's interesting how the Directoriate sometimes didn't know what to do with their awards. Here's that crucial passage from Tarasov's Coming of Age that deals with selection processes at World Championships 1963, 1964, 1965:

NOT IMPRESSIVELY BUT EFFECTIVELY

When everyone in the Soviet team played with the same mastery, even though not impressively but exceptionally effectively (they became World Champions!), awkward situations would then happen to us eventually.

So for instance WHC Directoriate in 1963 in Stockholm decided that three awards for the best players of the tournament (goaltender, defenseman, forward) would be given to players from all the participating countries except for – the World Champions.

One of the leading officials of the hockey federation, mister Ahearne, justified this decision by
[saying] that, there are no ‘stars’ in our team, and so nobody from ours can get the award.

That rightly upset us. Mister Ahearne, a respectable man in the world hockey, allowed for an obvious and gross exchange of the concepts. We didn´t really have a soloist in the Red Army team (and we´re proud of that!). But there was no shortage of world-class players in the USSR Red Army, therefore excellent hockey players.

People, who were making decisions about granting the three awards for best players of the championship, simply did not grasp, that almost all of our players could get them. They were on the same level and were definitely not worse than famous players of other teams.

In the following year, our players became the Olympic winners at the WOG in Innsbruck. And again, the organizers could not decide, to which one from the Soviet team they should hand the special award. A Solomonic judgment was accepted then: they attributed the prize to the captain of our squad Boris Maiorov, so that he would transmit it to an appropriate player. Hence we alone decided at the time, who was our best one.

Players agreed with coaches at the common meeting, that the award would be given to Eduard Ivanov. Of course, everyone played selflessly, everyone gave out their energy for victory till the end. Everyone played with immense courage; if it was necessary, they would throw themselves to the puck and cover the goal with their bodies. But even in this friendly and courageous team, Eduard Ivanov especially excelled with a surprising bravery. He threw himself to the puck not only when it was absolutely necessary. He constantly looked for an opportunity to manifest his courage and to cover the goal with his chest. And he did all that with a smile and he transmitted the effort onto the others.

TAMPERE: HONOUR TO STARSHINOV

It was already certain before the end in 1965 in Tampere that we´re going to be the Champions. Organizers turned to us, the heads of the Soviet team, at the time with a request to mark our best forward for them.

Together with Arkady Chernyshev, the older coach of the USSR squad, we evaluate our players after every game. So we picked three
[forwards] according to play and goals scored – Alexander Almetov, Konstantin Loktev and Vyacheslav Starshinov. Starshinov then came out victoriously from yet narrower selection.

Why? Because he not only played great at this Championship, but also appeared as a great friend. He did everything he could to help out the rookie Anatoli Ionov. He understood what feelings his younger teammate had, and that was why he let him know discreetly and tactfully at every opportunity that he doesn´t leg behind his experienced teammates. He helped him to classify into the Red Army as an equal, and so he gave him the opportunity to play to the fullest.
 

Theokritos

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It's interesting how the Directoriate sometimes didn't know what to do with their awards. Here's that crucial passage from Tarasov's Coming of Age that deals with selection processes at World Championships 1963, 1964, 1965:

Thanks for adding, this is indeed the very part of the book Tarasov's quotes in the article are sourced from. And yes, it's curious that the directorate didn't know what to do with the Soviets when they started to dominate from 1963 to 1965. But at least they learned a lesson from the 1964 confusion – note the difference in 1965:

Organizers turned to us, the heads of the Soviet team, at the time with a request to mark our best forward for them.​

They still didn't know who to single out, but at least they explicitly asked them to name a forward this time.
 
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Theokritos

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In his 2014 blog entry, Bryan Lawrence wrote that Eduard Ivanov didn't visibly stand out in the game he watched. Not to badmouth Ivanov, but reading Tarasov's account ("amazing courage", "bravery and selflessness", "didn't spare himself", "inspired the other players") you get the vibe that character & attitude was the reason the Soviets singled him out as "deserving" and not necessarily a performance that would make us or even contemporary observers from outside the Soviet dressing room think of him as the best player of the Soviet team.
 
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Theokritos

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While Eduard Ivanov didn't play forward after the mid-1950s, he did play a position other than defenceman later on: he was used as a "halfback" or "midfielder" from 1965-1967 – at least he was if you ask Anatoli Tarasov & Co. In the games I've seen, I wasn't able to note a difference so far. But according to Tarasov, the following 1-2-2 setup was established in the 1965 preseason:

Anatoli Firsov – Vladimir Vikulov
Eduard Ivanov – Vladimir Polupanov
Alexander Ragulin​

Tarasov would later write:

"Alexander Ragulin played stopper and Vladimir Vikulov and Anatoli Firsov played forwards. The middle line was formed by V. Polupanov and E. Ivanov. Both alternately connected to the attack – especially when Ivanov was in form –, both brought excellent performances, both had time to work in the defence."​

The ability of Eduard Ivanov to play a two-way game was crucial for this setup and sources other than Tarasov all agree that Ivanov was indeed almost singular among Soviet defencemen of his time when it came to two-way play. Testimonies come from Boris Mayorov (quoted in the presentation in post 1), Nikolai Sologubov (who had been the best Soviet two-way defenceman of the 1950s) and Anatoli Firsov.

Sologubov:
"The hockey defenceman has long ceased to just be a destroyer. Now he is a creator, a full-fledged partner of the forwards, someone who strikes the target no worse than the most skilled attackers, sometimes even better. (...) If you ask me which of the current defencemen comes closest to the type of a modern defenceman, the first I will name is Eduard Ivanov of CSKA..."

Firsov:
"He went ahead daringly and the opposing defencemen did not know who to take care of, Polupanov or Ivanov."​

When Ivanov retired in 1967, the only Soviet defenceman able to replace him as halfback in Tarasov's 1-2-2 system was Viktor Blinov of Spartak Moscow. Unfortunately, Blinov died a premature death during the 1968 offseason, which spelled the end for the 1-2-2 setup: the Soviets didn't have any other defenceman capable of playing Ivanov's or Blinov's part. It wasn't until the 1971-72 season that Tarasov would make another attempt, this time with Gennadi Tsygankov in the midfield role.
 
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Theokritos

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Additional source on Ivanov's performance in the tournament: in the February 1964 issue of Sportivnye igry, Vladimir Yegorov (coach of the club Krylya Sovietov and former assistant coach of the Soviet national team) wrote the following about the pairing Alexander Ragulin & Eduard Ivanov:

"This pair of defenders played very well in Innsbruck. The duo not only acted reliably on defence where both players demonstrated examples of selfless play, but also joined the attacks very effectively. Ragulin and Ivanov have an excellent and strong shot. In this respect, they are superior to Kuzkin and Davydov. It is no coincidence that they have many more goals scored. In addition, Ragulin and Ivanov often go into the thick of the game, take the initiative and beat the opponents in one-against-one combat. They enter the offensive zone with decision and boldly attack the goal. This pair of defenders plays in the mold that was once characteristic for our brilliant pair Nikolai Sologubov & Ivan Tregubov. I am even inclined to believe that the Ragulin-Ivanov pair plays with more variety than their predecessors. Both defenders have mastered the modern methods of play perfectly well. Their actions can serve as a model for all hockey defenders today.

64.jpg

Let me tell you about one goal that was incredibly characteristic for the game of Ragulin and Ivanov. It happened in the second period of the match against Sweden, a difficult game. The Swedes had tied the score and rushed to the attack again. Their goal encouraged them. Our defenders had to take care of several acute situations. But they didn't just think of defending. A swift counterattack and the defenders join the attack. Here Ivanov (3), having received the puck, skates ahead. A pass to Viktor Yakushev (10) follows. He immediately returns the puck to Ivanov who has freed himself from the check of the opposing forward. On the move, he directs the puck to the near top corner. Note the actions of Ragulin (4): he provided reliable cover for his defensive partner throughout."
 

Alexblaster

Registered User
Apr 15, 2019
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This is an easy one...
Ivanov always played a defensman throughout his career. I was actually lucky to see him play in the vets game in the 90s - we was well into his 50s and heavily overweight, but you could instantly tell he had the skill...

So what happened to the best forward award at the 1964 Olympics then?
Well, the committee gave it to Boris Mayorov, who was picked as the best forward of the tournament. Tarasov then took it away from him and gave it to Ivanov instead.
Why?
Because he could.
And because he was a very awkward and vindictive character, who held grudges against many players.
This story is well documented, and comes as one of many examples of Tarasov's personality, hidden from the public behind the veneer of innovator and self-proclaimed "Father of Russian Hockey". Tarasov probably realized later that taking a well-deserved award from a player is wrong on many levels, so sugar-coated the story for his book.
 

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