The Day Poland Shocked the Hockey World: A Look Back at the Historic Victory Over the Soviet Union in 1976

This year, Poland is playing in group A at the World Cup for the first time since 2002 and will face Sweden in Ostrava on Sunday. Poland never succeeded on the ice, but April 8, 1976 is forever written in hockey history.

When Poland was going to meet the Soviet Union on the first day of the World Cup in Katowice, the press center in the Spodek area was mostly empty. The Soviets had beaten Poland 16-1 in the Olympics a few months earlier and why were they wasting time on an expected elimination?

After the second period, the journalists entered the hall head to head.

Swedish national team defender Stig Salming still chose to watch the match, just after Tre Kronor’s 4-1 win against West Germany.

– We didn’t have anything special to do after our own game, so me and Mats Waltin – I think it was him – stayed behind. And what bad luck it was, said Salmadh.

– We sat straight and rested. The crowd was overjoyed and stood up and screamed. I have never seen a team sacrifice so much on the ice, it was brave. Poland also scored a great goal, he continues.

Although Poland took the lead, few thought it would last.

– We sat in the press stand because it was empty there. After the second period, the journalists entered the hall head to head. They must have heard that a riot was going on, said Salmadh with a smile.

Did you notice that this was a politically charged game?

– Well, you probably felt that this was just a hockey game, says Stig Salming about the atmosphere in the hall.

Börje and Stig Salming at a national team meeting in 1976. Stig played in the toilet in Katowice, but not Börje.

Photo: Erik Lindahl/TT

“The red machine” came. to Poland with 14 WC golds and five Olympic gold medals in the bag. The superiority of the Soviets in Europe was great and the team had joined Canada in the “Summit Series”.

Valery Vasilyev, Boris Mikhaylov, Valery Kharlamov and Helmut Balderis are names that make hockey mouths water.

The Soviets suspended star goalkeeper Tretjak and striker Petrov missed the WC. But it hardly made a difference.

After the first period, Poland led 2-0. Soviet imbalance continued to punish itself. At 4-1, Tretjak was substituted, but had to concede two goals. Poland won 6–4 after a late goal by the Soviets.

A very impressive victory compared to when the US college players defeated the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics.

The hero of the big game was the three-goal scorer Wieslaw Jobczyk.

– The goal was to keep a clean sheet as long as we can, it wasn’t even an idea that we would win. No one thought it would be possible, he told news site onet.pl.

Polish goalkeeper Andzrej Tkacz was carried off the ice by his teammates after his heroics against the Soviet Union. The night before the match, he was beaten by the Polish security service.

Photo: Per Kagrell/TT

The other great hero the Polish team included goalkeeper Andrzej Tkacz, who has an unlikely history of his own.

The night before the game, he was beaten by the Polish SB security service when he was about to enter the player’s hotel. Tkacz was handcuffed and beaten and tear gas fired at him.

– Thanks to someone who recognizes me, I was released after a couple of hours. My eyes burned, but somehow I managed to save the Soviet pictures the next day. But it was difficult, those were the times then, said Tkacz to onet.pl.

Poland played to keep the numbers down against the Soviets, but won 6–4. But Polish television did not want to broadcast the match live – for fear of mocking the Soviets.

Photo: Jan Collsiöö/TT

After the famous victory the Polish authorities promised all the players a Fiat – if the team stayed in Group A.

At that time, Fiat was a luxury item for many Poles. In the middle of the competition, the players had to go to the car factory in Tychy, a couple of miles from Katowice, and choose what color they wanted the car to be.

But there was no Fiat.

The day after the Soviet game, he was 0-12 against Czechoslovakia. Poland crashed out of Group A last, despite, among other things, a 3-3 draw against Finland and a win against East Germany. A 1-2 loss in the last game against West Germany meant relegation. 21 seconds before the end came the German goal which meant that the Fiat cars had to stay in Tychy.

– The air went out of us after the match against the Soviet Union. We were completely exhausted. But it was difficult that we went out despite taking eight points, says Andzrej Tkacz, who had to settle for a watch as thanks for the victory.

What we won was fine, but it would not be appropriate to encourage the representatives of a “friendly nation”.

The influence of the Soviet Union on Poland it was evident during the Cold War. That is why the victory was so important to the Polish people.

But the ruling Communist Party was concerned about possible demonstrations against the big brother of the Soviet Union, so the match was not broadcast live, but later in the evening.

– They were afraid of the anti-Soviet attitudes of the fans and that their players would be disturbed. It was fine that we won, but it would not be allowed to encourage the representatives of a “friendly nation”, says Wieslaw Jobczyk to onet.pl.

For his part, he downplays the political significance of the game.

– We did not get involved in politics. And we knew the Russian players as friends, sometimes we trained with them in Lodz. What happened outside the ice did not affect us, he tells onet.pl.

Jobczyk says the players were often offered to defect to the West.

– Right from a young age, we received offers to stay in the west when we were there playing. Every trip was an opportunity to escape and they came with offers of a good life. But we never took that step and I have no regrets that my career turned out the way it did, he says.

If you became the Polish champion in May and received the bonus in September, only half was left at that time.

The hockey players often belonged teams that were connected to companies, in the case of Jobzcyk a mining company.

– Players like me, who had a fake job in the mine, earned better than other players. It wasn’t too bad either than the boys from Nowy Targ who “worked” in the shoe factory or those from Gdansk who belonged to the shipyard.

– By Polish standards, we won okay. But in those days, whatever you earned quickly depreciated in value due to the devaluation of the currency. If you became the Polish champion in May and received the bonus in September, only half was left at that time.

For Sweden, it ended WC 1976 in bronze. Czechoslovakia surprisingly won gold ahead of the Soviet Union.

Stig Salming vividly remembers being brutally knocked down from behind in the final game against the United States by Dave Langevin. But above all he remembers Poland-Soviet 6-4.

– I will never forget that game. I know firsthand how difficult it was to face the Soviet Union at that time, he says.