Bill Christian, who hadn't scored until the gold medal game in 1960, tallied two goals for the Americans, including the game winner.

'Small Olympics' bring
big results for U.S.
By Mike Wyman
NHL.com correspondent
Jan. 19, 2006

The 1960 Winter Olympics held at Squaw Valley, California have been described as the last "small" Olympics. For the United States' hockey team, it was anything but. Their gold medal performance, since overshadowed by the 1980 squad's miraculous victory at Lake Placid, was America's first.

Weldy Olson, a forward on both the 1956 and 1960 teams, takes exception to the way the team is popularly remembered.

"A lot of people say that we had no experience, that we were just a bunch of carpenters and insurance men and so on that came out of nowhere and won the Olympics," he said. "We had, on our team, accumulated at least 30-35 years of international experience. It was my fifth year. Three or four of the other guys had four years. Five of us had played in 1956."

The team's core was assembled at West Point shortly after Christmas, 1959. Some 40 players turned up to go through their paces under the watchful eye of coach, Jack Riley, a veteran of the 1948 team. He chose defenseman Jack Kirrane, a 31-year-old firefighter who had played on the 1948 squad, as his captain.

Riley put them through their paces, chose his squad and started playing exhibition games. He fine-tuned it for the last time just before the Olympic competition began, bringing in three veterans, John Mayasich and brothers Bill and Bob Cleary, all of whom had represented the US internationally in the past.

"Our record was fair and I had no intention of dropping anyone from the team, but the last night I decided I had to make a change because we weren't going to win with that team," Riley said. "I didn't tell anyone I was bringing the Cleary Brothers in.

"There was a lot of animosity on the team. It was unbelievable." the now 84 year-old Riley recalled. "Two of the Harvard guys hated the other two Harvard guys. The East hated the West and the West hated the East. The Clearys turned up in Denver and nobody would talk to them. They wouldn't give them the puck in warm-ups."

Herb Brooks, the only forward without international experience, found himself on the outside looking in. He would have another shot at Olympic gold 20 years later.

"If I had known in 1960 that he was going to coach the 1980 team, I would have kept him," Riley chuckled. "I wouldn't have cut him."

The U.S. team had a winning record in the month leading up to the Games. Even though they were the defending silver medallists, nobody figured them to medal in Squaw Valley.

Goaltender Jack McCartan, today a scout with the Vancouver Canucks, didn't have gold on his mind at the outset of competition.

"We all thought that if we could finish third we'd be doing fine," McCartan said. "We had some good hockey players. We had Jack Kirrane, who was a premiere amateur player, a great guy, and John Mayasich who's probably the finest American hockey player I've ever seen. And then we had the Christian brothers, the Cleary brothers, Paul Johnson, Tommy Williams and a cast of others who were pretty good themselves."

Once play started, things went the Americans' way. They beat Czechoslovakia, 7-5, in their first game and rolled over Australia, 12-1, in the next.

Easily topping their pool, it was on to the medal round. Sweden was not the international hockey power it is today. The U.S. came out on the better end of a 6-3 game, paced by Roger Christian's hat trick. Next up was Germany, which fell 9-1 as Bill Cleary recorded four goals and brother, Bob, chipped in with another.

"We all knew if we could get by those first two we had a shot at Canada in the third game," said Olson. "We had played Canada to a 5-5 tie in Minneapolis-St. Paul shortly before the Olympics, but neither team was complete yet. We had 14 of the final 17 (players), but we still had Mayasich and the Cleary brothers to come."

Jumping out to an early lead thanks to Bob Cleary's power-play goal, the U.S. doubled it when Paul Johnson scored late in the second period. They hung on to take it 2-1 with McCartan stopping all but one of the 40 shots directed his way.

"The Canadian game and the goal by Paul Johnson was really the crowning event of the Olympics," Olson recalled. "If we didn't get by Canada I don't know if we'd have been able to handle Russia at all. We'd have gone out and played them as we could, but you just have a different attitude when you're down one."

No other team had been willing to face Canada and the USSR back to back when the schedule had been drawn up.

"They were the defending Olympic champions," said McCartan. "With their political system they had a pretty tight rein on their players. It was a year-round job for those guys. They had their own system -- they didn't copy the North American game -- and they were well trained."

The Americans won, 3-2. Bill Cleary scored early and the Soviets replied with two goals before the end of the first period. Bill Christian tied the game midway through the second. With five minutes remaining Christian scored his second goal of the tournament to put the U.S. ahead for good.

It was a long five minutes.

"Against the Russians we were shorthanded four of the last five minutes. I'd never realized it until we had a gathering here a while back they showed the game film," said Jack Kirrane. "Where they got hold of it I'll never know. We were watching the film and Riley must have thought he was back behind the bench. He was yelling at us, it was funny.

"Bill Christian hadn't scored a goal up until that game. We had breakfast together that morning," Olson said. "We were both lamenting the fact that neither one of us had a goal up until that point in the final round. He broke loose with a couple good ones. But again, it was McCartan. He was the real story and I don't think he gets as much credit as he should get."

The victorious Americans' opponent in the gold medal game was Czechoslovakia, a team they'd beaten three times in the recent past, in their tournament opener and twice shortly before going to Squaw Valley.

The match was scheduled for 8 a.m., well out of prime time for television viewers. Canada and the USSR were slated for the afternoon game on the assumption of all involved in the scheduling that it would be the gold medal game.

Riley remembers his instructions to the troops.

"I made my best speech of the two months I was with the team before the Czech game. I said, 'One thing we don't want to do is spark this team and let them get a goal right off.'"

Eight seconds after the opening faceoff the Czechs had a lead. They went into the third period leading 4-3, as they had in the three previous meetings. During the intermission, Soviet captain Nikolai Sologubov joined the U.S. team in the dressing room and suggested that they take a few whiffs of oxygen to revive themselves.

Olson thinks the Soviet defenseman's visit might not have been purely an effort to share training tips in the spirit of international brotherhood.

"If we lost to the Czechs, Russia's in fourth place and out of the medals, so Sologubov probably had an ulterior motive. Only about four guys took oxygen. I didn't, Roger Christian didn't, most of the guys didn't. That's something you'd never be able to do today, with all the security arrangements, have a player to go into another team's dressing room during a game."

Six minutes into the final period Roger Christian tied things up. A minute and 40 seconds later Bob Cleary gave the American side the lead.

In the Squaw Valley Olympics penalties had to be served in full. At the eleven-minute mark Czech defenseman, Rudy Potsch, was thumbed off for interference. By the time he had been released from the penalty box Bob Cleary, Roger Christian and Bill Cleary had all scored power-play goals on the way to the 9-4 victory.

The unrated champions stuck around to watch what had been previously forecast as the gold medal game. Jack Kirrane accepted the medals at the conclusion of the tournament.

"I can't really explain what it felt like to stand there and hear the national anthem playing," Kirrane said. "My legs were shaking. I kept looking down at my pants and they weren't moving so I guess I was all right."

The Americans had won all seven of their games, defeating every team expected to finish ahead of them at the 1960 Olympic Winter Games. For each and every one of them it was their greatest hockey moment.

There was no tickertape parade for America's first hockey gold medallists, no call from President Dwight Eisenhower and no invitation to the White House. After two short months the members of the U.S. Olympic hockey team quickly and quietly went back to the lives they'd interrupted. At least one player left without his prize.

"I had a fistful of medals and was looking around for Tommy Williams to give him his, but he and his family had already gone home to Minnesota." Kirrane said. "They had a long drive ahead of them and so they wanted to get started."