1972 marked the height of the Cold War and tensions spilled into sporting competitions. On August 31 of that year, Bobby Fisher became the first American born in the United States to win the World Chess Championship, beating the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as the world watched and ending 24 years of Soviet domination. Ten days later, the U.S Men’s basketball team came into the final game of the Summer Olympic tournament against the Soviet Union having won the previous seven gold medals and putting up an overall Olympic record of 63-0 before losing the most controversial game in Olympic history, 51-50. Hockey Canada and the Soviet Hockey Federation met in April of 1972 during the IIHF World Championships to discuss a series, to be held under international rules, that would pit a Canadian team comprised of professional players against the Soviet national team in an eight game series to be played in September. The two sides agreed on the terms: four games in Canada, using IIHF amateur referees and four games in Moscow, using European referees. Team Canada selected former Boston Bruins’ coach Harry Sinden as head coach and former player John Ferguson as assistant. The event was to be called the Canada-U.S.S.R Series and would commence on September 2 at the Montreal Forum. The Canadian team was made up of NHL All-Stars, including co-captains Phil Esposito, Frank Mahovlich, Stan Mikita and Jean Ratelle. Team Canada was heavily favored and went into the series expecting to win handily. Harry Sinden said, “Canada is first in the world in two things: hockey and wheat” while NHL players’ union director Alan Eagleson stated, “ We gotta win eight games…anything else than an unblemished sweep of the Russians would bring shame down on the heads of the players and the national pride.” The Soviets claimed they were in the series to learn.