Hockey Canada awaits ruling on 1964 medal

More than 40 years after a bizarre rule change robbed Canada of an Olympic hockey medal, the International Ice Hockey Federation is reviewing the decision and may award the aging players bronze medals after all.

Though Team Canada played well enough for a podium spot that winter, a last-minute rule reversal gave the bronze to the team from Czechoslovakia, leaving Canada out in the cold in Innsbruck, Austria.

While the decision was big news at the time, it seeped out of the public's consciousness in the ensuing decades. The issue was recently unearthed by a CBC producer working on a hockey documentary, which sparked a chain of events that led to the IIHF review.

In a statement released to CBC, IIHF head Rene Fasel said "the IIHF is going through its records in order to have sufficient documentation upon which a decision can be taken, whether to retroactively award the 1964 Team Canada with world championship bronze medals."

Forty-one years ago, the players on Team Canada – the country's first true national team – were convinced the bronze was theirs. The team finished the Olympic tourney with a 5-2 record, along with Sweden and Czechoslovakia.

If officials stuck with the original tie-breaking formula, Sweden would take silver and Canada bronze, with the Czechoslovaks finishing fourth. But behind the scenes, John "Bunny" Ahearne was getting busy.

The then-head of the IIHF, Ahearne gathered a small group of officials before the medal ceremony and changed the tie-breaking formula, which dropped Canada off the podium.

"I think it was arbitrarily to get at Canada," said Murray Costello, Canada's representative on the IIHF Council.

"There was still the feeling that Canada was sending in club teams and walloping some teams pretty heavily there and it was starting to begin to balance out with the Russians coming on, some of the good teams, but there was still a feeling of "get Canada if you can."

Although headlines in Canada's newspapers screamed about the "bitter controversy" and labeled the outcome "ridiculous," the incident soon dropped out of sight.

After the incident was rediscovered, the movement to right an old wrong gathered steam when it came to the attention of Hockey Canada, the governing body for amateur hockey in Canada.

"Any time a player doesn't get a medal he deserves, I think it's our responsibility to go after that," Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson told CBC. His organization contacted the IIHF and now waits for its decision, which could come later this week.

"Certainly coming into this position a few years ago, I didn't know anything about the 1964 team," Nicholson added. "But I know a number of those players personally and I'd love to be in a position to say that we've done our homework and bring that medal back."

Most of the players on the 1964 team are still alive and haven't forgotten what happened in Innsbruck.

"This would be a wrong turned around and corrected," said Ken Broderick, Team Canada's goalie.

His teammate, forward Roger Bourbonnais, is already planning what to do if he gets his medal.

"We could celebrate a celebration we should have celebrated 41 years ago. We could even have our children and our grandchildren celebrate with us."