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1974 WHA All-Stars vs. the Soviet National Team: Franchise Recognition and Foreign Diplomacy in the “Forgotten Series”

Unlike the iconic 1972 Summit Series, the 1974 Series between the Soviet Union and Team Canada—this time a national team consisting solely of World Hockey Association (WHA) players—remains largely a Canadian folklore footnote. In this essay, the authors hold up the 1974 Summit Series for critical reflection by focussing on three interrelated themes to reveal the competing political-economic, cultural, and diplomatic interests that were at stake in this largely forgotten event. First, they provide a political-economic analysis of the emergence of the WHA and the league’s objectives for the 1974 Summit Series. The authors then offer an analysis of the role of the second Summit Series as an instance of “hockey diplomacy,” a component of Prime Minister Trudeau’s broader foreign policy agenda, which included improved bilateral relations with Moscow. Finally, the authors examine the significance of the 1974 Summit Series as part of the foreign policy initiatives of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Despite the stated diplomatic ambitions of both Canada and the Soviet Union, though, the 1974 Summit Series (like its 1972 predecessor) ended in violence, politicking, and accusations of unsportsmanlike behaviour, and would mark the finality of this specific bilateral model of sporting exchange to facilitate cultural contact and goodwill between both nations in the Cold War.