Editor’s Note: This story was originally published here on January 9, 2013.  To mark the 50th anniversary (September 28, 2022) of Paul Henderson’s winning goal in the 1972 Canada-Soviet Union Hockey Summit we are reposting a newly edited version of the story.

It was more than a hockey series – much more. It was a major historic cold war clash between the free world and those living behind the Iron Curtain – the Soviet Union. In 1972, the Soviet Union had reached its pinnacle of power. The tension was high between the two world superpowers – the Soviet Union and the USA. The hockey players themselves felt in their own bones the dangerous tension between nations as the summit series between the Soviet Union and Canada started. It was as if the superiority of Democracy over Communism was at stake on the ice.

Just as vividly as that generation can recall exactly where they were when they heard President John F Kennedy was shot, Canadians can recall exactly what they were doing on September 28, 1972, when they heard Canadian Paul Henderson scored the winning goal of the hockey summit. Paul Henderson became instantly famous around the world. Not only a Canadian hero – but a winner for democracy around the globe.

Guinness Book of World Records declared that Paul Henderson‘s #19 hockey jersey is the most expensive hockey jersey in the world, having sold for $1.25million. A Canadian silver dollar was minted to honour Henderson’s winning goal.

In 2020, another Canadian ‘hockey great,’ Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, said Paul Henderson’s winning goal was “easily” the biggest goal ever scored in hockey.

Paul Henderson has an amazing life story, the details of which have been borrowed extensively and primarily from the Life Story Foundation and from Power to Change as referenced below.

Childhood Dreams

“I was born in Ontario. In fact, maybe one of the reasons I wanted to be a hockey player was because I was born on a sleigh in the middle of a snowstorm on the way to the hospital. My father was a great hockey fan. (Before the days of Don Cherry) on Saturday nights, when Hockey Night in Canada’s Foster Hewitt came on the radio, woe betide anybody that said anything in our house. I mean it was Hockey Night in Canada. My brother and I grew up in that atmosphere, and my father certainly encouraged me to do it.”

“I can remember when I was in Grade 5, I decided I wanted to be a professional hockey player. I can distinctly remember starting to work on my autograph in Grade 5 because if I ever made it, I wanted people to know who I was. Isn’t that ridiculous? But I had a dream. A dream as a young kid to go and play in the NHL.” (1)

Later in his teens, Henderson played in the Detroit Red Wings junior league and won the memorial cup. Champions in Canada.

Hockey or Education

“After that year, I had a year of junior left. I talked to my future wife, and I decided that we were going to quit hockey, and I was going to concentrate on getting an education. There were only a hundred jobs in the NHL. Six teams at that point. The money wasn’t that great, and we wanted the good life. We used to sit there and talk about it, and I wanted to have money. I wanted to be successful. I grew up in a rural area, and we didn’t seem to have enough money. That seemed to be an aggravation. I was basically after the good life. To me, the good life was to have money, to be successful in whatever you did, to have a good marriage, and enjoy good health.” (2)

With pressure from others and a re-think himself, Paul Henderson decided to try out for the NHL, and if he didn’t make it, at that point, he would go back to school. In 1963 he started playing for the Detroit Red Wings and then the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1968. In 1972 Henderson was selected for Canada’s Team to go into the Summit Hockey Showdown with the Soviet Union.

Instantly Famous

“We went over to Russia, and not only did we shut them down, but I scored the winning goal in the sixth, seventh and eighth games. I came back to Canada, and I was the toast of Canada. It was incredible. They gave me a car. They gave me golf clubs. I went on this program and that program. Everybody in the world wanted my autograph. I can remember I was at a stoplight one day, and a guy in the car, with two lanes going both ways, recognized me and gets out of the car and he runs around and says I want your autograph. The light changed, and people are honking, and he says, “Shut up, it’s Paul Henderson. I’m getting his autograph.” I mean, it was ridiculous. It was enjoyable. I certainly had a stature that I didn’t have before, and it was really satisfying in a lot of ways. My friends would say to me, “You know, Henderson, you’re one of the luckiest guys in the world.”

Success Brings the Good Life

“At that time, I was twenty-eight years of age. I’d played in the NHL now for eight years. Something I’d always wanted to do and, I’ll tell you what, hockey is a good life. The money is good. You get four months of holiday. It is a good life. There are no two ways about it. I just proved to myself and proved to the world that I could play with the best hockey players in the world and do well. We had a nice home. We had the cars. In fact, I had a car that no one was ever able to pass me in for two years. I was into those things. I belonged to the right country club.”

“I can stand here and tell you that if I could have chosen from all the women in the world, I could not have married a better woman than the woman I married. She’s suited to me. We’ve been married for over twenty-nine years today and have a terrific marriage. We had three children by this time. I knew that I had everything that I ever set out in life to accomplish.” (3)

PUCK IN THE NET BUT VOID IN HIS HEART

Paul Henderson, as he was relating his story to an audience, said at that point in his life, at age 28, he had everything he ever dreamed of having in life. And then he admitted something perhaps you have been afraid to admit – he said this:

“Yet there was a restlessness, a discontentment in the centre of my being that I could not ignore. I was angry, bitter and frustrated, and there were things about my life that I didn’t know how to handle. Things were not going well with the Maple Leafs, the team I was playing on, and I was having a lot of conflicts with the owner. Here I was playing in the NHL, doing something that I had always strived for, but I had become more bitter and angry than I had ever been in my life.” (4)

By this time, Mr. Henderson was drinking more to mask the pain and to hide his inner emptiness. Like so many others, he was experiencing an inner void that no amount of success, fame, accomplishments and pleasure can fill. He was empty and hurting. After a night of partying, he would wake up and find the inner gnawing emptiness was still with him. He wasn’t able to shake it. He started asking people if they themselves were truly satisfied and if there was a real purpose and meaning to life. Solid answers were elusive. It was at this stage in his life when Mel Stevens literally came knocking on his door.

 “If You Died Tonight…”

“At the time, when I was searching and may have become a little more teachable, I met one of these religious guys. One of these born-againers – one of these Christians. Now I didn’t know what born again meant, but I used to make fun of religious fanatics. All along my attitude had been: “You can believe anything you want to believe, but don’t lay anything on me.”

“As I talked to this man, he started to ask me some questions that really got me thinking. In fact, he said, “Paul, if you died tonight, do you know where you would spend eternity” Well, you know, I’m not into dying. I’m only twenty-eight, and ‘eternity is that religious stuff.”

“I really thought that Christianity was for people that couldn’t cut it. If you couldn’t make it out there, you needed somebody else. You needed a crutch, and then you had to turn to God, but the real man’s man certainly didn’t need any God to get by.”

“I was very negative toward him, but then I started to ask my wife, “Do you think there’s anything after this?” We weren’t really sure. Fortunately, we grew up going to Sunday School in church, and we heard the stories and everything; but after I played junior hockey, I set that aside. I was going to be a man’s man.” (5)

Today there are athletes who are openly Christian, but back when Paul Henderson was feeling so empty, having reached the pinnacle of fame, and still restless and unsatisfied, he knew of not another single Christian athlete. In fact, he didn’t even think it would be possible to be a true Christian and a hockey player at the same time. He admitted to being a little negative about what this Christian man was telling him but interested enough to look into it further.

Searching through the Bible

“I got a Bible…For the next two and a half years, I drove this man crazy. I asked thousands of questions. I read through the Bible several times, and I just looked at the whole spectrum. After two and a half years, I came to these four little points I’d like to share with you.

Born Again Defined

Hindrances to Becoming a Christian

“I got to a point where I wanted to become a Christian, but I couldn’t do it for three reasons:

Goal of a Lifetime – Scoring for Eternity

“Now, this went on in my life for several months until one specific day, March 12, 1975. I was thirty-two years of age and I was in my library all by myself. I had a conversation with God. I said, “God, I can’t fight you any longer. I have got everything that the world can imagine, but I don’t have the one thing I think I need, and that’s peace of mind and quietness. I accept the fact that You love me. I accept the fact that I’m separated from You, and I ask You to forgive me of all the things that I’ve ever done right now. I invite Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into my life as my Lord and Saviour.” (6)

Inner Quietness, Contentment and Peace

“Since that day, I have never been the same. God has had a positive impact in every area of my life. Most importantly, He has taken away my anger and bitterness. My life certainly hasn’t been trouble-free. One of the most challenging times in my life was when my wife was in the hospital, and we thought we were going to lose her. I was mad at God, but I realized that night that life is a gift from God, and I decided right then to place everything in my life in His hands. He had proven Himself to me over the years with His faithfulness, and I knew that I had no choice but to surrender my life to Him. Now the inner quietness, contentment and peace I experience on a daily basis assures me that His promise to love and care for me is true and real. And best of all, I look forward to spending eternity with Him.” (7)

You Have a Choice to Make

Paul Henderson got over his fear of ridicule for being a Christian – although he did take his share of ribbing in the early days when he was still playing hockey. In the Bible, there was a man who was impressed with the innocence of Christ, but he had to make a choice between Jesus and a friendship with Caesar. Pilate stuck with his friendship and sentenced Jesus to be crucified. Perhaps there’s something in your life you have to weigh up – Jesus or that someone or something. Remember, your choice is for eternity. Choosing something else will result in eternal darkness and separation from God.

Cancer Strikes

In 2009, Paul Henderson was diagnosed with chronic lymphoid leukemia. But repeatedly in interviews, he talks about his confidence in Christ and the complete absence of fear as he thinks of death. In September 2012, he contrasted for The Hockey News his present peace with the fear he had before he knew Christ. “I was petrified of dying for years,” Henderson said. “We’d get onto a plane, and there would be bad weather, and I’d be petrified.” (8) Today, in light of his prognosis, he is calm. He knows this peace and experiences this calm because Christ died for his sins, and he accepted Christ as his Saviour back in March 1975. He knows that he is safe inside the family of God and that Heaven is his eternal home. He has no doubts about that.

Check out a short heaven4sure Idiom Video: Beat Around the Bush

In a CBC Radio interview, Paul Henderson shared his faith with the radio host. He quoted the words of Christ from John 10:10 when Jesus said: “I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” The host, after reading Henderson’s latest book had a wrap-up question for his guest. He wanted to know what Henderson meant when he said to go for contentment rather than achievement. (9) Henderson talked about the peace and contentment he has found through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Think About It

Sources:
1. http://www.lifestory.org/component/myblog/cold-war-on-ice.html
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. http://powertochange.com/discover/faith/paulhenderson/
5. Ibid. 1
6. Ibid. 1
7. Ibid. 4
8. http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/48390-Backchecking-Paul-Henderson.html
9. http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Q/Q+on+CBC-TV/Interviews/Other/ID/2291456738/ (No longer available)

Other Sources:
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/05/10/henderson-talks-hockey-cancer-and-faith
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/sports/hockey/in-hockeys-1972-summit-series-between-canada-and-soviet-union-cold-war-got-colder.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0