Scott Radley: Canada’s first world juniors was in 1974. In the Soviet Union. It didn’t end well

He’ll often be with a buddy or someone around this time of year, when the world junior hockey championship shows up on the TV. And somehow, the same question seems to pop up.

Wonder when this event got started?

“I played in the very first world juniors,” Jim Turkiewicz then says.

Cue the surprised look.

“Not many people even to this day know.”

It was 1974. The then-19-year-old — who was born in Hamilton and lived here for five years until his family moved to Waterford — was a defenceman with the Peterborough Petes. That was fortuitous because Canada sent that squad to the Soviet Union for this invitational event rather than a national all-star team.

Why them? Even today, Turkiewicz isn’t sure. The Toronto Marlboros had beaten them in the Ontario championship and then went on to win the Memorial Cup. They probably should’ve been the team to go.

“For some reason they couldn’t or didn’t want to go,” he says. “And so they selected us.”

According to prolific hockey writer Andrew Podnieks, six players from the Marlboros had been signed by the World Hockey Association and were significantly weaker than the year before. Longtime Petes broadcaster Don Barrie says it actually had something to do with Harold Ballard hating the Soviets and refusing to let the Marlboros go. Since his Toronto Maple Leafs sponsored the team, he held sway.

Either way, they declined.

Turkiewicz was thrilled. It was a new experience and he figured it was a chance for a guy of Polish ancestry to see a bit of Europe. From the moment they arrived on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, he was shocked by what he saw, though.

There were soldiers and tanks on the streets. He doesn’t know what he was expecting but it wasn’t this. He remembers taking great care not to do anything wrong in case they locked him up and nobody knew where to find him.

He even recalls having to wait all day in the train station to finish their long trip.

“They wouldn’t let us take the train until nighttime,” he says. “They didn’t want us to see what was between Moscow and Leningrad, I’m guessing.”

Then there was the challenge of scouting. In short, there was none.

Turkiewicz says the players knew basically nothing about the other teams. They had a bit of an idea about the Soviets since they’d naturally watched the Summit Series two years earlier and got a feel for their style. Other European teams, though? They couldn’t possibly have been more unknown.

Didn’t seem to matter much. Not at first. After beating the Americans in the first game and losing 4-3 to the Finns — “I think we outshot them 40-15” — they beat the Czechs 4-2 and Sweden 5-4. All while wearing their maroon and white Petes uniforms rather than red and white with a Maple Leaf.

Then came the Soviets. If the records are correct, that one didn’t go too well.

Turkiewicz laughs.

“At the end of the first period, we’re down 1-0,” he says. “I felt like I played three hockey games already.”

The hosts were fast, they were great on the big Olympic-sized ice and they never gave up the puck. It was exhausting. Eventually, it got out of hand and finished 9-0. That put Canada in third place.

Were folks back home keeping up on all this?

“Not at all,” he says.

In 1974, there was no coverage outside Peterborough that he recalls. No TV for sure. His parents were only able to follow it because the Petes play-by-play guy went to the Soviet Union to call the games for local radio. Mom and dad recorded it all on cassette tapes. He thinks he still has them somewhere.

“You should tell him to send those tapes to the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Podnieks says.

This pattern of sending club teams continued for the first four years. In 1977, it was the Memorial Cup-champion Hamilton Fincups representing Canada. Except by then they’d moved out of the Barton Street Arena and down the QEW to their new home, so the records show St. Catharines as the entry.

Turkiewicz does sometimes wish his experience was as big a deal as it is today. That said, even with the other stuff he got to do in the game — the 67-year-old went on to play for the Toronto Toros and Birmingham Bulls in the WHA alongside guys like Frank Mahovlich, Paul Henderson and Rick Vaive, and won an Allan Cup with the Flamboro Motts Clamatos — this is a pretty cool entry in the resume. Whether people know about it or not.

So why isn’t this origin story better known and more commonly retold every year at this time?

Podnieks says it’s pretty simple.

“We didn’t win.”