Overview

Tasked with finding common ground and building friendships between the world's two largest countries and arctic neighbors, a young Canadian diplomat finds himself on his first overseas assignment in Moscow, the Soviet capital. It's the early 1970s and a Cold War between communism and capitalism, the west and the east, is simmering--while the ice rink is just starting to heat up. Smith opts for sports diplomacy, throwing off his embassy black tie dress codes and donning the blue and white sweater of the Moscow Maple Leafs. A vodka-infused encounter with the influential Izvestia journalist The Snowman leads him into the murky world of Soviet hockey officialdom, the KGB, and the decision that USSR amateurs were finally ready to play Canadian professionals in an eight-game Friendship Series of the best versus the best. Trusted by each side with unparalleled access to officials, coaches, and players on both teams, Smith witnesses this unique and epic hockey series that has come to transcend time. The 1972 Canadian-Soviet Hockey Series will go down in history as a pivotal political event, changing the course of two nations and the world of hockey.

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Gary Smith is the Fletcher Jones Professor of Economics at Pomona College in Claremont, California. He received his doctorate in economics from Yale University and taught there as assistant professor for seven years. Smith has won two teaching awards and has authored more than seventy academic papers, nine textbooks, and seven educational software programs. Kyle Tait is a professionally trained voice actor and narrator in Atlanta, Georgia. His first brush with a microphone came in sports radio, calling baseball in the Atlanta Braves' organization. To pass the time in the off-season, he started voicing audiobooks, and a few years later he left baseball and went into narration full-time. Now his voice can be heard on a variety of audiobook and corporate voice-over outlets worldwide. When not in the studio, Tait can still be found moonlighting in the sports world, calling football, basketball, baseball, and softball on a variety of TV and radio outlets. He's also a studio host with IMG College, anchoring football and basketball broadcasts for schools like TCU, UConn, and Arizona.

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