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PHOTOS BY USA Hockey Magazine Archives; Norman Hayward 36 // AUGUST 2019 USAHOCKEYMAGAZINE.COM By the time the tour reached Chicago that's where the wheels came precariously close to coming off. W hile the group was eating brea k fast one morning , someone noticed the headline in a local paper that said that an American Airlines f light carrying 271 peo- ple crashed soon after takeoff from O'Hare International A irport. W hen Tarasov saw the headlines and had an interpreter read the account, he ref used to boa rd a nother American plane. "It was Aeroflot or nothing," Vairo recalled Tarasov's response. "I tried to tell him that Aeroflot didn't fly here, especially during the height of the Cold War." The only thing left to do was hire a cargo van large enough to carry the traveling party and all their workout gear. With Vairo behind the wheel they set out for Detroit and then on to Houghton, Mich., before hitting the east coast. "There was a lot of driving but it was doable. This was the only way we could continue," Vairo said. "But by the time the tour ended I was exhausted." Tarasov often shared his admiration for Nor t h A mer ic a n ho c key, w h i le q u ic k t o point out what he viewed as its weaknesses. Despite what was happening on the global stage, he cared more about the game itself than political ideologies. He freely shared his philosophies on the game while encour- aging coaches to develop their own coaching style that best suits their players and their respective cultures. He had made a number of friends in North America over the years and reveled in reunit- ing with them on each stop of the tour. At a clinic at Northeastern University in Boston, Bill Cleary, the hero of the 1960 U.S. Olympic Team, was in the stands. Tarasov greeted the acting athletic director at Harvard University with a bear hug and a joke, "Billy, you almost sent me to Siberia," in reference to the U.S. victory in Squaw Valley, Calif. Hours later the group had dinner at Cleary's house in Cambridge overlooking the Charles River when Tarasov threw a bottle of Russian vodka into the bushes and proclaimed, "you can only drink this when you win another gold medal." Little did anyone know it would take only a matter of months for that to happen as the Americans would once again shock the Soviets in Lake Placid, N.Y. "[Tarasov] liked our kids and he real- ly respected Herb Brooks," Vairo recalled. "But like most of us, he never thought the Americans would win." Over the course of his lifetime, Tarasov's thirst for knowledge and passion for teach- ing led him to become one of the sport's true ambassadors in his "second career" as a hockey author, consultant and coaching clinic director. He did more than create a hockey dynasty in the Soviet Union. He developed a revo- lutionary style of player development, and then shared it with other hockey-playing countries, including USA Hockey. Shortly before his passing in 1995, Tarasov willed the rights to his final book on coaching, simply entitled "Tarasov," to Vairo and USA Hockey. Since its publication in 1997, the book has become required reading for hockey coaches around the world. "His visit and the creation of our player development camps were the two biggest things that helped move U.S. hockey forward," said Vairo, who still makes it a point to visit his friend's grave whenever he's in Moscow. "To this day I am so grateful for what he did to help me, which also helped hockey in the United States." P –Anatoli Tarasov "There is no secret in hockey. There is imagination, hard work, discipline and dedication to achieving whatever the goal is. But there are no secrets, none at all." With the help of interpreter Lev Zarokhovich, legendary Soviet Union hockey coach Anatoli Tarasov puts a young American hockey player through a drill during his dryland training presentation. At right, Lou Vairo displays a book on coaching hockey that Tarasov willed to Vairo and USA Hockey prior to his passing in 1995. Check out pg. 38 for a Digital Edition Exclusive interview with long-time Middlebury College hockey coach Bill Beaney talking about how Tarasov's teachings impacted his career.