In the Soviet Union, ice hockey was considered a game for real men. Several motivating songs have even been written on this subject. Viktor Kuzkin came to the rink as a boy. A few years later he became one of the leading players in the national team.
Starting conditions
Older people still remember the days when they played football with a rag ball. Often used an empty tin can. Viktor Grigorievich Kuzkin was born on July 6, 1940 in an ordinary Soviet family. Parents lived in Moscow. My father worked as a carpenter in a housing office. Mother worked as a nurse at the Botkin Hospital. When the war began, the head of the family went to the front and died in the battles for the capital. Mother had to raise her son alone. She was allocated a modest living space in the hospital building.
At school, Viktor studied well, although there were not enough stars from the sky. He spent all his free time on the site near the hospital. In the summer they played football, bast shoes and other outdoor games. In winter, ice was poured and skated. When Kuzkin grew up, he began to play Russian hockey. Teams gathered from the boys living in the district. Games proceeded recklessly, but without bloodshed. Nearby was the properly equipped stadium of Young Pioneers. There were football and hockey sections. In summer, the kids played soccer, and in winter, hockey.
Sports achivments
At fourteen, Kuzkin began to systematically train as part of the CSKA youth hockey team. The time has come to serve in the army. Victor was in the sports company of the Moscow military district. Then he was transferred to the main team of the army. The head coach of the team, the famous Anatoly Tarasov, believed in a new player only a year later, when he became convinced of the abilities of a hockey player. The debut of the young athlete in the first team took place in the fall of 1958. Kuzkin received gold medals of the championship of the Soviet Union thirteen times.
Over the entire period that Viktor Grigorievich spent on ice, he was several times recognized as the most correct defender. The famous hockey player three times became the champion of the Olympic Games. He managed to get a specialized education at the physical education department of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. In 1976, Kuzkin completed his sports career, and switched to coaching. For many years he trained the youth team of the army. Kuzkin worked for three years in Japan, where he successfully coached the club team.
