PHENOMENON OF TORPEDO

For many decades in a row, from September to March, the stands of the Sports Palace have been exploding from the screams of hockey team fans. Torpedo is a pride of Ust-Kamenogorsk, a sensation in the hockey world of the former Soviet Country. And at the origins of formation of the team and subsequently development of hockey, including children's, was Ulba Metallurgical Plant and its leaders.

A PUCK WAS BORN FROM A BALL

In early 50s, young specialists from all over the Union began to come en masse to the small town to the secret factory p/o. And where youth is, there is sport.

We played football, volleyball, basketball, and, of course, hockey. Young factory workers quickly organized a team, called Torpedo, however, hockey was first Russian – with a ball, and the team trained on Poganka. One of the first hockey players was Vitaly Tatarinov from Novosibirsk. In April 1954, sports instructor Leonid Koshmanov brought various sports equipment from Leningrad, including hockey ammunition. In 1955, father and son Ivan and Nikolay Konyakhin arrived at the plant from Elektrostal. The son had the first sports category in ice hockey. And Ivan Konyakhin became the first coach of Torpedo.

To quote the authors of book Our Hockey: «It is important to note that professional athletes have not yet existed... The guys who defended the factory shift went out on the ice, and their rivals were their colleagues...».

TARKHOV AND BAULIN

Games with the teams of related enterprises of Sredmash allowed Torpedo to gain experience quickly, and training became regular. In 1961, 5 professional hockey players arrived at the plant from Novosibirsk. Among them was Yuri Tarkhov, now a well-known goalkeeping coach. As Yuri Petrovich recalled, he played for Torpedo for 5 years, then after an injury he became a coach, combining the work of a locksmith-adjuster of UMP. And a little later he switched to children's hockey.

Nevertheless, the formation of Ust-Kamenogorsk hockey is connected with the arrival in 1964 of an experienced player and coach Yuri Baulin. Officially, there was no position of a coach at the plant, and Yuri Nikolaevich was employed as an operator. The time when the management of the team passed into the hands of a Moscow playing coach can be considered the beginning of the history of competent Ust-Kamenogorsk hockey. The birth of a recognizable Torpedo style. At the invitation of the plant, professional players who were listed as employees of UMP JSC began to come to the team. They were employed at the factory as operators, metallurgists, and then by sports instructors in various workshops.

A PALACE FOR ICE KNIGHTS

According to the memoirs of Yuri Baulin, taken from the book by A. Shevchenko Puck-whoo!... specialists from the management of the plant very thoroughly understood our issues... The most significant thing that was decided at that time was the construction of a modern sports complex. To build a large sports facility in a small town in violation of Khrushchev»s formidable order banning the construction of cultural objects could cost the leadership dearly. But with the support of E.P. Slavsky in 1969, a new, modern Sports Palace admits hockey players to the indoor ice.

VICTORIES AND THE FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP OF KAZAKHSTAN

In 1957, the first Championship of Kazakhstan was held in Alma-Ata. Ulba Torpedo went to the competition as part of 10 workers-athletes, the team won silver.

The first season in the big hockey (class « second group, first subgroup) Torpedo players spent in 1964/65. And before that, Ust– Kamenogorsk citizens had already managed to acquire for themselves a solid experience of performing in tournaments of various ranks. They took part in the championships of the Republic, Spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR, won the right to play in class B and further, made their way to class A. In the early 70s, a memorial tournament was held in honor of Hero of the Soviet Union Tolegen Tokhtarov. And since 1980, the triumphal march of Torpedo up began. The victories over the Moscow clubs CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak were no longer perceived as sensations…

GOLDEN HELMET, OR RAISE YOUR OWN

On a March day in 1969, Sports Palace let the boys from the yard boxes into its ice. The coaching staff of that time believed that it was necessary to cultivate their hockey players, teach them to play Ust-Kamenogorsk hockey – assertive, attacking. One of them was Yuri Tarkhov. The Sports Palace with its halls, artificial ice, experienced coaches gave a noticeable acceleration to children's hockey. And in 1973 Ust-Kamenogorsk hosted on its ice the finalists of the All-Union tournament Golden Puck, for schoolchildren, where young torpedo players took bronze. Anatoly Tarasov and Anatoly Firsov came to the tournament. And in 1989 Ust-Kamenogorsk Youth School was recognized as the best in Soviet Union.

LEGENDS FOR ALL THE TIME

The names of famous hockey players who were raised by Ulba Torpedo are forever inscribed in the history of urban hockey. Nikolay Konyakhin, Igor Kuznetsov, Evgeny Paladyev, Boris Alexandrov, Viktor and Evgeny Nabokov, Koreshkov brothers, Ravil Gataulin, Vladimir Lokotko, Valery Kirichenko, Vadim Tunnikov and many others. World and European champions, NHL players, honored Masters of Sports, and coaches, the most famous athletes in the hockey world are hockey graduates from a small town in Kazakhstan, stars whose fate was also helped by the city-forming enterprise – Ulba Metallurgical Plant.

A SOLID FOUNDATION

Ust-Kamenogorsk hockey's 30-year journey took place with the full participation of UMP and its leaders – Directors Vladimir Potanin, Yuri Murin, Chief Engineers Ivan Volkov and Evgeny Ivanov and, of course, Yefim Pavlovich Slavsky. Enthusiasm and support from the plant and Sredmash helped the city hockey to get tremendous development, to grow legends. The history of Ust-Kamenogorsk hockey began on the ice filled with his own hands, with young Ulba employees, with the full support of UMP. From the «box» of the numbered factory, hockey has stepped into the republic, the Union and the world sports community. A good tradition for playing with the puck – financial support of a large enterprise – was continued by Kazzinc. But this is another chapter of hockey history of Ust-Kamenogorsk.

When preparing the article, materials were used, including photos from the books Our Hockey, Puck-whoo! by A. Shevchenko, Conquerors of Closed Metals, website https://hctorpedo.pro and other open sources.

Anna Chumina