Today is the 92nd birthday of Ivan Tregubov, the Olympic champion and six-time USSR champion with the CSKA Team.
The future defenseman of the Soviet national team was born in Livadka village, Dubensky District, Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. His family moved to Vladivostok even before the war. It was in the Far East that he began his sporting career. Since childhood Ivan was fond of skating, often skipping school, spending the whole day at the rink.
When the war began, his father and brother went to the front. Only eleven-year-old Tregubov remained with his mother; he was her only support. Together they moved to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, where Ivan began working at the factory. There, for the factory team, he began playing soccer and ball hockey, and then switched to a new exciting game - hockey with a puck. In 1947, he was called into the army. Ivan Tregubov went to Khabarovsk but by chance he failed to serve.
The best player of the local hockey club, Nikolay Sologubov, was called to Moscow, and Ivan Tregubov was taken in his place. Soon, on Sologubov's recommendation, Tregubov was also invited to CSKA Moscow. Together, these "Far Easterners" made up the most reliable pair of defensemen in the USSR. With CSKA Club Ivan Sergeevich became a six-time champion, four-time vice-champion and the winner of the Cup of the country.
"Tregubov could chop off a leg with a shot," they said of him. He was an incredibly resilient athlete and, most importantly, extremely brave and strong. Thanks to his sharp and accurate wrist shot, Tregubov hit more than one goal. Ivan Sergeyevich had a terrific game mentality. He always made intrigue when shooting, either by pausing or passing to a teammate instead of making the shot. Tregubov almost never used a power play but he never lost one-on-one to any of his opponents. He knocked the puck away from his opponents thanks to his high stickhandling skills. In any game and under any circumstances this defenseman, not sparing himself, forgetting about injuries and fatigue, burst onto the ice.
As a member of the national team Ivan Tregubov won gold at our first Winter Games in 1956. In 1955, 1957-59, he was the vice-champion of the world. In 1961, he won a bronze medal. At the world championships in 1958 and 1961, Ivan Sergeevich was acknowledged as the "Best of the Best". Ivan Sergeyevich was named "Best Defenseman". In the history of the world hockey only a few people have been awarded this title twice: the Swede Berje Salming, the Canadian Bobby Orr, the Czech Frantisek Pospisil, Vyacheslav Fetisov, and Ivan Tregubov.
In those years a pair of defensemen with consonant surnames Tregubov - Sologubov was objectively considered the strongest in world hockey. It was thanks to them that our team proved to be the most impenetrable in the Olympic finals and missed only five pucks in five games. And the main competitors, the Americans and Canadians, were swept with a 4:0 score and 2:0 score. Then the Canadians began to call him no other name than Ivan the Terrible of the Soviet hockey, thus paying tribute to the extraordinary skill of the great athlete.
At the Olympics, Ivan Tregubov scored two goals himself. Tregubov played a total of 44 games in the World Championships and the Olympics, scoring 14 goals. Despite the fact that he had an iron-clad reputation in CSKA, Tregubov was dismissed from the club in 1962. He goes to SKA (Kuibyshev, now Samara), where the former CSKA player Vinogradov was the coach. For two seasons he was the leader but then suffered a serious leg injury and left for Moscow: he was called to the Sunday "Khimik". Tregubov could play for the Moscow Region team only for a season - regime violations negated the possibility of his return to a high level.
Ivan Sergeyevich was a great humorist in life. In his memoirs, Vsevolod Bobrov recalled how Tregubov greeted the opposing forwards before matches, threatening them with jocularity: if you run fast, I'll break your legs. The legendary defensemen Sologubov and Tregubov, who seemed invincible to their opponents, are buried at Vostryakovsky Cemetery in Moscow.
Achievements
Olympic and World Champion (1956).
Best Defenseman of the world (1958, 1961).
Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (1956).
The second World Cup medalist (1955, 1957-1959).
The third World Cup medalist (1961)
The USSR champion (1955, 1956, 1958-1961).
Second prize winner of the USSR championships (1952-1954, 1957).
The third prize-winner (1962).
The winner of the Cup of the USSR (1954-1956, 1961).
He was awarded the medal "For Zealous Labour" (1957).
