photo: Franz Reindl/IIHF
The 1976 Olympics came down to the final day. There were two thrilling parts to the possible medal winners. The gold medal was between the Soviets and Czechs. The Soviets won that game, 4-3, to take gold, and Czechoslovakia took silver. That was the final game of the Games
But earlier in the day, there were two games that decided bronze, and things got complicated quickly. The United States had the upper hand. They had four points in the standings. Finland and West Germany each had two. The Finns beat Poland, 7-1, and West Germany played the Americans.
“Before our final game against the U.S., our coach said we need to win the game by four goals, and if we do, we win the bronze,” explained Franz Reindl, a 21-year-old on the team and now a longtime IIHF Council member. “That was our goal, and everyone was so excited. We knew we could do this.”
Germany opened the scoring midway through the second period and made it 2-0 early in the third. But the Americans answered right back. 2-1. Alois Schloder made it 3-1 at 7:59, and Ernst Kopf made it 4-1 at 14:49.
“Late in the game, the score was 4-1,” Reindl narrated. “We needed one more goal. Now, two minutes to go. The older players were saying to the coach in harsh words, get the goalie out! But he refused. The players got really mad. In the dressing room after, some players cried, and some were really mad at the coach.”
But what no one fully understood was the math. Miro Subrt, a Czech Council member at the time, had created a complex tie-breaking formula for three or more teams. You make a mini-standings of the results between the tied teams, and then calculate goal RATIO. Today, it is simply goal differential.
So here’s what happened. West Germany, Finland, and the United States all had four points. Within the mini-standings, all teams had won a game and lost a game. Goals differential favoured Finland at 9-8. The Germans were 7-6, and the U.S. 6-8. So clearly the Americans were out of the running. But Finland’s ratio was .529 and West Germany’s was .538.
“Miro came in to the dressing room,” Reindl explained, “and took out a piece of paper. He started writing out the numbers, and he looked up and said, you’ve won bronze. I can still hear his voice: Germany has bronze.' It was incredible."
That was 50 years ago. Many of the players will be celebrating on that exact date, February 14, at an event organized by Alois Schloder, one of Reindl’s teammates at the Innsbruck Olympics. Germany won a bronze in 1932 and a silver in 2018, and these remain the only three Olympic medals for the country. But the one in ’76 was special, both for Reindl and the country.
“In 1976, we had a lot of players fighting to be on the team,” Reindl recalled. “At the time, we had only 18 spots, including goalies. Now it’s 25. It was hard. The coach had to decide whether to go with 6 or 7 defence or 9 or 10 forwards. He decided to have an extra forward, and I was the 10th guy. I was so happy to be named to the team. It was an emotional moment for me because I was just a young player at the time. I was a spare, but soon I was playing more, skating up and down and hitting guys. I got my ice time, in the end. Good friends of mine didn’t make the team, so I was lucky. But it helped my whole career, my whole life, this moment. It was fantastic.”
Although this story has a happy ending, it wasn’t always looking that way.
“Before the Olympic games we played Romania in Augsburg, and we lost,” Reindl continued. “The media was going after us, so we had a bad preparation camp. But in Innsbruck, it changed. We beat Switzerland to qualify, and we beat Poland at the start, and at the end we beat the U.S.. It was fantastic.”
Like any surprising result, the team was embraced by fans across the country. “All of Germany was cheering. It was so unexpected and so well received, and I’m still honoured for it today. My hometown in Bavaria was only 50 kilometres away. My teammate Ignaz [Berndaner], who lived near me, said we better take these medals home so we don’t lose them. So we drove home right then, put the medals in a safe place in our houses, and drove back to join the celebrations with our team!”
The Olympics kick-started Reindl’s career, a fact he has never forgotten and always appreciates.
“I came from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is a small town. Hockey is number one there. I played an Under-20 championship in Sweden in ’72. It was wonderful. A little later, I was nominated to the national team, which was in B Pool. The speed of the game was not so great. But in 1976, I made the Olympic team and went on to play 181 national games. All of my career was because of this team. The speed of the game was high, and we had a lot of good players—Erich Kuhnhackl, Alois Schloder, Rainer Philipp. We had two good goalies, which is what you needed at the Olympics playing the big teams. I had great teammates. They helped me in the room and on the ice.”
The German federation at the time didn’t take advantage of the victory enough, but Reindl made up for that when he became president in 2014. “At that time, we had no program,” he continued. “Nothing was organized. When I took over in 2014, we started a program called Power Play 26, and over the years we have developed a lot of players, a lot of NHL players, Stutzle and Seider, for instance. They all came out of this program, and we won a silver medal in PyeongChang and at the World Championship in 2022. It was amazing. In '76, it was a mistake not to use this success to do more. It’s a personal legacy, of course, but the federation could have done more. But hockey now in Germany is really on the rise, both with players and fans, boys and girls playing. The league is strong and the investments are good.”
And as the men get set to compete for medals in Turin in 2026, there is always the chance the Germans, or another team, will surprise the big boys and make the podium. Fifty years ago, Reidl and the Germans did just that.
But earlier in the day, there were two games that decided bronze, and things got complicated quickly. The United States had the upper hand. They had four points in the standings. Finland and West Germany each had two. The Finns beat Poland, 7-1, and West Germany played the Americans.
“Before our final game against the U.S., our coach said we need to win the game by four goals, and if we do, we win the bronze,” explained Franz Reindl, a 21-year-old on the team and now a longtime IIHF Council member. “That was our goal, and everyone was so excited. We knew we could do this.”
Germany opened the scoring midway through the second period and made it 2-0 early in the third. But the Americans answered right back. 2-1. Alois Schloder made it 3-1 at 7:59, and Ernst Kopf made it 4-1 at 14:49.
“Late in the game, the score was 4-1,” Reindl narrated. “We needed one more goal. Now, two minutes to go. The older players were saying to the coach in harsh words, get the goalie out! But he refused. The players got really mad. In the dressing room after, some players cried, and some were really mad at the coach.”
But what no one fully understood was the math. Miro Subrt, a Czech Council member at the time, had created a complex tie-breaking formula for three or more teams. You make a mini-standings of the results between the tied teams, and then calculate goal RATIO. Today, it is simply goal differential.
So here’s what happened. West Germany, Finland, and the United States all had four points. Within the mini-standings, all teams had won a game and lost a game. Goals differential favoured Finland at 9-8. The Germans were 7-6, and the U.S. 6-8. So clearly the Americans were out of the running. But Finland’s ratio was .529 and West Germany’s was .538.
“Miro came in to the dressing room,” Reindl explained, “and took out a piece of paper. He started writing out the numbers, and he looked up and said, you’ve won bronze. I can still hear his voice: Germany has bronze.' It was incredible."
That was 50 years ago. Many of the players will be celebrating on that exact date, February 14, at an event organized by Alois Schloder, one of Reindl’s teammates at the Innsbruck Olympics. Germany won a bronze in 1932 and a silver in 2018, and these remain the only three Olympic medals for the country. But the one in ’76 was special, both for Reindl and the country.
“In 1976, we had a lot of players fighting to be on the team,” Reindl recalled. “At the time, we had only 18 spots, including goalies. Now it’s 25. It was hard. The coach had to decide whether to go with 6 or 7 defence or 9 or 10 forwards. He decided to have an extra forward, and I was the 10th guy. I was so happy to be named to the team. It was an emotional moment for me because I was just a young player at the time. I was a spare, but soon I was playing more, skating up and down and hitting guys. I got my ice time, in the end. Good friends of mine didn’t make the team, so I was lucky. But it helped my whole career, my whole life, this moment. It was fantastic.”
Although this story has a happy ending, it wasn’t always looking that way.
“Before the Olympic games we played Romania in Augsburg, and we lost,” Reindl continued. “The media was going after us, so we had a bad preparation camp. But in Innsbruck, it changed. We beat Switzerland to qualify, and we beat Poland at the start, and at the end we beat the U.S.. It was fantastic.”
Like any surprising result, the team was embraced by fans across the country. “All of Germany was cheering. It was so unexpected and so well received, and I’m still honoured for it today. My hometown in Bavaria was only 50 kilometres away. My teammate Ignaz [Berndaner], who lived near me, said we better take these medals home so we don’t lose them. So we drove home right then, put the medals in a safe place in our houses, and drove back to join the celebrations with our team!”
The Olympics kick-started Reindl’s career, a fact he has never forgotten and always appreciates.
“I came from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which is a small town. Hockey is number one there. I played an Under-20 championship in Sweden in ’72. It was wonderful. A little later, I was nominated to the national team, which was in B Pool. The speed of the game was not so great. But in 1976, I made the Olympic team and went on to play 181 national games. All of my career was because of this team. The speed of the game was high, and we had a lot of good players—Erich Kuhnhackl, Alois Schloder, Rainer Philipp. We had two good goalies, which is what you needed at the Olympics playing the big teams. I had great teammates. They helped me in the room and on the ice.”
The German federation at the time didn’t take advantage of the victory enough, but Reindl made up for that when he became president in 2014. “At that time, we had no program,” he continued. “Nothing was organized. When I took over in 2014, we started a program called Power Play 26, and over the years we have developed a lot of players, a lot of NHL players, Stutzle and Seider, for instance. They all came out of this program, and we won a silver medal in PyeongChang and at the World Championship in 2022. It was amazing. In '76, it was a mistake not to use this success to do more. It’s a personal legacy, of course, but the federation could have done more. But hockey now in Germany is really on the rise, both with players and fans, boys and girls playing. The league is strong and the investments are good.”
And as the men get set to compete for medals in Turin in 2026, there is always the chance the Germans, or another team, will surprise the big boys and make the podium. Fifty years ago, Reidl and the Germans did just that.