It's an ice battle of speed and collision!
At 10 o'clock in the evening, on the ice surface of the Beijing Aozhong Ice Rink, more than a dozen team members constantly competed, and the wind was fresh under the feet, and the ice knives splashed white ice chips. A black ice ball glides rapidly, and the sound of the collision between the club, the ice surface and the ice ball resounds through the ice rink. Only when the team members took off their sweaty helmets during the break did people find that the team members were all over the age of flower armor.
More than forty years ago, the vast majority of them were students in the ice hockey class of the Shichahai Amateur Sports School. In 1968, China's first artificial indoor ice rink was completed at the Capital Gymnasium. Subsequently, a group of teenagers from various primary and secondary schools in Beijing were selected layer by layer to form the youth amateur ice hockey team of Beijing Shichahai Sports School.
"A class of about 20 people, class in the morning, go to ice hockey after school in the afternoon." After more than 50 years, vice captain Huang Yijun mentioned that "sunny day", and still remembered that he and his companions wore gymnastic vests through the alley, and their faces were full of spirit and pride. Although the ice age in Beijing was short, and the ice hockey teenagers could only practice on natural ice for more than a month a year, they still used the rest of the time to wear roller skates on land to practice their skills.
"We were in Shichahai to change our shoes and go to ice and play ice hockey in a good mood."
To this day, luo Caibei, a member of the team, still clearly remembers the scene of taking a train with the team to participate in the National Youth Ice Hockey League in 1979. Facing the strengths of the northeast, beijing's amateur ice hockey team achieved a sixth-place finish without home advantage. However, the players who returned to Beijing after playing this tournament were caught off guard by the news of the dissolution of the hockey class.
There was no dissolution ceremony, no specific explanation, most of the teenagers in the amateur sports school ice hockey class said goodbye to ice hockey and rushed to a new life journey - to enter the university, join the army, start a family, go to the sea to do business...
The days of flashing came to an abrupt end, but there was always someone who remembered it. More than a decade after leaving the sports school, Huang Yijun and his teammates did not think of regaining ice hockey when they reunited, but the conditions did not allow it. In Beijing in the 1990s, there were only a few venues where ice hockey could be played, not to mention the ice surface that could be used in all seasons.
The turnaround came in the fall of 2015.
"After the successful bid for the Winter Olympics, the number of ice rinks in Beijing has increased visibly, and indoor ice rinks have sprung up, and everyone finally has the conditions to play." Huang Yijun said that under the joint initiative of several people, the shichahai ice hockey team members officially rebuilt the ice hockey team and named the team "Beijing 1979" to commemorate their youth, and also wanted everyone to know that Beijing once had such a history of ice hockey.
The rallying cry on the ice sounded again. "Although the physical strength is not as good as it was then, we are still full of persistence and love." Team member Cheng Shoushan said.
Now, every Wednesday and Saturday at 9:30 p.m., they play a game of ice hockey at the Ozhong Ice Rink until 11:30 p.m. The players on the field have already broken through the original Shichahai ice hockey team members: self-employed, company employees, the father of the ice hockey doll... As long as anyone is interested in ice hockey, the 1979 ice hockey team has opened its doors. In addition to nostalgia, they also absorb fresh blood.