My Soviet Union Experience
I’ve always loved football and so became a football player early in life. I learned dedication, discipline, teamwork, respect, competition, and so much more. I was team captain and All-CIF for the Bishop Diego football team. I then played at Santa Barbara City College where I was also named team captain, All-Conference, and where I met my wife, Marcia, a cheerleader. In 1972 I received a football scholarship to Wake Forest University, started at offensive guard for two years in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and was named offensive player of the game against the University of South Carolina. We competed in the Rice Bowl when Wake Forest played the Japanese All Stars at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.
My most memorable football experience, however, took place in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). At the age of 38, I was given the opportunity to compete for the “Team USA American Eagles” assembled by Doctor Jerry Root and the “Timothy Project” based in Wheaton, IL in the summer of 1991. This American football team toured the Soviet Union and the Czech Republic as a Christian outreach.
At the conclusion of each game the American Eagle players gave their Christian testimonies to fans through interpreters. We brought 1,000 Russian Bibles to give out; they were all gone after the first game! The American Eagles played in nationally televised games in sold-out stadiums against mostly Russian players. The final game was in the Czech Republic against the Vienna Vikings, the defending European Super Bowl champs. This was the first American football game ever played in what was then Czechoslovakia. The American Eagles won all five games, outscoring the opposition 136-20, during a month’s stay in conditions so different than the good old U.S.A.!
A Glance at Life in the USSR
The Soviets were ripe for conversion, with a crumbling infrastructure and a population that had sunk into a deep psychological depression. This was the period of “Glasnost and Perestroika” (openness and restructuring) of the Gorbachev regime. Food and consumer goods were scarce. Long lines formed outside stores for bread, meat, sugar, and even basics like soap and toilet paper. People often relied on personal connections or the “black market.” The ruble had lost most of its value, and wages lagged behind rising prices. Bartering was the way of doing business.
I was invited to stay in the home of Igor Popkrov, manager of the Donetsk, Ukraine football team, because I was the team captain. The rest of the team stayed in a dorm.
Life in the dorm would have been so much better.
Igor’s home was a small apartment on the 16th floor of a “project.” The elevator didn’t work so I had to climb up 16 flights of stairs with my bag and gear after football practice. Igor, his wife, baby and his wife’s mom and dad all lived together in this one-bedroom apartment. I asked Igor if I could take a shower, so he showed me to his tiny bathroom where the water came out black. I decided I didn’t need a shower.
When I first got to the Soviet Union, I thought the people there didn’t smell very good… after a week everyone smelled just fine. My bed was a mat on the floor in the living room. Igor asked me to go with him to get food for dinner. He brought a bag of items with which to barter. We stood in line for an hour. When we got to the counter in a store with empty shelves, Igor traded some items for cucumbers and tomatoes. Every day while we were in the Soviet Union we had some form of cucumbers and tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I lost 30 pounds during my month’s stay there.
The American Eagles football team took a train from Donetsk to Kharkov for a game before a sold-out stadium. The train ride was 60 hours through Ukraine, the Soviet Union’s “breadbasket” at the time. We went through a stretch of many miles of wheat fields where the wheat was harvested and in huge piles in the fields. I remember seeing crows picking at the wheat and I asked a Soviet citizen why the wheat was allowed to rot in the fields when food was so needed. His response was simply that the government was having trouble getting the harvested wheat to market.
Welcome to the United States
Igor was able to visit me and my family several months after the Donetsk game. I picked him up at the L.A. airport and took him to a Vons grocery store. His eyes were so big when he saw all the items on the shelves, all the fresh produce, and the meat section. Igor raced around the store in amazement. I then took him to the UCLA-USC football game at the coliseum. Igor asked if these were professional teams. I said, “No, these are college teams consisting of students from the universities.” He was amazed to see over 100,000 fans in the L.A. Coliseum with two huge marching bands, cheerleaders and a “flyover!” The visit to Vons, however, was the highlight for Igor that day.
I saw firsthand and experienced socialism at its worst. In 1991 the Soviet Union was a third-world country with a nuclear arsenal and a space program. I saw how socialism stagnates without reward for efficiency, innovation, creativity, and risk-taking. Socialism leads to authoritarianism and will eventually collapse.
Zohran Mamdani, the leading mayoral candidate for New York City, is an avowed “democratic socialist.” Many believe that this is the direction the Democrat Party is heading in. Mamdani’s plans include, in part: city-run grocery stores, rent freeze, free public transit, universal childcare, and higher taxes on wealthier individuals and corporations. The idea of “Utopian Socialism” might sound good, but it has never worked.
Free enterprise, competition, dedication, discipline, and innovation have made the United States the most powerful, most free, most successful country in the world. Let us not replace free enterprise. Let us improve on it. The United States must continue to be the beacon of light for the rest of the world, as we “stay the course.”
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Tim Tremblay was an assistant coach for the Bishop Diego football team for 10 years and has been named to the Bishop Diego Hall of Fame, the Santa Barbara City College Hall of Fame, and the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame.
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I have a unique view of the crisis in Russia as my wife is Ukrainian and Russian, which is very common. I suppose it’s similar to being from Texas with Mexican/Spanish heritage, as I am. Again, very common. Historically, Russia has been extremely paranoid of the west, with memories from Hitler and Napoleon as part of their painful history. Not so different from Mexican history with their neighbors to the north. It’s all complicated and grudges remain to this day.
The resentment of Ukraine remains in part, due to collaboration with the Nazis and the formation of Ukrainian SS units which were responsible for horrific Russian atrocities.
Fast forward to my time in Russia and St. Petersburg. The Hermitage is arguably, the most magnificent museum of art and culture in the world. Standing in a room filled with Picassos was incredible. The trip to Pushkin, equally amazing, standing in the Amber Room was the experience of a lifetime.
My point is the history and current events in Russia and Ukraine is tragic and extremely complicated and not easy for outsiders to fully comprehend, a dichotomy between beauty and tragedy.
To put in context, what would be our reaction if Texas wanted to secede from the United States? Exactly.
As for Ugandan born, and Democratic Socialist (whatever that means) Zohran Mamdani, is clearly a revolutionary and is a version of Leon Trotsky in training.
He is potentially the most influential figure on the radical left since Che Guevara.
So best get used to it, he’s not going anywhere but up. This is what desperate voters favor, with no chance of ever being able to own the American dream. Kinda reminds me of the despair young voters here in SB must feel?
Those are incredible observations, Tim. What a great experience for you to see firsthand the ravages of communism on the common man. I truly hope people wake up and begin to see how far down that road the United States has already moved. Perhaps we should start sending school-age kids Into some of these countries so they can see for themselves and to draw their own conclusions.