With their best player barely able to contribute, Germany now faced two decisive fixtures. The first was against an undefeated Great Britain, who had just pulled off what is still arguably the greatest Olympic ice hockey shock of all-time with victory over Canada.
The Canadians had come into the Games with a record 16 wins and one draw at the Olympics, outscoring their opponents 209-8 and winning all previous gold medals. Britain, with the backing of the vociferous German crowd, had won 2-1 against all odds.
This time, however, the crowd was frenziedly pro-German. To end the first period, an official had to fire a gun into the night sky because the referees' whistles were drowned out by the crowd.
With the game tied at 1-1, overtime was required. The announcer told spectators that the last trains back to Munich would be delayed to allow them watch the end. Three periods of overtime were played without another goal being scored before the match was decided to be a draw.
Ball played through his injury, but had little time to recuperate before Germany's next game against Canada. The loser would be eliminated. The rough style of the encounter certainly did him no favours; fights on the ice threatened to spill into the stands as Canada ran out 6-2 winners. Goebbels and Hermann Goering made announcements asking the crowd to remain calm.
Germany were eliminated. The four-team final round to decide the medals would take place without them.
At the end of the Games, Canadian journalist Matthew Halton, sniffing a story, sought out Ball.
Patience and persistence paid off as Halton secured some time alone with Germany's star.
The journalist asked him how he could bear to play for a team representing the Nazi regime which had persecuted his fellow Jews.
Ball said that to have refused would not have helped Germany's Jewish population, adding, on the contrary, "it might have done them harm".
Halton noted that a cagey Ball referred to his fellow Germans and his team as "they", rather than "we", throughout their conversation.
By this time, Ball's chief concern would have been the deal made for his family. The authorities kept their word. In July, less than six months after the winter Olympics, Ball's parents Leonhard and Gertrude sailed from Southampton on the final leg of a journey to safety, joining Rudi's brother Heinz in South Africa.
However, there was a catch. Rudi was asked to stay and play in Germany.
It is hard to know how much choice he was given in the matter. Looking back, given most of his family had left and he had been playing overseas before the Olympics, it seems an unexpected change of heart.
Ball would not have been not the only Jewish athlete afforded protection so the Nazis could exploit their sporting talent during 1936.
Olympic fencer Helene Mayer had left Germany for the US In 1935, after being stripped of her citizenship. Whether motivated by fears for her family remaining in Germany or by a desire to return to the limelight, she agreed to compete for the hosts, external at the 1936 Summer Games and won a silver medal. She was allowed to leave for the US afterwards.
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