OT: 33 years ago today

Your point about basketball is rubbish. Basketball is probably the easiest sport to upset a team--especially in the age of the three point line.

I have an idea why you are unimpressed with the Miracle On Ice.But due to the prohibition against political posts I shall refrain from pointing this out. 

Everyone has already destroyed you for this comment, so I will make it everyone plus one:

You say "if you know hockey," but you apparently don't. This is not a somewhat better team losing to a somewhat lower quality team. This is is not the 2002 Red Wings losing a flukey game to, say, the Coyotes. This was a permanent, nearly flawless all-star team that NEVER LOST and was able to compete with and defeat the very best professionals, playing a bunch of under-skilled American college players. This is the 2002 Detroit Red Wings losing to the 2002 Saint Cloud State Huskies. 

The USSR hockey program was a machine. You must not know about the 1972 Summit Series against the Canadian all-stars, a team that included every great Canadian player except Bobby Orr (including a certain Red-headed college graduate). That USSR team included several players that would still be on the team in 1980; the Canadian team is still a who's-who of hockey greats.

The Canadians barely escaped with a win, after posting a miserable 1-2-1 record in the first four games, all on Canadian ice. They barely escaped with their lives (in one or two situations, that statement is literally true). 

That a bunch of amateurs, playing before the days when college players were regularly capable of playing in the NHL, could stay on the ice with the Soviets was inconceivable.

In addition to what has been said (Cold War/professional vs. amatuer) this is the one time that I can think of that the entire country has united around a sporting event.  I think that is really special, and, while it happens quite often in some places (Europe and Latin America in the World Cup for example), it really never happens in the States.

It was like App St. x 5.

Still my favorite all time hockey team.  Watching Federov skate and handle the puck along with Konstantinov kicking some ass.

like 90% of the team from Minnesota? And a couple from Wisconsin

College hockey had a different landscape then. Michigan was down, but even when they ramped back up under Red their initial quality teams consisted mostly of Canadians. The great Denver and North Dakota teams of the old WCHA were mostly Canadian, for example.

Minn and Mass were the places where most good American players developed back then, and they typically stayed home. Michigan didn't start producing a lot of great players until later. 

Heh-heh...Bill Bonds. The original Ron Burgundy.

I watched the channel 7/ABC coverage and, yes, while Bill Bonds announced "continued coverage of the U.S. hockey team's big win," you didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out the results ahead of time just from the ABC coverage.  Their cut-aways from the game to Jim McKay (I think) featured a background of drunk people thronging the streets of Lake Placid waving American flags.  Small-ish giveaway, that.

I sort of saw it live, but only relatively.

I was a freshman at Michigan and the Olympic hockey was probably the sports highlight of that year with my new friends.  I knew nothing about hockey (and still don't, really), but one of the guys on the hall was a hockey player from Buffalo.  He made us all fans -- Sweden tie, win over the Czechs, etc.  We even talked about just taking a crazy road trip and just driving to Lake Placid.  My common sense intervened and ruined what could have been a great lifetime story.

But here's the thing:  for some reason the day of the game against the Soviets I went AWOL.  I had an Enlish lit class in Theatre and decided to bail on reading Waiting for Godot by just going to watch it instead.  The performance was at the Canturbury Loft on State Street and I saw it with two dozen people.  (It's a real snoozer.)

Afterward, I remembered that the game would be on TV.  I went to Dooleys on Maynard, got in, and saw the game winding down on the big screen.  I couldn't believe we were leading and that we were going to . . . WIN.  I went nuts.  Alone.  Because everyone else in the bar already knew we had won.

I was going to ask if anyone remembered him giving away the score.  

IIRC - It was during a news update, DURING THE GAME!   I was watching with my dad who went ballistic.  I was a nine year kid, and told him that there was no way anyone would be that dumb and it couldn't have been the final score.  I didn't yet appreciate Mr. Bonds and the likelihood that he was under the influence of one substance or another.  My ignorance of Bill's history allowed me to enjoy the rest of the game.  My dad, however, really wanted to kick Bond's ass.

Reversed - beat Czechoslovakia in the group stage, then Finland for the gold.

You've got Finland and the Czech's mixed up. The US played Finland to secure the Gold-Medal

'Merica.

Totally. This just knocked off the "Tressel to MSU" rumor thread from yesterday morning! C'mon, people, get it together!

What happened 48 years ago in bowling? I couldn't find anything on the googles. Being an avid bowler you can't just leave a guy hanging like that. I NEED TO KNOW

I didn't mean that the 33 years is the important part, just that it is "Miracle Day", if you will.