OT: 39 year anniversary of Miracle on Ice
Just watched "Miracle" for the first time as well. Good movie (if a bit "Disney-fied"), but to me it all just reinforces how much more interesting it is to watch young guys play their hearts out for something other than a paycheck (only 13 of the 20 man roster had any time in the NHL afterwards, and some of those were only a few games).
Wish I could have been there to see it live, but it was a few years before my time.
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:03 PM ^
Greatest sports moment ever. I am still hoping to see a gold medal in my lifetime. Still extremely upset about 2010.
USA USA USA
February 23rd, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
Hard to argue with your "greatest sports moment" evaluation but definitely the biggest upset of all time.
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:09 PM ^
Putin played in that one right?
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:22 PM ^
He would have been, what, in his late twenties at the time? Very kind of the KGB to give him time away from his duties to play some hockey.
In all seriousness, I know at least one of them - Viacheslav Fetisov - eventually played for the Red Wings.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:49 PM ^
You forgot about Igor Larionov! He was part of the KLM line that just ate western hockey players alive... Fetisov was on the backend of that line, and he ran the PP. Those guys were something else to watch!
February 22nd, 2019 at 11:31 PM ^
Larionov was not on the 1980 USSR Olympic team. He was 19 years old and joined CSKA (Red Army) team in 1980 after the Olympics. Ironically, it was because the US beat them that Tikhonov went with the younger Russians and jettisoned one of the best hockey players ever in Valeri Kharlamov who died in a car accident instead of playing in the games vs the NHL later that year. The "30 for 30" on "Of Miracles and Men" has a great version of how the Soviets dealt with the Miracle.
February 23rd, 2019 at 12:15 AM ^
And thus the Green Unit was born.
Krutov-Larionov-Makarov with Fetisov and Kasatonov on defense. They dominated the next 8 years of international play, winning gold in Sarajevo and Calgary and almost winning the Canada Cup in '87 but for the biased NA refs.
February 23rd, 2019 at 8:40 PM ^
Mike Ramsey (D) also played for the Wings and was teammates with Fetisov on that Wings team, which was swept in the cup finals by NJ.
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:43 PM ^
I don't know what you're talking about...
February 23rd, 2019 at 5:04 AM ^
anything he hits. . . .he destroys (russian accent)
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:21 PM ^
Not 1850... go God..any number but 1850
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:33 PM ^
It's one of those events that you always remember exactly where you were when it happened. My wife and I were at our brother-in-law's with the rest of the family sitting in front of the old TV watching it on tape delay. One of the greatest moments in sports history.
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:53 PM ^
saw it live on french canadian CBC broadcast. translated for father and one of my brothers. yes, it is one of those 'do you remember where you were' moments.
everyone forgets the 1960 miracle on ice team. the cleary brothers from harvard were the stars, tallying about 1/3 rd of team USA's goals in that olympic tournament. billy cleary was a cool guy.
February 23rd, 2019 at 11:15 AM ^
Clearly an event that continues the narrative of how important "amateur" sports can be.
February 23rd, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
and if it wasn't for Coach Brooks not making the 1960s team, who knows if he would have such drive to push the team to such extremes in 1980...
February 22nd, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
Very few people saw the game live. The network played it on tape delay to get it into prime time.
I saw about half the game live via a broadcast in French on UHF 32. Terrible reception; just good enough to figure out who was who.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:03 PM ^
Watched in basement family room, home having to miss hoop road game after being sick. Sophomore in HS. Remember Jim McKay coming on to start the broadcast with a huge smile and people going nuts outside the studio window. Watched the tape delay for next 2-3 hours and still get a chill whenever I hear the greatest words ever uttered during a sportscast by Al Michaels. Think how thing have changed. ABC could not move game to prime time. Tape delay. No internet. ESPN wasn't yet ESPN. Plus, we weren't trained to look for alternative means to get the result, we just had to keep watching and get deeper into the game. Think Sunday AM was the only time my entire family sat and watched a sporting event together.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:22 PM ^
Was at a Sigma Chi casino party that night (even though I was GDI). Of course it was tape delayed, but still felt like it was being broadcast live.
February 23rd, 2019 at 8:29 AM ^
You were Gasoline Direct Injected? Or was it Gxx Dxxxx Independent?
February 23rd, 2019 at 3:16 PM ^
It was my junior year, rather independent at that time. Not sure what the brothers thought of me...
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:29 PM ^
Greatest upset in sports history.
February 23rd, 2019 at 5:09 AM ^
I can't think of a bigger one for American sports. The 1972 olympics in basketball, but that was because of a BS call. However the Americans didn't use professsional players.
Tret'yak, in my mind, is still the best goalie to have ever played. It's a shame he wasn't allowed to play in the NHL.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:30 PM ^
I recently saw a jersey that the team signed on sale at a TJ Maxx! Such a strange place to see such an item and it was chained to wall given its $999.00 price tag.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
The greatest moment in modern American sports. With what was happening with the Cold War, the US boycotting the Moscow games, and the stacked Soviet team, it honestly had the makeup of something that nothing can top.
Al Michaels pregame is still goosebumps worthy. “All of that manifests itself today in a hockey game here in Lake Placid”
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:47 PM ^
The biggest break in that game was when USSR coach Viktor Tikhonov panicked and pulled Vladislav Tretiak - quite possibly the greatest goalie to ever play the game - in favor of the inexperienced Vladimir Myshkin after Team USA scored with 0:01 left in the 1st Period to tie the game at 2-2. The rest is obviously history.
To say Tikhonov was a tyrant is a massive understatement. He was universally despised by all the Russian players.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:55 PM ^
Another interesting fact is that the Soviets never pulled their goalie for the extra attacker at the end of the game much to the surprise of the Americans. Apparently they never practiced it and Tikhonov didn't believe in it (probably because they never lost and were never behind at the end of the game).
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:52 PM ^
Dang? Has it really been almost 40 years since my freshman year? [rustle, rustle] Yep.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:55 PM ^
Despite not being born yet, the Miracle on Ice is easily my favorite sports moment of all time. What those college players accomplished that night, those Olympics is one of, if not the greatest, sporting feats of all time.
Not just the fact that they beat the best hockey team in the world but were able to gather their composure and defeat the Finns to win the Gold two nights later is nothing short of incredible and a real testament to the focus and coaching instilled by Herb Brooks.
Walking into Herb Brooks Arena for the first time a few years ago, it was impossible not to be covered in goosebumps, visualizing where every second of the Miracle, a game that I’ve watched dozens of times in my life, took place.
February 22nd, 2019 at 11:05 PM ^
The history of that arena, and all of Lake Placid, is awesome! Just seeing it, let alone walking inside, is humbling. The 1980 Winter Olympics has been my favorite for decades (probably because its the first one I was really interested in as a kid), and visiting LP in 2002 was a dream trip...
February 23rd, 2019 at 5:12 AM ^
Is it still in use now? Is it a museum?
February 23rd, 2019 at 9:35 AM ^
Still very much in use. CanAm, ECAC, New York State High School Hockey and USA Hockey all use the arena, plus I’m pretty sure they have open hockey there once a week.
February 22nd, 2019 at 10:59 PM ^
I watched it at home and knew the final score when I got to my school's basketball games that Friday night. Three games - JV, girls, then varsity (7th-8th grades). I was playing in the varsity game, and arrived in the middle go the girls game. Told my friend the score, and he walked around to the scorers table and told them. It was announced at the next game break - to a 4 minute long standing ovation!
Will never forget that feeling...
February 22nd, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^
The Miracle on Ice is just different. Conventional hockey rivalry and tension simply ceases to matter.
I stop by the section of the Mariucci Arena concourse with an Olympic display and the murals. The Herb Brooks mural is great. I’m theoretically in enemy territory, but in that corner of the arena, we are all on the same team.
Not unlike the Jesse Owens monument at Ferry Field. Something special about it. We may be rivals, but we’re on the same side.
February 22nd, 2019 at 11:46 PM ^
It was surreal...
I actually had an unused ticket next to me (a buddy missed his plane) and sat against the glass. When the game ended it began snowing as you walked out amid the festive crowd waving “Russia Get Out Of Afghanistan” placards.....
After the Gold Medal win over Finland (Russia would have won Gold if we’d lost) I managed to get a valuable seat at a little jam-packed bar across the street from the rink (Grasshoppers) and hours later ended up next to the Finland goalie who was drunk and surly and several of his teammates kept watch over him.
I bought him a schnapps...he has not thanked me yet....
It is a great, great memory!
February 22nd, 2019 at 11:56 PM ^
Great story, thanks for sharing!
February 23rd, 2019 at 7:54 AM ^
schnapps? shouldn't you have bought him a kahluha and tomato juice?
February 23rd, 2019 at 4:52 PM ^
XM wins the thread for his astute ESP and encyclopedically fueled information bank for knowing (no internet in1980) that the historic MIRACLE ON ICE drink—Kahlua and Tomato drink (shaken not stirred) was invented that very night February 22, 1980 in Grasshoppers Bar in Lake Placid by me and a stewardess from Toronto named Chris I shared a bar stool with....unfortunately right after the launch we and others drank the bar out of Bloody Mary mix and Tomato Juice and Grasshoppers was still out of both during the other national screaming launch of the USA! USA! USA! Chant following the other 4-2 Miracle ON Ice win over Finland on Sunday, February 24th.
So, the drunk goalie from Finland got Schnapps because that what my new Sunday barstoolmate Inga (IBM/Sweden) and I were drinking.....
I still have the Lake Placid Olympic scarf I wore to all the games and the unused ticket from the Miracle On Ice game...
I have somehow misplaced Chris, Inga and the Finland goalie Jorma Valtonen....
But, again, I have my scarf, those great memories and the Miracle on Ice drink to keep me warm.
The real anniversary is tomorrow when USA incredibly followed up the “Miracle” win by scoring three goals in the final period to come from behind and get Jorma distraught and drunk right after the game at a local bar.....
Go Red, White and Go Blue!
USA! USA! U S A!
February 23rd, 2019 at 12:21 AM ^
That was back when we were all Americans...
You can thank the Soviet Union's demise for the modern era's constant political bickering and partisanship.
In the absence of an existential threat, we have no one left to fight but ourselves. But what if...
February 23rd, 2019 at 12:35 AM ^
Quit drinking and go to bed.
February 23rd, 2019 at 6:16 AM ^
11/23/2019 will hopefully not need a miracle.
February 23rd, 2019 at 9:14 AM ^
February 23rd, 2019 at 9:29 AM ^
The movie was great, very few inaccuracies, in game/action sequences were the best thus far for a hockey movie. Damn shame that Herb Brooks died before it was completed.
February 23rd, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
One of the fondest memories of my youth, watching with my dad. We couldn't believe it - those kids beating the pros. I can't forget the look on the Russian players' faces after; they weren't angry, they just looked amazed that someone else could so be enjoying a victory.
February 23rd, 2019 at 3:46 PM ^
Surprised no one has mentioned the infamous Bill Bonds fail.
Game was on tape delay; local broadcasting legend Bill Bonds (Ron Burgundy of Detroit) came on between 2nd and 3rd periods for a news update and announces the US beats USSR!
In those days it was easy to avoid hearing results early; I vividly remember the tension and excitement building through two periods - then idiot Bonds ruins the suspense.
Made the 3rd period much less nerve-wracking, but completely killed the magic.
February 24th, 2019 at 11:08 AM ^
Great Bill Bonds story. I was a kid in that era and remember following the games on tape delay which is crazy now I think about it because it was eastern time zone.
What I remember about Bill Bonds is that my housemates and I while at Michigan in the early 80s would all come back from studying and classes at 6 o'clock to watch Bill Bonds deliver the news. He was so bad he was good. He was truly the original Ron Burgundy. We laughed and laughed. After which was maybe a couple hours of studying and then there were 40s of PBR and bong hits. Good times.