Miracle on Ice

While the major news networks have now marked the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, today I turn to another anniversary that is coming up.  In Feb it will be 30 years since the "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid.

This was another Cold War era battle with all of the additional drama and symbolism.  It was East vs West.  The Winter Olympics were being held in Lake Placid, New York while the Summer Olympics were scheduled for Moscow later that year.  (some may recall that both winter and summer versions of the Olympics were held in the same year until fairly recently).  Jimmy Carter was considering a boycott of the Moscow Summer Games as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  He would later make good on his threat and the Soviet Bloc countries would dominate the medal podiums at the summer games.

Despite all of the Cold War rhetoric, the Miracle on Ice was something more important in the eyes of a child. It was the beauty of sport and a metaphor on life.  

Russian hockey players did not play in the NHL as they do now.  At the time, the best Russian players played for Central Red Army while the best North American players played in the NHL.  The Olympics were open only to "amateurs" which the Russians were technically as they were paid to be soldiers not hockey players.  The best North Americans were pros and therefore ineligible for the Olympics.

As you might expect, the Russian players were older, more talented and more experienced than the team of college players that made up the American team.  It was a battle of men against boys.   In a pre-Olympic exhibition game, the Big Red Machine demolished the American team 10-3.  The Soviet Olympic team seemed to demolish all who stood in their way and they were prohibitive favourites to win the Gold.

Yet the scrappy American team under Coach Herb Brooks shocked the world by defeating the Soviet Union in the semi finals and then Finland to win the Gold.  I still get chills when i see the replay of the moment when a bunch of hustling youngsters threw their sticks in the air as the buzzer went and the Russians went down to defeat.

The lessons learned were many:

• Stand up to the bully in the playground.  
• You can make up for lack of talent with hard work and a never say die spirit.  
• Never ever listen to the naysayers and defeatists.
• Miracles do happen.

Some of the players went on to have careers in the NHL.  Ken Morrow followed up his Gold Medal by winning 4 Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders.  However most of the roster did not go on to have hockey careers of note.  Captain Mike Eruzione didn't do much.  Goalie Jim Craig filled the stands for an Atlanta Flames home game before it became obvious he couldn't play in the NHL.

The majority of the players on that team went on to have ordinary careers and live ordinary lives.  They couldn't play in the NHL because......well because they weren't that good.  However for one shining moment in Feb of 1980, they stood as the best in the world.  They did it with teamwork and hustle and provided a shining example of what is right in the world of sports.