Miracle on Ice

I love hockey. I love everything about it. It's not like any other sport. There is constant action and excitement. And there is nothing like being at a hockey game -- the sound of the stick hitting the puck, a player being hit into the boards, the roar of the crowd.

Although I went to my first hockey game when I was nine (way back in the 70s), my real love affair didn't really start until a certain group of young men from the United States won a Gold Medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. Of course, the moment most people remember is the USA defeating the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, in what has become known as The Miracle On Ice. They weren't supposed to win. The Soviets were the best hockey players in the world. Arguably, they were better than any National Hockey League team at the time. In an exhibition session leading up to the Olympics, the Soviets had a 5-3-1 record against NHL teams. The Soviets also beat the USA 10-3, just days before the start of the Winter Olympics. No one believed the US had any chance of any medal, let alone gold -- and no one would have thought they would beat the Soviets, including the Soviets themselves.

But Coach Herb Brooks believed. He had been studying the Soviet style of hockey for years and he was confident that the group of young men he had chosen for the team were capable of doing that. He wasn't always popular with his players, but in the end they followed his plan and they succeeded. In a very famous scene from the film Miracle, Kurt Russell gives the big speech that Herb Brooks delivered to his team during that game.

By the time the US and the Soviet Union played on February 22nd, this team of college hockey players had already started to capture the imagination of a country. Most Americans didn't know much about the game of hockey, but with all of the troubles the country was experiencing at the time (American hostages being held in Iran and a crumbling economy), the team gave the country something to rally around and something to believe in.

The success of the US team in 1980 led to a huge interest in hockey in this country, especially by young boys and girls, who wanted to play the game. Back then, a very small minority of Americans played in the NHL, and today about 25% of the league are Americans. And even though the US hasn't won a Gold medal since 1980, they are now considered one of the elite teams in international hockey, alongside Canada and Russia.

There has been one major motion picture, one made-for-tv film, and one documentary about this event:

Miracle (2004) - Stars Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks in a very moving performance.

Miracle On Ice (1981) - This made-for-television film starred Karl Malden and Steve Guttenberg. Unfortunately, there are no copies of this in the Allegheny County Library system and it doesn't seem to be available on YouTube or Hulu.

Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team (2001) - This is an HBO documentary narrated by Liev Schrieber.


And if you are looking for something to read, in addition to the DVDs:

The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team by Wayne Coffey

Going For the Gold: How the U.S Olympic Hockey Team Won at Lake Placid by Tim Wendel

Miracle on Ice by Alan Pierce


-- Post by Tracy