Free Republic

Flanked by members of the famed "Miracle on Ice" U.S. Olympic hockey team, President Trump celebrated the team's captivating 1980 performance at a campaign rally on Friday. Forty years removed from defeating the Russian hockey team in the semi-finals of the 1980 Olympic Games, Trump honored the U.S. team's historic victory by bringing captain Mike Eruzione and coach Herb Brooks's daughter onstage during a campaign stop in Las Vegas. The team stood behind Trump as the president ran through his stump speech and lashed out at the fake news media. The players wore red Make America Great Again hats and...

LAKELAND, Florida - Lakeland police responded to Lake Hunter following a 911 call from fishermen who reported seeing an alligator with a human body in its mouth on Tuesday morning. Police say that the alligator swam away but that they were able to recover the body. According to Lakeland Police spokesperson Sergeant Gary B. Gross, the body appeared to have been in the lake for more than a day and it is unknown if the person was attacked by the alligator. No identification has been made yet on the body which appears to be a male of unknown age. The...

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) -- Thirty-five years after the U.S. Olympic hockey team's stunning gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, the once-fuzzy-faced heroes are being feted for their signature accomplishment. Every surviving member of the hockey team is coming back for a "Relive the Miracle" reunion on Saturday night at Herb Brooks Arena, the hockey rink on Main Street they made famous with one of the most memorable upsets in sports history. Missing will be Brooks, the Hall of Fame coach who was killed in a car accident in 2003, and rugged defenseman Bob Suter, who died...

Try as they might, some commentators during the U.S.-Russian hockey game could not muster much credible moral argument for making a comparison between Sochi of 2014 and Lake Placid of 1980. Of course, we all wanted the US team to win this time, just like in 1980. But as part of a larger world morality play, it pales to near nothingness in comparison. President Obama immediately moved to seize a political advantage, sending out a tweet claiming to “never stop believing in miracles.” The president’s grasp of history is self-evidently weak and self-serving. Back then, the joy of the American...

Last night, the upstate wind was cool, with just a hint of the winter chill to come — the season when thoughts turn toward hockey. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative party candidate in New York’s 23rd congressional district, agreed. As the hour grew late and he made his final rounds of handshakes and hugs, something about the moment, and the cold air, stirred a memory. “I think back to early 1980,” said Hoffman, as supporters buzzed around him. “That was around the time I first got involved with the Lake Placid Olympics.” As those games opened, Pres. Jimmy Carter was beginning...

Why haven't they shot this croc yet?Stephen Stiegler is a wildlife biologist with the Florida Alligator Management Program, which oversees more than a million of the creatures. His advice to Los Angeles: Don't take any chances with Reggie, the elusive, 7-foot gator roaming freely in a lake in a city park, eluding hunters, but capturing the hearts of some of the dozens of spectators who have watched the spectacle each day. "We do tend to err on the side of public safety," Stiegler said. "If an individual calls and files a nuisance alligator complaint, we will issue a permit to...

The rink where (Herb) Brooks coached the U.S. Olympic hockey team to its stunning gold-medal victory 25 years ago now bears his name. It was renamed Wednesday night in his honor: 1980 Rink, Herb Brooks Arena. The announcement came 18 months after Brooks was killed in a car accident, which made the moment so very poignant.

(Jim) Craig, goaltender for the 1980 United States hockey team, stopped 39 shots as the U.S. defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 in the "Miracle on Ice." He was back in Lake Placid Saturday, helping light the Olympic torch in commemorating the silver anniversary of the Games. It's been a quarter-century since Al Michaels uttered the now famous words, "Do you believe in miracles?" The same amount of time has passed since the Cold War took sport form, a team of U.S. collegiate hockey players toppled the mighty Soviets, Eric Heiden's tree-trunk legs powered him to five speedskating gold medals, and...