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I'm a big hockey fan and something of a student of the "Miracle on Ice," having read a lot about it over the years. A few interesting tidbits worth noting:

1. Yes, it was a huge upset at the time, but the Soviets had it coming to them and should have seen it from a mile away. They went into that tournament with a sense of entitlement that's probably not surprising, considering they won four consecutive Olympic gold medals and were heavily favored to win a fifth.

2. The "Miracle on Ice" was one of the greatest coaching masterpieces of all time. That tournament unfolded almost exactly as he thought it would, and the U.S. won because he had built a team specifically to match up against the Soviets.

3. Team captain Mike Eruzione said years later that -- in retrospect -- the U.S. gold medal wasn't quite as big an upset as everyone originally thought. He made that statement after looking back years later, and realizing that many of the U.S. players went on to play long, solid careers in the National Hockey League. Before 1980, U.S.-born players in the NHL weren't all that common, so it was no surprise that nobody knew much about those players.

4. U.S. goalie Jim Craig said later that he didn't think the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" was even the greatest accomplishment of the 1980 Winter Olympics, let alone the greatest moment in the history of U.S. sports. He said the "Miracle on Ice" really overshadowed Eric Heiden's amazing feat of winning gold medals in all five men's speed skating events -- something that will never happen again.

5. Perhaps the best thing about the 1980 Winter Olympics is that Lake Placid has hardly changed at all in the 34 years since then. I've seen interviews with some of the players in which they say that to this day they can walk out into the middle of Main Street in the village of Lake Placid in the dead of night in the winter, and they still get chills and flashbacks from the night they beat the Soviets in 1980.