Posted on 02/18/2015 6:45:53 AM PST by TurboZamboni
So it was therefore possible for the USA and Soviet Union to play an Olympic hockey game in Lake Placid, NY and not have anybody in America know the result until it was showed later that night on tape-delay in prime time.
OK, people did know the results and there was a frenzy of phone calls ripping across the nation that day. Some media outlets also spoiled the surprise. But indeed, many Americans did not find out until the game came on TV hours after the fact. That could never happen today.
I lived in Revere, MA at the time. Next town over from Winthrop. I was there when Mike Eruzione had his homecoming parade. As all this was going on, the presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan was beginning to pick up speed. For me, the Olympic hockey victory was the official kickoff of the 1980s and the 1970s were finally over.
Mike has made a living on that one goal!
Interestingly, Mike Eruzione has said years later that in retrospect it wasn’t as big an upset as it seemed to be at the time. Hockey was pretty much an unknown sport at the time in most of the U.S., so a lot of those college players were completely off the radar screen even for many NHL teams. But looking back 35 years later and seeing how many of those U.S. players had successful NHL careers changes the perspective a bit.
What a wonderful memory! And to think we hadn’t even started the Reagan years yet. I grow more and more nostalgic all the time.
Just submitted my thesis on this. “ How the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team won the Cold War. “
Sounds like an interesting premise.
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