Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Do You Believe In Miracles: Team USA Defeats USSR Wins Gold (On This Day 1980)
OnThisDay.com & Wikipedia.org ^ | February 24, 2019 | CaliforniaCraftBeer

Posted on 02/24/2019 12:30:15 PM PST by CaliforniaCraftBeer

The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The team consisted primarily of professional players with significant experience in international play. By contrast, the United States' team—led by head coach Herb Brooks—consisted exclusively of amateur players, and was the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared: "Do you believe in miracles?! YES!" In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the "Miracle on Ice" the top sports moment of the 20th century. As part of its centennial celebration in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) named the "Miracle on Ice" as the best international ice hockey story of the past 100 years.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Sports; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: almichaels; finland; goldmedal; jimmckay; miracle; miracles; redteam; ronaldreagan; tapedelayed; usa; ussr; winterolympics
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-48 next last
To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

I watched it live!

I was in Austria on a high school ski trip. Game started at around midnight. Best Olympic moment for the USA evah!


21 posted on 02/24/2019 1:13:07 PM PST by JPJones (More tariffs, less income tax.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

ABC carried the game on tape delay in the USA. I watched the game in Detroit on a Canadian station so I knew the result live, but on Detroit TV the local anchorman Bill Bonds (during the prime time showing) came on during a commercial break and said the US beat the Soviets...thereby ruining the ending for viewers all across southeast Michigan!


22 posted on 02/24/2019 1:16:14 PM PST by Mozzafiato
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mozzafiato

As I recall before they showed the game on ABC, Jim McKay was on live, and you could tell he couldn’t contain his glee over the result.


23 posted on 02/24/2019 1:17:55 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: SkyDancer

Nonsense. There is a bit of truth to the idea that the Olympics were not as important to the Soviets as the World Championships, but the idea they weren’t trying real hard, or didn’t really care is typical excuse making.


24 posted on 02/24/2019 1:22:58 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach, said one woman.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Unfortunately, for me, the game was not broadcast live, and I had accidentally heard the result before they showed the game, so all the drama was gone.

True, but few people other than true hockey fans were going to watch the tape-delayed game as it was assumed that the Russians would easily crush the Americans. When I heard that the Americans won, I made sure that I was watching the game when it did come on. Otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered watching it.

That was a special time in my life. I was in my senior year at high school and had just enlisted in the Marine Corps (delayed entry program). So I was already feeling patriotic. I went over to Winthrop to see Mike Eruzione's homecoming. It was a madhouse. Thousands of people lined the streets, waving American flags. To me, it was the kickoff to the 1980s and the Reagan era and marked an end to the depressing Carter years.

And yes, the U.S. did not win a gold medal against the Russians. They had another game yet to win in order to get the gold. I often wonder if we would still remember the Russian win had they dropped that game against Finland.

25 posted on 02/24/2019 1:30:07 PM PST by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Mozzafiato

Especially considering that the gold medal would have gone to the USSR with a US loss to Finland. It was not an elimination format, but a four team round robin. The preliminary round results carried over to the medal round. Sweden and the US tied, and the USSR beat Finland in the preliminaries. The USSR beat Sweden and lost to the US in the medal round, giving them 4 points (2 for win, 1 for tie). Finland had tied Sweden, so beating the US would have given them 3 points, and the US also would have had 3 in that scenario. Sweden had two ties and a loss for 2. Thus the USSR would have won gold, with bronze for the US (based on a head to head tiebreaker).

I’m not sure what would have happened with a US-Finland tie; it depends on what the tiebreakers would have been. If the first one was head to head, the US would have won gold. If it had been total wins, the Soviets would have won.


26 posted on 02/24/2019 1:32:35 PM PST by stremba
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
Commercial Photography
27 posted on 02/24/2019 1:33:52 PM PST by CaliforniaCraftBeer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Trailerpark Badass

Absolutely it was important to the Soviets, and it certainly wasn’t a team of second-stringers. They had some of the top players in the world on that team, and their goalie, Tretiak, still is widely regarded as one of the best goalies in history. Certainly, most, if not all, of that team would have been playing in the NHL in 1980 had they been given that opportunity.

I always thought Tikhanov (the USSR’s coach) played a big part in losing that game. Tretiak gave up a weak goal late in the first. On the ensuing face off, with 1 second left, Tikhanov sent only Myshkhin, the backup goalie onto the ice. Everyone thought Tretiak would be back in, but Tikhanov benched him for the rest of the game. Also, Tikhanov didn’t pull Myshkin late in the game while trailing by a goal. The Soviets has never been behind late in a game before, and Tikhanov just didn’t know what to do, I guess.


28 posted on 02/24/2019 1:42:27 PM PST by stremba
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Trailerpark Badass

It was the media saying that, not me.


29 posted on 02/24/2019 1:56:33 PM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

I found a laminated ticket stub from that game in an apartment storage area. Wish I’d kept it...


30 posted on 02/24/2019 2:02:52 PM PST by W. (Natty Light: The beer so nice, you'll taste it twice!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeorgiaDawg32
The story is that before the game with Finland the players were waiting in the locker room for Coach Brooks, who usually had lengthy preparatory remarks and chalk talk for the boys.

Minutes passed, more minutes passed, no Brooks. The players sat in uneasy silence.

With almost no time before the puck dropped, Brook blew through the door, glared fiercely around the room, seemingly in a rage.

Then he yelled, "If you lose this game, you will f---king never forgive yourselves! F---king NEVER!!!.

He slammed back through the doors and out to the ice.

31 posted on 02/24/2019 2:07:52 PM PST by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

I was on a plane over the Atlantic, and the pilot kept updating people on the score. When he announced the final result there was utter pandemonium. Everyone was hugging each other and celebrating. Great moment as Americans. And God we needed it right then under the doom of Carter and the Cold War we seemed to be losing.


32 posted on 02/24/2019 2:40:24 PM PST by montag813 ("This is Montag, Block 813...")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

At the time we were going to boycott the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviets, obviously, did not want that. I also saw the Red Army team make minced meat out of the NY Rangers - we’re talking a good NHL team at the time. And so now, in the 1980 Winter Olympics, the same Soviet team is basically playing a bunch of college kids thrown together by the United States (due to our requirement that they be ‘amateurs’ to compete in the Olympics).

Given the above, I will always believe that the game was intentionally thrown by the Soviets, to try to get us to go to Moscow, and Americans were buying into it, to some extent, wanting to go to Moscow (which we did not).

I know that I’m in a small minority, but for most Americans, hockey wasn’t even on their radar - but for me at the time, I watched every game that I could - winning this game by basically a pick-up team of kids never made any sense to me.


33 posted on 02/24/2019 2:48:30 PM PST by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SkyDancer

“Media reported that the USSR team wasn’t the real deal and that they were like some second string team we beat.”

That would make sense to me. See my above post regarding their earlier US tour.


34 posted on 02/24/2019 2:50:22 PM PST by BobL (I eat at McDonald's and shop at Walmart - I just don't tell anyone.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

I remember that.

It was AWESOME.


35 posted on 02/24/2019 2:52:13 PM PST by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

The movie *Miracle* is about that is really a good movie, in spite of knowing how it’s going to end.

One of the things that made it so enjoyable is that it’s clean and family friendly.

Ther’s virtually NOTHING I would censor out of that movie for a kid to watch.


36 posted on 02/24/2019 2:58:57 PM PST by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CaliforniaCraftBeer

Best Olympic moment ever.


37 posted on 02/24/2019 3:00:07 PM PST by EdnaMode
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JPJones

I watched it live too in Germany at an Ice rink with a big screen TV. Guy with me was George Rusincovitch, but a solid 2nd generation American. Germans all were as ecstatic as we were to watch the win. One of the best sports memories I have ever had.

On my return home I shared an elevator ride with the coach in NYC. We were alone and I got to congratulate him in person. That was great too.


38 posted on 02/24/2019 3:08:17 PM PST by JeanLM (Obama proves melanin is just enough to win elections)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: BobL
I also saw the Red Army team make minced meat out of the NY Rangers - we’re talking a good NHL team at the time.

I was at that game........damned shame the Rangers weren't.

39 posted on 02/24/2019 3:29:34 PM PST by Roccus (When you talk to a politician...ANY politician...always say, "Remember Ceausescu")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

Correct!


40 posted on 02/24/2019 4:18:02 PM PST by Huskrrrr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-48 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson