Posted on 03/12/2021 6:03:57 AM PST by SJackson
Mark Pavelich, a center on the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team, has passed away at the age of 63. At the Lake Placid games, that team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union, perhaps the greatest win in the history of team sports. The American victory has since come under fire from the left, which dislikes the idea of the United States as a winner. Back in 1980, the nation was losing badly at home and abroad.
The Soviets were on the march in Afghanistan and their proxies making inroads in Central America. Iran was still holding American hostages and humiliating the United States. Jimmy Carter’s surging “misery index” left the nation with little to cheer for, but at Lake Placid, help was on the way.
As Al Michaels recalled in You Can’t Make This Up, when the American collegians faced a strong Czech team, fans began chanting “USA! USA! USA!” The Americans prevailed 7-3, but the might Soviets lay ahead. For the USSR, athletic victories proved the superiority of socialism, but there was a problem.
As the Soviet announcer noted, the Americans were “skating faster than our players,” and dominating play. Buzz Schneider blasted a 50-foot slapshot past goalie Vladislav Tretiak and Mark Johnson scored in the final seconds of the first period to tie the game at two.
Soviet coach Viktor Tihkonov pulled Tretiak for Vladimir Mishkin. On an assist from Mark Pavelich, Mike Eruzione wristed in a goal to give the USA a 4-3 lead they never relinquished. It was as though a college squad had crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. The USA went on to defeat powerful Finland to win the gold medal, coming back from a two-goal deficit in the third period to win 4-2.
On February 22, 2020, the 40th anniversary of their landmark victory over the USSR, team members Mike Eruzione, Bill Baker, Dave Christian, Ken Morrow, Jack O’Callahan, Mike Ramsey, Mark Wells, Neal Broten, John Harrington, Rob McClanahan, Buzz Schneider, Dave Silk, Phil Verchota and assistant coach Craig Patrick, appeared at a Trump rally in Las Vegas sporting red “Make America Great Again” hats. As USA Today noted, “that didn’t sit well with Trump opponents, who criticized a team that once unified a nation.” One of the critics was Marcos Bretón of the Sacramento Bee.
When he saw “old white men wearing red hats next to Trump, the spell was finally broken.” The players were “all white, fresh faced and eager to embrace the flag without question,” so it was “a lucky win that spawned a myth that died when the red hats came out and the truth was revealed.” The same hatred of American victory could explain the inattention to boxer Leon Spinks, who passed away on February 4, at the outset of Black History Month.
Raised in poverty, Spinks dropped out of high school, joined the U.S. Marines, and won more than 100 amateur boxing matches. Spinks lost in the 1975 Pan American games but still gained a spot on the U.S. team for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
Fighting as a light heavyweight, Spinks defeated Abdel Latif Fatihi of Morroco, Anatoliy Klimanov of the USSR, Ottomar Sachse of East Germany, and Janusz Gortat of Poland to qualify for the final bout. There Spinks faced Cuba’s Sixto Soria, the heavy favorite to take the gold medal.
In the first round, Spinks staggered Soria and in the second the American smacked the Cuban’s mouthpiece right out of his face. In the third round, for those who missed it, hear Howard Cosell call the action.
Soria is “still punching and his hands are quick. He’s coming on. He staggered and hurt Spinks. Spinks is without boxing skills. Remarkable to see the way the Cuban is coming back. What a fight! Don’t talk to me about the officials. Oh, the right! Caught Soria flush in the face! Down he went!”
Leon Spinks, the man with “no boxing skills,” turned pro and in 1978 defeated Muhammad Ali to become heavyweight champion of the world. Ali won the rematch, but that victory, and his Olympic gold, should have qualified Spinks as a legend. For the left, on the other hand, it was as though Spinks had knocked out Fidel Castro his own self.
The gold medalist did not raise a fist in anger against the United States and never appointed himself a spokesman on social issues. Leon Spinks is not on record that the United States is an inherently racist country, so no surprise that the former heavyweight champion of the world got little attention during Black History Month.
Like Leon Spinks, Mark Pavelich fell on hard times. By the time of his death, the great victory of 1980 was being canceled and the Democrat-media axis vilifying anyone who dares to chant “USA! USA! USA!” Beyond Trump Derangement Syndrome, this brand of cancellation is the left’s no-win situation for America itself. The Washington powers are now playing that dangerous game.
Sorry, but I was a big-time hockey fan back then and saw the Soviet team (which was fully professional) destroy NHL teams before the 1980 Olympics. If people want to think that a rag-tag bunch of college kids could actually beat them, I guess that’s fine - but no can make me change my mind as to what really was going on then.
The irony is that many Russian players later said the 1980 loss was the best thing that could have happened to the Soviet hockey program for the next decade — because it exposed a badly flawed approach to managing the national team and coaching the players. The Soviet teams of the mid-1980s were even more dominant than the ones at the height of the Cold War.
Yeah. They’re still too hung up on winning. They need to get woke.
For one thing, the 1980 Soviet team was very overrated in some respects. The roster was filled with legendary names, but most of them were either past their primes or were very young and hadn’t yet become dominant players on the international scene.
He definitely has a point about Leon Spinks. He was huge when I was young, and I had no idea he just passed away.
Most unbelievable upset in American sports... Ironically, it was not broadcast live. I listened to the radio coverage and later that Friday night watched the replay. Even knowing the outcome, it was amazing and inspiring.
What was really going on?
It was seen as a huge upset in 1980 because the U.S. team was comprised of a bunch of “unknown kids.” But when you see how many of those players went on to have long NHL careers — when the NHL had few American players before 1980 — it’s obvious that those kids were much better hockey players than anyone realized at the time.
Huh? So you are saying this was a 1919 Black Sox or Bobby Riggs - Billy Jean King fix of some kind?
“I’m not looking for the BEST players. I’m looking for the RIGHT ones.”
I watched the Soviets put the NY Rangers to shame, and the Rangers were a damn good team in 1980. If they could do that, they could beat any bunch of US college kids, if they were told to.
“Huh? So you are saying this was a 1919 Black Sox or Bobby Riggs - Billy Jean King fix of some kind?”
Yep, and they had a reason for it. We were going to boycott the Moscow Summer Olympics later that year. Make us think we can actually beat them, when they were always first in the Olympics, and maybe we’d change our minds and come to Moscow.
The thing was, people were saying just that: “Let’s go to Moscow and beat up the Soviets again!”.
Was it all some diabolical ‘conspiracy’ to get us to go to Moscow? I think so...because that’s how they played ball back then.
So you're saying it was staged? Were the moon landings also staged?
I have no idea what this article is trying to say. CAn someone tell me?
2. The NHL style of play back then was very different than the style of play in international hockey. In many of those exhibition games you simply saw a mismatch of playing styles more than a mismatch of talent. Conversely, the U.S. team was filled with college players who had previously been playing under NCAA rules that were almost identical to international rules.
3. Look at the Soviet players from that 1980 team that went on to play later in the NHL. Some of them were good NHL players. None of them were really stars. They sure didn’t dominate the Rangers — or anyone else in the NHL — the way they did in 1980.
That’s an interesting theory. It’s also something you just pulled out of your @ss with no basis in fact or evidence. LOL.
“Most unbelievable upset in American sports... Ironically, it was not broadcast live...”
Funny thing, I was watching the game with a friend while we were in College.
There was about 15 minutes of the game left, the TV broke to a commercial break, then there was a 10 second ‘nightly news (local)’ promo...
The Sportscaster said: ‘We’ll have footage of the US’s shocking come from behind victory over the Russians!”
Needless to say we both got up and started SCREAMING at the TV!
Soon there was another quick commercial — the Sportscaster apologized and asked for folks to stop calling the station...
The article is saying that leftists don’t care about the United States coming out on top, whether the victory is in sports or international relations. The issue is never the issue, the revolution is always the issue.
The big flaw in your theory is Finland.
What most people not alive at the time might not realize is the US didn’t win the gold after beating the Russians, they had to go on and beat the Finns to get the gold.
If they lost to the Finns then the USA big win against the Russians would have been forgotten by March.
So were the Finns in on the fix too?
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