Posted on 02/21/2015 1:48:08 PM PST by PROCON
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 at age 57 in September.
(Excerpt) Read more at wxyz.com ...
The Iranian hostage crisis was into its 3rd month, unemployment was at record levels.
And then there came February 21 at Lake Placid, NY.
For you younger FReepers let's just say "The Miracle", however briefly, instilled a huge shot of patriotism and love for country into the American public.
The movie "Miracle" with Kurt Russell is a great story about this historic event and near the end of the movie you'll be shouting USA...USA...USA too.
USA! USA! USA!
Cool! Thanks for the memories.
I remember it well.
February 1980 was an awful time for America, until these young college men literally electrified the country.
Fortunately, the year ended on a happy note.....Ronald Reagan won the presidential election in November 1980 in a landslide.
Goalie looking into the stands, draped with USA flag: “Where’s my fatha?”
I still remember watching that game & their next one.
USA!
Though I don’t like Canada not winning a gold in hockey at the Olympics, at least the Soviets didn’t win in 1980.
I was only 20 when this happened, but I remember it well. I later I worked with Mark Johnson’s Mom. Great family! He’s the Coach for our UW Badger Women’s Hockey team.
We are lucky to have him! His goal in the last SECOND of the first period tied us up with the Russians, which paved our way to the WIN! :)
Herb Brooks has heroic status in Minnesota as he was a St. Paul native.
35 frickin’ years.. much of it despoiled by a rampacious cadre of scoundrels who would make George Washington blush, so outrageous have been their actions.
Where did it go? wow.
We cold use another “Miracle” I reckun.
Drop the puck, Obammy.. Let’s jam!
“Is there anything on the horizon that can get us turned around again?”
The Green Bay Packers winning Super Bowl FIFTY would do it! :)
THE MIRACLE ON ICE!!
I was a Marine heading to Iran, and that victory over Russia was the only good news we got, other than Canada saving our embassy personnell :)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkoOH05Yvyb1cg90Jf80Zr752fAAY0YLe
I had five teenagers at the time and they went NUTS !!!!!
A noisy,happy day.
.
I was 11 years old when this Miracle took place. I was very young but remember the overwhelming sense of angst hanging over our nation as the peanut farmer president Jimmy Carter had given us the “Misery Index”, “Stagflation”, close to 20% interest rates on loans, gasoline shortages with higher gas prices, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. THE U.S was in a deep funk of misery at the time.
Watching this game live (all commentators said the U.S team had no chance of winning) was amazing! Gives me goose bumps now just thinking about it. Love watching the Miracle on Ice movie with Kurt Russel.
USA! USA! USA!
“This time period was during the disasterous Jimmy Carter presidency; the nation as a whole was in a collective funk.”
Collective funk understates how bleak things were. There’s been nothing like it until Obama’s disasterous regime.
The miracle on ice was a beacon of light in a very dark time. It invigorated suffering American patriots and felt like the first hope for better times ahead. I do think it helped Reagan in his run for the Presidency.
I remember pictures of the Soviet players looking mesmerized by or maybe even envious of the American players. For the Soviets hockey was more of a job and they never were able to experience anything like the emotion the American kids had in their victory.
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