The Miracle on Ice. I was still living in Gainesville at the time and watched this with a group of friends. What a thrill.
Most underrated sport there is . . . 'cept up here in the great white north and in Canada. BTW - if you are a true sports fan and have never watched a high level hockey game live, please do yourself a favor and get to a Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers or whatever hockey game you can. @tilly and others will confirm this. College hockey is awesome too and to some extent, it can be more appreciable to the novice viewer - for one, because the puck is easier to follow. Some of my friends up here suggest going to the high level women's college games for the same reason. Some of my recent female students are stud hockey players and at least one of them is an olympic prospect. The sport is intense, rugged, beautiful and just complex enough. Watching line changes, counting the seconds off in power plays, monitoring the offsides and icing calls . . . great stuff.
Hockey in person might be the best spectator sport of all. I worked at a university that had an NCAA championship team and a player on the 1984 Olympic championship team. Definitely close to the back to back hoops champs.
Beating Russia was amazing, but had they lost to Finland in the gold metal game, it would have lost some of its shine. Finland had a power play on a questionable penalty late in the game down a goal. The U.S. Scored a shorthanded goal to ice the game. That may have been the biggest goal in hockey history.
I watched it "live" on our fraternity row house TV. Big signs on the doors "DO NOT REVEAL SCORE", since a few people might have found out (pre-ESPN). I had grown up watching Army hockey live, went to high school with Brian Riley, Jack Riley's son, and I was the PMK on hockey rules in the fraternity house that night, etc so I "translated" a lot for the guys. ("WTF is 'icing'?) Went to a party that Thursday night on an absolute endorphin high. Herb Brooks went into the locker room between 2d and 3d period when the US was down to Finland in the Gold Medal game; All he said to the team was "If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking grave." He turned and walked toward the locker room door, stopped turned and said "Your FUCKING grave!" Scored two in the 3d to take the lead (one shorthanded) to seal the deal. The game against the USSR is the single greatest sporting event I have ever seen. You youngsters cannot appreciate the significance, in the depths of the Cold War.
Great post! What an epic victory for the USA. They never should have started allowing professionals to replace amateurs in the olympics. For the “dream team” to win a medal means nothing. The amateur athletes representing the USA were at a disadvantage opposite all the cheating and doping by the communist block countries, but that was what made their achievements so special. Nothing will ever trump The Miracle On Ice
And our amateurs were competitive against them. We essentially admitted defeat when we started allowing pros to represent the USA
I was thrilled then and still enjoy recalling the moment now. I guess I just don't like seeing Russia have nice things. Of course, being a 12-year-old growing up in Jacksonville during the Cuban missile crisis may have something to do with my lifelong aversion to pierogies and borsht.
I remember watching this game. Hard to believe it's been that long and it was great to be reminded. I have the Kurt Russell movie, Miracle, which focuses on the player turned coach Herb Brooks who guided the USA team. I highly recommend it. I was 28 years old and we were a little over 5 months away from having our first child at the time.
