{"id":49847,"date":"2026-02-22T09:30:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=49847"},"modified":"2026-02-22T11:29:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:29:47","slug":"on-this-day-february-22-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=49847","title":{"rendered":"February 22, 1980: “Do you believe in miracles? YES!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Member when Russia was our enemy? I miss those days. It is truly wild to watch certain people – whose identity for 75 years was opposition to Russia’s tyranny – flip-flop. The cognitive dissonance has to be insane. Or it should be. Not that we always need the same enemy but … Putin? Really? Now you’re going soft on it? Or quiet? Okay. I see you.<\/p>\n

The “miracle on ice” story means a lot to me, not as a political fight but as an exciting sports story, as gripping as any cliffhanger. And all of the personalities involved! It’s really the ultimate underdog story. <\/p>\n

FIRST UP: For my column at Film Comment<\/i>, I wrote about Miracle<\/i><\/a>, the 2004 film about the “miracle on ice” – which turns 41 years old today. It went up a year ago, for the 40th anniversary. Many many thanks to Film Comment<\/i> for accepting what is, perhaps, aside from the piece on Elvis’ acting career<\/a>, the most Sheila-esque pitch on the planet. <\/p>\n

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Al Michaels: <\/p>\n

It was a sliver of the Cold War played out on a sheet of ice. Here you have a bunch of fresh-faced college kids taking on the big bad Soviet bear, in the United States, in the Olympics. The confluence of events was so extraordinary it can never happen again. It was the greatest sports moment of the 20th century.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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John Powers, Boston Globe<\/i>:<\/p>\n

The Americans were always amateurs, college kids, some of them, or recent graduates, who still played the game but certainly not at the Russian level. There was no way they could be competitive. And the feeling going into 1980 was they really haven’t got much of a chance, even though it’s here at Lake Placid. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nJim Lampley, ABC sports:<\/p>\n

This was a case where for a few hours at least a magical coach got a magical group of kids to believe that they could do something that they really couldn’t do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More after the jump:<\/p>\n

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On the Soviet Hockey Team<\/big>:<\/p>\n

Dave Silk, forward, US 1980 Olympic hockey team:<\/p>\n

64, 68, 72, 76, right up until 1980 – the Soviets were unbeatable in the Olympics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Igor Kuperman, Soviet sports journalist:<\/p>\n

It was a dynasty, definitely, for 10, 20, 30 years. Their main goal was to win every game, every period, every shift. There was one regular season when they won 43 out of 44 games.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jim Lampley, ABC sports:<\/p>\n

They played hockey the way we played basketball, with the same kind of control of the puck, the same kind of intricate offensive patterns, and of course the presence in goal of Tretiak – how could you beat ’em?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nBoris Mikhailov, forward, Soviet hockey team, 1980:<\/p>\n

Sport was tied with politics and any victory had big political undertones. Especially during the Olympic games when the General Secretary and everybody else was worried about how we would represent our country. Our task was only to place first. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Putting Together the US Olympic Team<\/big>:<\/p>\n

Herb Brooks, coach, 1980 US Olympic hockey team:<\/p>\n

[The Russians] could execute at such a high level of speed – skating, passing, shooting, thinking – I tried to develop a team that would throw their game right back at ’em.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nBill Baker, defenseman:<\/p>\n

There was a huge difference, I think, between the guys from out East and the guys from out West. They’d come in with their fancy clothes, talkin’ trash, and there’s us guys with a little bit of a different outlook on everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dave Silk:<\/p>\n

The Boston guys – we thought we were pretty savvy, and there were guys who didn’t lock their doors or left their wallets out in plain sight. You know, we thought, these guys are a bunch of hicks from the cow pastures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\nHerb Brooks:<\/p>\n

I wanted to blur the boundaries of our country, build a We and an Us in ourselves as opposed to an I, Me, Myself. Our spirit was going to be a big asset. And you can’t have that type of thing if you have pockets of individuals and there’s not those team-building exercises throughout the year. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Herb Brooks to the team:<\/p>\n

“Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the Tension of the Time<\/big>
\n(Iranian hostage crisis, oil crisis, Russian invasion of Afghanistan, possible boycott of Olympics averted.)<\/p>\n

Igor Kuperman, Soviet sports journalist:<\/p>\n

Newspapers were full of articles blaming the Americans for everything, so an attitude for the entire Olympic team: Let’s show them who we are, let’s show them who are the greatest, let’s show them who are the strongest, and let’s show them on their soil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

February 12, 1980: Start of the Olympics in Lake Placid, Day 100 of the Hostage Crisis<\/big><\/p>\n

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\nThe US and the USSR were in separate brackets, and nobody ever expected a standoff. They would only play one another if they both made it to the medal round.<\/p>\n

Vladislav Tretiak, goaltender for the Russian team, one of the best to ever play the game:<\/p>\n

We were anticipating getting the gold medals because we were the strongest team. The Czech team wasn’t very strong, the Swedes weren’t strong either. The Americans never really counted as an opponent. Therefore, there was nobody really to compete with. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The U.S. played Sweden first. It didn’t start off well. They were trailing 2-1 in the final period. Herb Brooks, wanting an extra man on the ice, pulled Jim Craig out of the goal, leaving it unattended.<\/p>\n

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\nAl Michaels, sportscaster:<\/p>\n

I remember the US had several opportunities to tie the game and you just got the feeling, and of course as the clock ticks down, and now you’re under a minute … well, it’s not to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But with 29 seconds left in the period, Bill Baker scored. <\/p>\n

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Mike Eruzione, US team captain:<\/p>\n

You always wonder – if Billy doesn’t score, what happens to the hockey team? Well, Billy did score.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bill Baker:<\/p>\n

I couldn’t believe it when it went in, you know?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Powers, Boston Globe<\/i>:<\/p>\n

That was the biggest goal of the Olympics because if the Americans lose that game they’re virtually out of contention before the games even start. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two days later, the U.S. played Czechoslavakia. <\/p>\n

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\nMike Eruzione:<\/p>\n

Many people said that the Czechs were considered the second-best team in the world and the only team that had a chance to beat the Soviets. Well, we pretty much dominated the Czechs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was the infamous game where Mark Johnson was injured from a cheap shot by a Czech player and there was a closeup of an enraged Herb Brooks on live television shouting out onto the ice in a cold controlled manner, “We’ll bury that goddamn stick right down your throat.” <\/p>\n

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Al Michaels:<\/p>\n

I think that was one of the moments where a lot of people in this country said, Hey, pretty good little story taking place here. You have these fresh-faced kids, gotta keep an eye on these guys, and look at this coach, I mean, he’s right there backing his players.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John Powers, Boston Globe:<\/p>\n

Now you’ve got a tie against the Swedes, you’ve got a win over the Czechs and you can sense it starting to build. You can sense the interest in America, they’re now taking notice of these kids, who are starting to turn this tournament on its ear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Al Michaels:<\/p>\n

So everybody is starting to look ahead to this prospective match-up against the Soviets, but before that, you have three other games. Norway figured to be the easiest of the games, and it was. Then you had Romania. And they won that game. Germany presented a little bit of a problem on Wednesday night, the last game prior to going into the medal round. Germany leads 2 nothing. Wait a second, what’s going on here, you don’t want this bump in the road, you don’t want it now. And the US was able to come behind and beat Germany. So they did all of the things they had to do. But then of course you had the spectre of the Soviets, just looming there. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Vladislav Tretiak, Soviet goaltender:<\/p>\n

We were way stronger. Nobody ever doubted that. We were professionals and they were just students. Simply put, we did not respect their team. And you cannot do that in hockey. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Herb Brooks:<\/p>\n

I kept whetting their appetite. Someone’ll beat those guys, someone’s gonna beat those guys. I don’t like how they’re playing. They think they’re better than they are. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jack O’Callahan, U.S., defenseman:<\/p>\n

Boris Mikhailov was as close to the Hockey Chief of the World as there was and Herbie starts teasing the guy all week. Look at that guy’s nose. Look at that guy’s face. Looks like Stan Laurel. And he’s insulting the guy. Look at Tikhanov, look at his head, he looks like a chicken. He’s laughing. Who do these Russians think they are anyway? Ha Ha Ha. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Herb Brooks:<\/p>\n

“Can’t play against Stan Laurel? Piece of cake, guys!” To relax them, to keep them focused, and also plant the seed: Hey. Someone’s gonna beat those son of a guns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

February 22, 1980<\/big><\/p>\n

The game was scheduled for February 22 at 5 p.m. No one had anticipated the wave of interest. 5 p.m. was definitely not primetime. The game was taped and they waited to broadcast it (which you could never do now in this day and age of Twitter, etc.) <\/p>\n

Al Michaels:<\/p>\n

So here in this most bizarre and freakish circumstance, you have a 5 o’clock game on a Friday where people are filing in to a building in daylight going to a semi-matinee. Little would anybody understand that it would be … maybe the most memorable sports event they would ever go to in their lives. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Good ol’ Al Michaels in his sharp Peter Pan collar, started off the broadcast with:<\/p>\n

The excitement, the tension building, the Olympic Center filling to capacity. I am sure there are people in this building who do not know the difference between a blue line and a clothes line. It’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. Because what we have at hand is the rarest of sporting events. An event that needs no buildup, no superfluous adjectives. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Herb Brooks went into the locker room to talk to the players.<\/p>\n

Mike Eruzione:<\/p>\n

He told us we were born to be a player, we were meant to be here, this moment was ours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jack O’Callahan:<\/p>\n

And he told that story about spitting in the eye of the tiger. This is OUR time, this is not THEIR time. Screw them, Stan Laurel, all those Russians. It’s OUR turn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s secret footage taken of Herb Brook’s speech that day:<\/p>\n

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