Jim McKay tried to explain to non-hockey fans just how improbable the outcome was
40 years ago there was a hockey game played in North Elba, New York
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Jim McKay tried to explain to non-hockey fans just how improbable the outcome was
A few years before my time but reading about it and watching the documentaries and the movie gives me chills. Definitely one sports memory I wish I had
Therick67
Registered User
I get chills every time I watch those highlights. I saved those newspapers and really need to frame them...
I went to that game by sheer fluke luck.
My GF got tickets for the 5 PM game a full month before, the evening game was sold out and I thought there was no chance we would see the US play because I had doubts they would be in the medal round to begin with and if they were I was certain ABC would slot them in prime time - wrong on both counts.
The Soviets wanted the game early in the afternoon so it could be seen at a reasonable hour on Russian TV - well they saw it
I had actually been to Lake Placid early in the Olympics as TV38 was hired by ABC to cover some of the early rounds at what they called the 1932 Arena and the USA/Norway came was played there. The games in the 1980 arena were produced by CFCF-TV (CTV) out of Montreal as ABC had no experience doing hockey.
If you look at the 1980 announcer assignments ABC had given a low profile to hockey and a young baseball announcer named Al Michaels got the gig
How did that work out for him?
So that Friday morning we drove to Lake Placid and all the way up Anne was saying ' We are going to win ' and I am praying it won't be 12-1 Russia.
Lake Placid was a logistical nightmare for traffic. Somehow the organizers overlooked that Montreal was only 100 miles away and many Americans ( including us ) had to book hotel rooms in Montreal because there was nothing in Lake Placid.
The game itself is a blur in my memory - it seemed like the teams would play end to end for minutes and then you look at the clock and only 40 seconds elapsed. I could not believe what I was seeing.
Annie was willing to barter the tickets she had for the Women's Figuring Skating Final on Saturday for the final US hockey game but NOBODY was selling those.
A footnote that @Terrier certainly knows. BU's Jack Parker was the first choice to coach that team but he told the USOC that Brooks was the coach they needed. When the final roster was selected, the only eastern players Brooks selected were those that had been coached by Parker.
Brooks greatest dressing room speech was not the 'You were born for this' speech you see in the movie Miracle - it came 2 days later when the US was struggling against Finland. He said ' If you lose this game, you will take it to your grave - YOUR f***ING GRAVE '
USA-FINLAND 2/24/1980
My GF got tickets for the 5 PM game a full month before, the evening game was sold out and I thought there was no chance we would see the US play because I had doubts they would be in the medal round to begin with and if they were I was certain ABC would slot them in prime time - wrong on both counts.
The Soviets wanted the game early in the afternoon so it could be seen at a reasonable hour on Russian TV - well they saw it
I had actually been to Lake Placid early in the Olympics as TV38 was hired by ABC to cover some of the early rounds at what they called the 1932 Arena and the USA/Norway came was played there. The games in the 1980 arena were produced by CFCF-TV (CTV) out of Montreal as ABC had no experience doing hockey.
If you look at the 1980 announcer assignments ABC had given a low profile to hockey and a young baseball announcer named Al Michaels got the gig
How did that work out for him?
So that Friday morning we drove to Lake Placid and all the way up Anne was saying ' We are going to win ' and I am praying it won't be 12-1 Russia.
Lake Placid was a logistical nightmare for traffic. Somehow the organizers overlooked that Montreal was only 100 miles away and many Americans ( including us ) had to book hotel rooms in Montreal because there was nothing in Lake Placid.
The game itself is a blur in my memory - it seemed like the teams would play end to end for minutes and then you look at the clock and only 40 seconds elapsed. I could not believe what I was seeing.
Annie was willing to barter the tickets she had for the Women's Figuring Skating Final on Saturday for the final US hockey game but NOBODY was selling those.
A footnote that @Terrier certainly knows. BU's Jack Parker was the first choice to coach that team but he told the USOC that Brooks was the coach they needed. When the final roster was selected, the only eastern players Brooks selected were those that had been coached by Parker.
Brooks greatest dressing room speech was not the 'You were born for this' speech you see in the movie Miracle - it came 2 days later when the US was struggling against Finland. He said ' If you lose this game, you will take it to your grave - YOUR f***ING GRAVE '
USA-FINLAND 2/24/1980
I was 17 at the time. It was just unbelievable. Talk about David v. Goliath!!!
IIRC the Russians had destroyed us something like 12-0 in a exhibition a few weeks before the Games opened. Nobody and I mean nobody thought anyone could defeat the Russians. The gold was theirs. Until it wasn't...
IIRC the Russians had destroyed us something like 12-0 in a exhibition a few weeks before the Games opened. Nobody and I mean nobody thought anyone could defeat the Russians. The gold was theirs. Until it wasn't...
Looking back, the genius of Herb Brooks was letting the US get annaliated by the Soviet Union 3 weeks earlier at Madison Sq Garden.
Roone Arledge said not airing the game live was his biggest mistake but he could not make a case to ask the network to take away valuable local news windows for the affiliates for a game that seemed impossible for the US to be even close. He even refused stations in New England and Minnesota the option of carrying the game. In Boston Cliff and Claf carried the last 2 periods on the old WITS radio thanks to someone in Montreal calling the station and putting the phone next to his TV.
Bruinfanatic
Registered User
40 years I remember it well ,holly crap I’m getting old.Lol
- Jan 29, 2003
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I went to that game by sheer fluke luck.
My GF got tickets for the 5 PM game a full month before, the evening game was sold out and I thought there was no chance we would see the US play because I had doubts they would be in the medal round to begin with and if they were I was certain ABC would slot them in prime time - wrong on both counts.
The Soviets wanted the game early in the afternoon so it could be seen at a reasonable hour on Russian TV - well they saw it
I had actually been to Lake Placid early in the Olympics as TV38 was hired by ABC to cover some of the early rounds at what they called the 1932 Arena and the USA/Norway came was played there. The games in the 1980 arena were produced by CFCF-TV (CTV) out of Montreal as ABC had no experience doing hockey.
If you look at the 1980 announcer assignments ABC had given a low profile to hockey and a young baseball announcer named Al Michaels got the gig
How did that work out for him?
So that Friday morning we drove to Lake Placid and all the way up Anne was saying ' We are going to win ' and I am praying it won't be 12-1 Russia.
Lake Placid was a logistical nightmare for traffic. Somehow the organizers overlooked that Montreal was only 100 miles away and many Americans ( including us ) had to book hotel rooms in Montreal because there was nothing in Lake Placid.
The game itself is a blur in my memory - it seemed like the teams would play end to end for minutes and then you look at the clock and only 40 seconds elapsed. I could not believe what I was seeing.
Annie was willing to barter the tickets she had for the Women's Figuring Skating Final on Saturday for the final US hockey game but NOBODY was selling those.
A footnote that @Terrier certainly knows. BU's Jack Parker was the first choice to coach that team but he told the USOC that Brooks was the coach they needed. When the final roster was selected, the only eastern players Brooks selected were those that had been coached by Parker.
Brooks greatest dressing room speech was not the 'You were born for this' speech you see in the movie Miracle - it came 2 days later when the US was struggling against Finland. He said ' If you lose this game, you will take it to your grave - YOUR ****ING GRAVE '
USA-FINLAND 2/24/1980
I’m at Lake Placid right now....first time and it’s awesome.
I literally got choked up walking into the arena.
As an aside....and I might be messing up some specifics, so correct me if I am, but it’s amazing how the butterfly effect figured into the Miracle.
Eruzione was supposed to play for Ron Anderson at Merrimack, but something happened and his scholarship was given away.
Then Eruzione, I believe took a year off after HS because of it.
The summer before what should have been his sophomore year his buddies begged him to fill in during a summer league game. He reluctantly played and Jack Parker happened to be there to watch someone else.
He saw Eruzione after the game and asked him what happened. In the end, Parker offered him a 1/2 scholarship I believe, and the rest is history.
No summer game....probably no BU for Eruzione, maybe no Miracle on Ice.
I went to that game by sheer fluke luck.
My GF got tickets for the 5 PM game a full month before, the evening game was sold out and I thought there was no chance we would see the US play because I had doubts they would be in the medal round to begin with and if they were I was certain ABC would slot them in prime time - wrong on both counts.
The Soviets wanted the game early in the afternoon so it could be seen at a reasonable hour on Russian TV - well they saw it
I had actually been to Lake Placid early in the Olympics as TV38 was hired by ABC to cover some of the early rounds at what they called the 1932 Arena and the USA/Norway came was played there. The games in the 1980 arena were produced by CFCF-TV (CTV) out of Montreal as ABC had no experience doing hockey.
If you look at the 1980 announcer assignments ABC had given a low profile to hockey and a young baseball announcer named Al Michaels got the gig
How did that work out for him?
So that Friday morning we drove to Lake Placid and all the way up Anne was saying ' We are going to win ' and I am praying it won't be 12-1 Russia.
Lake Placid was a logistical nightmare for traffic. Somehow the organizers overlooked that Montreal was only 100 miles away and many Americans ( including us ) had to book hotel rooms in Montreal because there was nothing in Lake Placid.
The game itself is a blur in my memory - it seemed like the teams would play end to end for minutes and then you look at the clock and only 40 seconds elapsed. I could not believe what I was seeing.
Annie was willing to barter the tickets she had for the Women's Figuring Skating Final on Saturday for the final US hockey game but NOBODY was selling those.
A footnote that @Terrier certainly knows. BU's Jack Parker was the first choice to coach that team but he told the USOC that Brooks was the coach they needed. When the final roster was selected, the only eastern players Brooks selected were those that had been coached by Parker.
Brooks greatest dressing room speech was not the 'You were born for this' speech you see in the movie Miracle - it came 2 days later when the US was struggling against Finland. He said ' If you lose this game, you will take it to your grave - YOUR ****ING GRAVE '
USA-FINLAND 2/24/1980
The main reason that the only Eastern players selected
were the BU 4 had everything to do with Ralph Cox
of UNH being injured and Joe Mullen turning pro
before the pre Olympic Team was formed in the summer of 1979, then Parker being the BU coach. Mullen was a
guarantee to make the team as Brooks coached him in
the 1979 Worlds with about 8-9 other prospective 1980
Olympians including Jim Craig. Cox if he hadn't gotten
injured would probably made the team also.
I graduated college in '77 and was very familiar
with the ECAC players with 1980 US Olympic aspirations. After Mullen and Cox, I don't think
there was one ECAC player that was going to be on the 1980 Olympic Team. Jack Hughes was essentially cut for Bob Suter and no one would say that was a political decision. Brooks UMinn team won the NCAA Title in
1979 and was stacked with talent. Ramsey, Baker,
Broten, Christoff, McClanahan, Strobel, Verchota
and Janaszak were on that 1979 NCAA Team and deserved to be on the 1980 Team. Then add in
Pavelich, Christian and Harrington and it was beyond
obvious the state of Minnesota produced by far
the best talent of those college players.
Glove Malfunction
Ference is my binky
- Jan 29, 2003
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Don’t forget Tim Harrer and his 53 goals for Minnesota that season being left behind.
By chance I happened to watch the movie Miracle again just last week. I've never been the biggest fan of Kurt Russell as an actor but IMO he did a terrific job playing Brooks. The film was smart in largely being a character study on him while allowing the wider context to seep in in the background, and the writers did a good job building tension and engagement into the story even though you know the final outcome. The game play itself is really well shot too, not overly dramatic or cinematic, just good at getting you into the heart of the action, probably better than has been achieved by any other hockey-focused film actually.
It's not a super-amazing movie, but it's a solid piece that's enjoyable and does justice to its remarkable subject.
It's not a super-amazing movie, but it's a solid piece that's enjoyable and does justice to its remarkable subject.
- Jan 29, 2003
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I went to an Olympic forum last night and Buzz Schneider was a speaker.
He was asked how accurate the movie was and he said it was very close. The major embellishment was the east/west Minnesota/BU animosity.
He said it never got to fisticuffs in real life and it wasn’t as dramatic as they made it out to be.
Made for a good story though and added to the movie, IMO.
Therick67
Registered User
Eruzione said the movie was close also, but obviously some things were 'embellished' for Hollywood.
Lol, yeah he even got a few pre Olympic games.
There was a lot of bellyaching by ECAC fans of
the dominance of WCHA players, but the WCHA
had won 6 of the last 7 NCAA titles thru 1979.
Herb Brooks won 3 of those 7 and Parker 1.
I had never heard Parker was offered the 1980 head
coaching job before Brooks. Given that Minnesota won
the '79 NCAA title and the best players were in the
WCHA, I think wek're getting some BU spin...lol.
Jim Craig played out of his mind for two weeks and the picture with the Flag draped round his shoulders is iconic as Bobby's Cup clincher. And Eruzione's shot heard round the world will be played again and again thru the ages. But without the back end work of Kenny Morrow and Mike Ramsey the Miracle would be but a dream.
Haha, I may not be remembering correctly but I think they show O'Callahan and McClanahan fighting in the
1976 NCAA tourney. Its interesting because McClanahan was a Sr. in HS in the Twin Cities area in the 1975-76 season. I guess they could have went at it at The Sports
Festival in 1978 or 1979 because they split teams
by region and their was a Midwest team that was basically Minnesots players and New England team
that was mostly Mass. players.
Dave Christian was switched to D by Brooks. Can u imagine the pressure on Christian doing that playing
against USSR, Czechoslovakia, Sweden and Finland?
The US Olympic Teams of 1984 and 1988 did that
with Bobby Brooke and Scott Young and it didn't
work out as well.
Glove Malfunction
Ference is my binky
The game play was good because the casting strategy was to cast hockey players who could play at that level, and who showed some propensity for acting. Teaching them to act (especially to act like hockey players!) would be infinitely easier than teaching actors to skate. Only exception was Eddie Cahill as Jim Craig. Because he wore a mask, he could stand on the ice for scenes with his mask up. Bill Ranford did most of the on-ice action work, behind the mask.
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Maybe, but the best player on the ice during that Olympic tournament for Team USA was Mark Johnson. Son of Badger Bob and current head coach of the UW Women's Hockey Team.
Johnson led Team USA in scoring that Olympics and scored THE goal of the game against the Soviets at the end of the 1st period.
I still think to this day, that if he doesn't score that goal at the buzzer to end the first, team USA doesn't win.....
