What I have found fascinating through all this research into 1980, the win over the Soviets, the gold medal, is how over the years the players have been a little irritated by all the miracle talk. Nothing against what Al Michaels said about Do you believe in miracles? ... or Disney naming the movie Miracle, but I have found several cases where the players say it was not a miracle. They had worked so incredibly hard for 7 months and become such a team, that they earned all of it. Mike Eurozione has said they could have beaten any team in the world on a given night. Team USA was talented. Half the team would play in the NHL. They were maybe the best conditioned team in US Olympic history. After countless interviews, over 500 articles read, 4 books, 2 documentaries and a partridge in a pear tree, I have been able to figure out how they did it, and it is flat out fascinating. I do believe their coach was a genius and we dont throw that word around lightly. It was a case of the players could not have done it without him and he couldnt have done it without them. They were like a bottle of wine uncorked at the perfect time. What has also been interesting is how the Soviet players went out of their way to congratulate the Americans after the game. Boris Mikhailov, about the best player in the world then, even found the refs locker room and told them they had done an excellent job. That Friday night 2 Soviet players went out, found some champagne and one said to the other - Let us toast the American University students. They deserved that win. Now if it had been the Czechs (their bitter rival) that had beaten us, we would be jumping in Lake Placid now.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:16:51 +0000
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