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Tuesday, February 22, 2005

25th Anniversary of Olympic "Miracle on Ice"

Today marks a historic anniversary for the hockey fans in America. Much has been said about that tremendous achievement and it stands the tests of time as a true underdog story.

25 years ago today marks the day that a bunch of inexperienced college kids and a overworked burned out coach defeated a veteran juggernaut Russian team in the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.

Of course, I have to make thing one clear. It is a widely held belief that Team USA defeated the Russians to win the gold. Not so. The game in Lake Placid, NY was only a semi-final game. They went on the next day to defeat Finland to win the Olympic gold medal. That also marks the ending of the tradition of only the team captain on the medal podium. When Mike Erruzioni called up his teammates to the podium, every Olymics thereafter, the team is presented with their medals at the same time.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I think a lot of the credit for the victory has to go to Herb Brooks. He was in my opinion one of the great coach's of all time. Damn that Jagr for having him ousted in Pittsburgh.

greatwhitebear said...

This was a good team with a lot of underated talent and a great coach. too bad Herb passed before being able to participate in the aniversary, or to see MIRACLE, which I am renting again this weekend.