Mike Eruzione: The Making of a Miracle

On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Eruzione—the captain of the 1980 U.S Men’s Olympic Hockey Team—recounts the unlikely circumstances that led to his amazing career on ice, the legendary upset against the Soviets, and his game-winning gold medal goal.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
The US team is depending a little bit too much
now and Jim Pray, he's making too many good Fave
brook reaction. Here it is again, here's a Zione using
the defense but as a frame hard most shot. And

(00:30):
we continue here with our American stories and our own.
Greg Hangler brings us this next story, and it's one
that's close to his heart. He grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota,
and hockey is more than a pastime to folks living
in that part of the country. It is the greatest
American underdog sports story ever told, how a team of

(00:52):
college kids and unsigned amateurs under the tutelage of legendary
coach and legendary taskmaster Hurt Brooks, beat the elite Soviet
hockey team on their way to winning the gold medal
at the nineteen eighty Lake Placid Olympics. Mike Erusione served
as the captain. The highlight of the games for Mike
was scoring the game winning goal against the Soviet Union,

(01:15):
the one you just heard. Here's Mike Rusione with his story.
I grew up in a little town on the north
shore of Boston called Winthrop, Mass I still live in
that town, actually lived two houses away from the house
I grew up in, and when I was in high school,

(01:36):
I actually played football, hockey in baseball. Baseball was my love.
I probably played more baseball than any sport, and football
was my passion in high school. Hockey was something you
just did in the wintertime. When I got out of
high school, I was not recruited by any colleges and

(01:59):
I ended up going to a prep school year for
one year in a school in main called Barock Academy,
with the hopes actually of playing at the University of
New Hampshire. And I wanted to play all three sports
in college, but the hockey coach didn't think I was
a Division one hockey player and kind of thought that

(02:20):
you and h was going to accept me. I had
all my eggs in one basket, and as it turned out,
I basically had no schools to go do well. My
intention then was to go to Merrimack College. They offered
me a hockey scholarship. Merrimack was a Division two school
at the time. Well, that summer before entering my freshman year,

(02:41):
I didn't play hockey. In the summertime. I played baseball
and ended up getting a phone call from a friend
of mine telling me that they needed some guys to
play in a summer league game because a bunch of
the guys went to the Cape for the weekend, and
if I was interested in playing, So of course I
said yes, and I went and played in the game,

(03:04):
and as it turned out, the guy refereeing the game
was a guy named Jack Parker. Jack Parker was the
assistant coach at Boston University and he came over to
me after the game and asked me where I was
going to school, and I told him I was going
to Merrimack College, and then he proceeded to tell me
that they had a kid from Canada that decided not
to come and they had a scholarship available. Would I

(03:26):
be interested in going to Boston University? And you got
to imagine my surprise. Boston University it was coming off
back to back national championships and considered one of the
best teams in college hockey. Well, I told him I
would accept the scholarship because I felt I could play
at Boston University given the right opportunity. So I arrived

(03:48):
on campus at Boston University. Unfortunately, the head coach didn't
know anything about me, and early on in the beginning
of the season, I was basically playing on the fourth
line and we'd only played a couple of games. But
I wasn't playing that much well as it turned out.
At one point, just before Christmas, Leon Abbott, the head coach,

(04:09):
got fired and Jack Parker became the head coach. So
Jack Parker becomes the head coach and I go from
centering the fourth line to playing left wing on the
second line and was fortunate and led the team in
gold scored my freshman year. So I graduate from Boston
University and at that point I thought I could play

(04:30):
in the National Hockey League and went to camp with
the New York Rangers. The New York Rangers had my rights.
I went to camp with the Rangers, had a pretty
good camp, but John Fergus and the general manager talked
to my advisor and told them that they weren't going
to sign any new players. They had enough players under contract,
and they sent me to Toledo, Ohio, and I went

(04:52):
to Toledo, Ohio and played as an amateur. I was
not under an NHL contract. I was paid every two
weeks by the Toledo Gold as in the International League.
I actually ended up making I think my first year
thirty five hundred bucks, not a lot of money playing
eighty games, but it was a start. Well, I had
a very good year in Toledo. I finished second on

(05:16):
our team in scoring and was voted the outstanding born American.
All set and ready to sign with the New York Rangers. Well,
John Ferguson, who was the general manager, he ended up
getting fired and Fred Chero now became the general manager
of the New York Rangers. And Fred Chero told my

(05:36):
agent that they weren't signing any of John Ferguson's players,
and Mike was free to do what he wanted to do. Well,
I thought, why don't I go back to Toledo, play
as an amateur and have an opportunity to try out
for the eighty Olympic team. It's funny, if John Ferguson
never got fired, I probably would have signed with the

(05:57):
New York Rangers. I don't know where my NHL career
would have gone, but clearly I would not have been
eligible to play on the Olympic team. Well, with that
in mind, I go back to Toledo. I was fortunate
that next year they gave me a little more money
to play. Still nowhere near what you could make playing
in the NHL. But I went back there with the

(06:18):
intention of the next year trying out for the Olympic team,
and I got invited to the Olympic Festival, ended up
playing on the Great Lakes team. We ended up winning
the gold medal at the Olympic Festival, and I was
fortunate to be elected captain of my team. While from

(06:38):
the Olympic Festival, I was selected by Herb as one
of twenty six players to make the eight Olympic team,
but only twenty we're going to go to Lake Placid. Well,
fortunately for me, I was one of twenty. I also
had the honor of being elected captain of that team.
Although I've said many times we had a team of

(06:58):
captains Mark Johnson, Jack O'Callahan, Bobby Suter, Billy Baker, Kenny Morrow,
Mark Wells, Mark Pavlitz, John Harrington, these guys were all
captains of their colleges or high school teams, as was
Mike Ramsey, Neil Broughton, Eric Strobel, Steve Christophe phil Vercoda.

(07:20):
Great leaders, great players, great people. Well. Our team traveled
and trained for six months leading up to the Olympic
Games in Lake Placid, where we were part of something
that was unique, something that nobody in the world thought
we could accomplish, going to Lake Placid and winning an
Olympic gold medal. Well after the Olympic Games, once we

(07:45):
saw her and realized what this moment was, I retired
from hockey and decided I was going to maybe get
into coaching, and then found out how big this moment
was and kind of gave me a new look on
life and a lot of different opportunities in my life.
I ended up being able to become a broadcaster working
Olympic Games as a commentator. Having been a commentator with

(08:10):
the Olympic Games, I was also able to do the
New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils, and eventually even
college hockey. Well. I got out of the broadcasting business
when my kids started to get a little older. I
have three children, a daughter, Leanne, a son Michael, and
a son Paul. Since then, the two of them, Michael

(08:30):
and Leanne, have been married and have now beautiful five grandchildren,
four boys and a little girl. So what started out
in my high school days living in the same town
that I live in now the opportunity to be an
the Olympic team. The movie that came out called Miracle.

(08:51):
The visibility that our team has received over the years
led me to which is a book that I wrote
along with a get gentleman by the name of Neil Boudette,
and the book is the Making of a Miracle, The
Untold Story of Olympic Captain Mike Ruzione. I wrote the
book for one reason and one reason only. I want

(09:14):
my grandkids to know there's more to my life than
two weeks in Lake Placid. So our journey as a team,
which started in nineteen eighty since our victory over Finland.
And it's kind of funny for me because today people

(09:35):
still think we only played one game, and they forget
about the Finland game. They just think we beat the
Soviets and that was it. Our team in nineteen eighty
touched a lot of lives for a lot of different reasons.
For us, it was an opportunity to represent our country
compete in the Olympic Games with the hope and dreams
of winning the tournament, and as it turned out, we

(09:57):
did so. Rather than get into my whole life talking
to you here, I thought I'd give you just a
little glimpse of some of the things that have happened
to me in my life. Thank you, and the humility
you can hear it in his voice. Guy just doesn't
really want to talk about himself in the age of
selfie's an endless self promotion that is a rare thing.

(10:18):
And by the way that he was captain on a
team of captains tells you everything about the guy's character.
And lucky Boston University having a guy like this teaching
and leading other men and women. Mike Eruzione born on
this day in nineteen fifty four. Here on our American
Stories