Ralph Cox: Last Guy Cut from 1980 U.S. Olympic "Miracle" Hockey Team

On this episode of Our American Stories, What you might know about Ralph comes from the 2004 Disney movie "Miracle," which is the true story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that upset the powerful Soviets en route to the gold medal at Lake Placid. Here's Ralph to share the moment that changed his life forever.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
And we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your stories. We've told the
story of both the nineteen eighty US Olympics Miracle on
Ice story and the captain of that team's story, Miaca Ruzione.
Here's Greg Hangled with an alternative look at that miraculous tale.

(00:34):
In his book Win at Losing, How our biggest setbacks
can lead to our greatest gains. Sam Wyman explores how
failure can often be beneficial. Among the people he profiles
is Ralph Cox, a former college hockey star who was
squeezed out of arguably the greatest moment in sports history.

(00:56):
What you might know about Ralph comes from the two
thousand and for Disney movie Miracle, which is the true
story of the nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey team that
upset the powerful Soviets and route to the gold medal
at Lake Placid. One of the movies bit characters is
a very likable forward with a thick Boston accent. Ralph

(01:16):
Cox had shaggy hair and a handlebar mustache, and in
college hockey. He was a prolific goalscorer. The problem is
Cox also suffered an ankle injury in the run up
to the Games, and it continued to nag him as
the Americans were paring down their roster for Lake Placid.
In one of the movie's most emotional scenes, US coach

(01:39):
Herb Brooks calls Cox into his office to relay the
news that he had to make one more cut, and
Cox was it. Now Here's Ralph Cox picking up the story.
Following the last day of training camp in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
People in Minneapolis, we're going to give us a going
away bank for you know, living there. We all lived

(02:01):
in Minneapolis, and that's where we trained. And I get
to the hotel where the banquet all is and Herb
wants to see me, and someone says downstairs in a
small conference room, a small banquet hall. And as I'm
walking down the stairs, I'm realizing that this is probably
the moment. Like I knew her even though no one
had said it. I really thought I was going to
be on the team. I really thought I would be
on the team and go to Lake Placid. I sensed

(02:24):
that he was calling me to tell me otherwise, so
you know, you know, I tell you I stayed outside
the room for about the doors closed for a good
five minutes, just trying to catch my breath, get my
composure because it was a very emotional moment. It was very,
very hard to think about that possibility, and so your

(02:45):
emotions are running high. And I opened the door finally,
I just said to myself, you know, I have some
courage to take a breath, go in there and see
what's going on. And when I walked in, Herb was
pacing back and forth in the room. When he saw
me come in, he just looked at me and well,
which I had never seen that happen. I mean, Herb
was a very powerful guy, and it took him a
few minutes to be able to catch his breath or

(03:07):
get his composure, and he tried to talk, and again
he's a little emotional, and at that moment, for some reason,
I was extremely calm and in control. And I looked
at him and I said, you know, hey, it's it's
going to be all right, and he sort of smiled
at me a little bit, and he said, you know,
I've really enjoyed having you on the team. You've been
great to have around. Your enthusiasm and your passion for

(03:29):
the game. I think in one of the best goalscorers
I've ever seen or coached. He said, I think your
injury has really slowed you down. It's only been five months.
We're going to be playing on a big ice surface,
and I have to make one of the toughest, if
not the toughest cochasing decision I've ever had to make, Ralph,
and I'm not going to be able to take you.
And again he welled up and stood up and walked

(03:52):
around the room a little bit, and you know, he
sat back down again and we talked a little bit
about about the Olympics. I told him it was always
a dream that I had to actually go there. I said,
I really have a I don't know where this came from,
but I said, I really have a funny feeling about
this team that you're gonna have a real shot at

(04:14):
a medal. And he said, and I said, I think
you can really win the gold medal. And he started laughing,
and he said, jeez, I'll help be happy if we
just have a good showing. There's a lot of people
are not sure about that. And he said and It's
nice to see you feel like that, you know, he said,
if I can ever do anything for you ever in
your career, he said, it'd be a pleasure to be
able to do that. And what I didn't know at

(04:36):
that time, and I didn't know for almost ten years,
but it made sense after the ten years because it
was an article in Sports Illustrated and the author of
the article asked her, you know, at that moment, when
the final seconds ticked out and you knew you were

(04:56):
going to win the gold medal, what were you thinking about?
And he said, I was thinking about Ralph Cox. And
I'm reading the article and I'm thinking that's unusual. And
then I went on to talk about her being the
last cut in the nineteen sixty Olympics, right before the Olympics,
and just the ironic moment that you know, he when

(05:19):
he was probably letting me go, he was thinking of himself.
I knew it was hard for him, and it was
obviously a crushing moment for me as an athlete. And
I remember when I left there, you know, I thought
my life was over. This was going to be it.
You know, it would never be the same and in

(05:40):
my life would be very different. Which which it has been.
And it took a few years to sort of just
who you are in the world, because you think, you
know at that point as an athlete, you think yourself
as a hockey player. But it really forced me and
helped me think about my self in the world around

(06:01):
me in a much, I think, a much healthier way,
in a good way. And I went on, I had
a great career playing in Europe and you know, a
lot of good moments in hockey and a lot of
good moments working with the Penguins with Herb And people
used to tell me, don't you hate her Brooks. Not
for a second. I enjoyed him as a coach. He
was a phenomenal hockey coach, you know, And I don't
think people need me to say that, but he was

(06:22):
the best bench coach that I think most of us
on that team ever had. And you know, it wasn't easy,
I think, melding that team together. We were all young
and enthusiastic guys, and all of us were the captains
of our team. We all had big egos, and we
all wanted to play, and we thought we should be
playing all the time, killing penalties on the power play

(06:42):
and you know, the guys from the East, really, that's true,
and the guys from the West. They had this culture clash,
and he had a way of bringing us together. And
he certainly was as good as coach as I've ever
played for. Ralph Cox was the ECAC Player of the
Year in nineteen seventy nine, and he played professionally in
Europe before joining the Pittsburgh Penguins as a scout, winning

(07:06):
two Stanley Cups. He currently has a successful real estate
business and still gets together with the players from the
nineteen eighty team and great job on that Greg. The
story of Ralph Cox here on our American Stories Folks,

(07:30):
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(07:51):
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