Ralph Cox: The Last Cut from the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team

On this episode of Our American Stories, Ralph Cox was a star college hockey player with his sights set on the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. But when coach Herb Brooks finalized the U.S. Olympic hockey team roster, Cox was the last man cut. While his teammates went on to make history in the “Miracle on Ice” against the Soviet Union, Cox had to watch from the sidelines. Here, he reflects on the heartbreak and what it means to be tied forever to one of the greatest moments in sports history.

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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 story, Miaica Ruzione.
Here's Greg Hengelo with an alternative look at that miraculous tale.

Speaker 2 (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 is
squeezed out of arguably the greatest moment in sports history.

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

(01:16):
Cox had shaky hair and a handlebar mustache, and in
college hockey he was a prolific goal scorer. 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.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
People in Minneapolis were going to give us a going
away bank, but for you know, living there. We all
lived in Minneapolis, and that's where we trained. I get
to the hotel where the banquet hall is, and Herb
wants to see me, and someone sits downstairs in a
small conference room, a small banquet hall, And because 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

(02:18):
be on the team, and I really thought I would
be on the team and go to Lake Placid. I
sensed that he was calling me there 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

(02:40):
was very, very hard to think about that possibility, and
so your emotions are running high. And I opened the
door finally, I just said to myself, you know, 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
he well, which I'd never seen that happen. I mean,

(03:01):
Herb was a very powerful guy, and it took him
a few minutes to be able to catch his breath
or 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 going to be all right, and he sort of
smiled at me a little bit and he said, you know,

(03:22):
I've really enjoyed having you on the team. You've been
great to have around your enthusiasm and your passion for
the game. I think he's 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

(03:43):
not the toughest coaviaching decision I've 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
around the room a little bit.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
And.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
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 a medal. And I said,
I think you can really win the gold medal. And

(04:17):
he started laughing and he said, jeez, I'll 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 that time, and I didn't know for almost

(04:38):
ten years, but it made sense after the ten years
because it was an article and Sports Illustrated and the
author of the article asked her, you know, at that moment,
when the final seconds ticked down and you knew you
were going to win the gold medal, what are you
thinking about? And he said, I was thinking about Ralph Cox.

(05:01):
And I'm reading the article and I'm thinking that's unusual.
And then it went on to talk about herb being
the last cut in the nineteen sixty Olympics, right before
the Olympics, and just the ironic moment that you know,
he when he was probably letting me go, he was
thinking of himself. I knew it was hard for him,

(05:24):
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 my life would be very different, which it has been.

(05:44):
And it took a few years to sort of adjust
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 in the world around me in
a much, I think, a much healthier way, in a
good way. And I went on, I had a great

(06:06):
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 that, 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 the
best bench coach that I think most of us and
that team ever had. And you know, it wasn't easy,

(06:31):
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.
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

(06:52):
he certainly was as good as coach as I've ever
played for.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Ralph Cox was the ECAC Player of the Year in
nineteen seventy and he played professionally in Europe before joining
the Pittsburgh Penguins as a scout, winning two Stanley Cups.
He currently has a successful real estate business and still
gets together with the players from the nineteen eighty team.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
And great job on that, Greg. The story of Ralph
Cox here on Our American Stories liehbib here and I'd
like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories
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(07:39):
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