August 20, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, it’s known as the greatest sports moment of the 20th Century. But no matter how familiar you are with the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s Lake Placid “Miracle on Ice,” you will soon see that this event seems even more unlikely now than it felt decades ago. We are about to do what we always strive to do with our storytelling here at Our American Stories: add new details to our heart's familiar pictures.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
It's known as the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.
But no matter how familiar you are with the story
of the nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey teams Lake Placid
Miracle on Ice, you will soon see that this event
(00:30):
seems even more unlikely now that it felt decades ago.
We're about to do what we always strive to do
with our storytelling. Here at our American Stories, add new
details to our heart's familiar pictures. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
It was more than a hockey game. It was us
against them.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It was freedom versus Communism.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Nobody gave us a hope in Halloween.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It was a sliver of the Cold War played out
on a sheet of ice. Here you have a bunch
of fresh faced college kids taking on a big bed
Soviet bear in the United States in the Olympics. The
(01:23):
confluence of events was so extraordinary it can never happen again.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Nobody paid attention to what Americans said in the world anymore.
Our hostages had been taken and we couldn't get him back.
The Red Army went into Afghanistan. We couldn't get them out.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
It might have been the all time low point for
American public self esteem. Who knew that these kids would
become the vehicle for making people feel excited and proud
again to wave a flag.
Speaker 7 (01:58):
It was a miracle.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
David slew Goliath.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It was the greatest force moment of the twentieth century.
Speaker 7 (02:15):
No one could know how important one game could possibly
be to a nation that seemed to be losing its way.
Certainly not in nineteen seventy nine, when a weary America
heard from its embattled leader who told us we were
a nation in crisis.
Speaker 8 (02:31):
It is a crisis of confidence.
Speaker 9 (02:36):
It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart
and soul and spirit of our national will.
Speaker 10 (02:41):
President Carter was seen as an expression of the American
self doubt and lack of self confidence of the mid seventies.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
Here's vice president under Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondell.
Speaker 9 (02:53):
Our public support was eroding rapidly. You could feel it
when you're out with people, when you're giving speeches, when
you're shaking. America, I think began to wonder whether we'd
lost our edge.
Speaker 7 (03:04):
In the twenty years since winning the gold medal at
the nineteen sixty Olympics, American teams had become increasingly unable
to compete with the dominant Europeans, especially the Soviet Union,
whose players were amateurs in name only. The goal was
to avoid being embarrassed at home. So in July of
nineteen seventy nine, the best amateur players in the country
(03:27):
were invited to try out for the nineteen eighty Olympic team.
Speaker 11 (03:31):
They invited us all the Colorado Springs and they divided
us up into four teams, basically Eastern guys, Michigan guys,
Minnesota guys, and a large team.
Speaker 12 (03:41):
Over the course of ten days in Colorado Springs, those
spoort teams played around robin. It was a nerve wracking situation.
It was a pressure pack situation, and as that tournament
went on, it was being evaluated by Herb Brooks.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
Minnesota native. Herb Brooks never went to charm school. He
was abrasive and intense. He was also the best college
hockey coach in the country at the University of Minnesota.
The people were a little afraid of him.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
He'd always been considered kind of an outsider at his
own way. Of thinking, his own way of doing things, and.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
He already had a history with the Olympic team as
a University of Minnesota player. Brooks thought he had made
the team in nineteen sixty. He was even in the
team picture, but at the last minute, coach Jack Riley
added a new player to the roster and someone had
to go. The someone was Herb Brooks, cut just one
(04:34):
day before the team left for the games. A crushed
Herb Brooks immediately called his father to vent.
Speaker 13 (04:41):
So, I call us Dan. This whole thing is bulls
the Eastern coach all fix, all politics and went to
the whole thing. Find me honestly, you've done this? Yeah,
I said, want to keep your fleet picked most shut.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
I heard enough of that.
Speaker 13 (04:56):
You get back and thank the coach to get your
rest in lack crew, wishing teammates well and get your assholeus.
My father got her result, Yes, yes, sir. She hiking
home and watched the c unfold. The Americans got hot
and then win our country's first Sobel I didn't watched
the SAC and TV. I finally looked over me. He says,
looks like the coach got the right guy, didn't. He's
(05:18):
just thank.
Speaker 14 (05:20):
That left unfinished business in her Books's life. He had
something to prove.
Speaker 7 (05:26):
He was on a mission, a mission to shake American
hockey out of its slumber. With the first Brooks had
to trim the roster from eighty to twenty six.
Speaker 15 (05:38):
Tough part of me getting thou twenty or four opening.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Ceremonies behind the iron curtain. The Soviets were the best
hockey team in the world, perhaps the strongest ever assembled,
and everybody knew it. Vladyslav Treatiac grew up outside Moscow
and became immersed in the Soviets communist sports machine at
a young age. He developed into perhaps the greatest goaltender
(06:01):
to ever play and start on the Soviet national team
for over fifteen years. By nineteen eighty, Boris Mikailov was
already a ten year veteran of the Soviet national team
and the most recognizable face in international hockey. Here's Boris Mikhailov.
Speaker 16 (06:20):
Sport was tied with politics, and any victory had big
political undertones, especially during the Olympic gamespen a General Secretary
and everybody else was worried about how we would represent
our country. Howur tesked was only to place first.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
They were government sponsored magicians on ice. The goal was
to win for the Motherland and to show the world
that Karl Marx had it right.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
They played hockey the way we played basketball, with the
same kind of control of the buck, the same kind
of intricate offensive patterns, and of course the presence and
goal of Tretiak.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
How could you beat them?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And you've been listening to the story of the Miracle
on ice, it was more than hockey. It was us
against them, college kids against the big, bad Soviet bear.
And then of course you hear about Herb Brooks, who
was cut one day before the nineteen sixty Olympics. This
just propelled his engine to succeed. When we come back,
(07:24):
more of the story of the Miracle on Ice here
on our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of
our American Stories. Every day we set out to tell
the stories of Americans past and present, from small towns
to big cities, and from all walks of life doing
extraordinary things. But we truly can't do this show without you.
(07:45):
Our shows are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you hear, go
to our American Stories dot com and make a donation
to keep the stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com.
(08:09):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of the nineteen eighty Olympics and the Miracle on ice
and the question how could we beat the Soviets. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 7 (08:23):
Back in the US. Herb Brooks had been contemplating that
same question for years. After all, how many times does
one have to get hit with the same hammer and
sickle before they learn?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We also need to change the way we play the game.
Speaker 7 (08:38):
North American hockey had forever been a very linear, dump
and chase style of hockey, unlike the Soviets and Europeans,
who played an artistic, very free flowing system built on finesse, speed, conditioning,
and overlapping movements.
Speaker 13 (08:53):
Most of all, team chemistry.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Brooks was calling for a revolution in American hockey.
Speaker 15 (08:59):
Try to develop a team that we throwed their game
right back at.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
But first, Brooks would have to get his players to
start thinking as a team, which wouldn't be easy. The
rivalry between the University of Minnesota and Boston University was
one of the fiercest in all of college hockey, and
regional tensions between many of the new teammates ran high.
Speaker 11 (09:22):
As much as I was a Boston hockey player, and
I had pride and my roots as a Boston hockey player,
I had an enemy, and my enemy was University of Minnesota.
Speaker 17 (09:29):
And the Boston guys. You know, we thought we were
pretty savvy, and you know there are guys that didn't
lock their doors or left their wallets out and play
in sight. We thought, you know, these guys are a
bunch of hicks from the cow pastures.
Speaker 15 (09:39):
I wanted to blur the boundaries of our country, build
a Wii and and us and ourselves as opposed to
an I me myself, our spirit was going to be
a big asset. And you can't have that type of
thing if you have pockets of individuals and there's not
those team building exercises throughout the year.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
To fill the most important role, Brooks picked twenty two
year old Boston University goaltender Jim Craig, the man who
would backstop history.
Speaker 15 (10:08):
You know, people I speak to say Craig's game has
been off since his mom died. They were seeing when
his game's on.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
Craig was recovering from the recent death of his mother,
Margaret to cancer. Starting in August of seventy nine, Brooks
began employing his main team building exercise to bond them
as a team. His players needed one common enemy him.
Speaker 13 (10:31):
I won't be your friend if you need one of those.
Speaker 8 (10:33):
I remember when he told us, I'll be a coach,
but I won't be a friend.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And I'm like, it's gonna be a long year.
Speaker 10 (10:39):
He quoted in the paper that I had a million
dollar set of legs and a ten cent park for
a brain.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
He could give you that glare and that look, and
it's like, oh my god, what I do wrong now.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
One of the first things Herb told his assistant coach,
Craig Patrick was I'm going to be tough on them,
and you are going to have to be the one
who keeps everyone together. It was an elaborate and flawlessly
constructed game of good cop, bad cop. He would later
call it his loneliest year in hockey. Here is Coach Brooks.
Speaker 13 (11:11):
A lot of these guys, being college all Americans, said
they were never pushed like that, never pulled. And I
wasn't trying to put greatness into anybody, and I was
trying to pull it out, pull it out way up here,
And I don't like coaches that try to put it
in because they think they've got all the answers. But
you've got to believe in them. I have high standards
and hugged up and pull it out. And my favorite coach,
(11:34):
John Wooden right here, I think he would concur plays.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
That September arrived, it was time to start playing against
the future Olympic competition. So Brooks took the team to
Europe for a series of exhibition games. Before a game
against Norway, a team they would have to face at
the Olympics, he issued a challenge.
Speaker 15 (11:55):
I said, guys, we're gonna have to play the Norwegians
and qualifications.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So we do it tonight. Send a message right now.
Speaker 7 (12:02):
But playing flat and uninspired hockey, the US could only
muster a three to three tie against a team they
should have trounced. Brooks was furious.
Speaker 12 (12:12):
You guys don't want to work during a game, Oh problem,
will work?
Speaker 11 (12:16):
No goal line and standing there with the suit on
it makes us all get behind the net and bombita
goal line.
Speaker 10 (12:22):
And he starts blowing as liten and we did what
are called Kirby's, which are blue lineback, red line back, far,
blue line back, all the way down and back.
Speaker 11 (12:31):
I think you can win on talent alone, gentlemen, you
don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.
Speaker 17 (12:39):
Again, two or three of those would be tiring.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Blue lineback, red.
Speaker 17 (12:44):
Line back, blue line back, down back, Ten or twelve
of them would be excessive.
Speaker 14 (12:50):
You better think about something else, each and every one
of you.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and
your teammates, and.
Speaker 18 (12:59):
A name enough is a hell of a lot more
important than the one on the back. Get that through
your head again.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
When we did them for about forty five minutes to
an hour, the rink attendant turned the lights off on us,
and we still skated in the dark.
Speaker 11 (13:16):
In the dark, He's screaming at us, booming voice around
this empty areen.
Speaker 12 (13:20):
How about it, Zolpi, you're gonna be the first one
to put on me.
Speaker 11 (13:22):
It was pretty intense.
Speaker 15 (13:23):
The message went out right that down, They're not going
to play the game like that and disgrace their abilities
or our collective uptors.
Speaker 17 (13:32):
That moment probably had more to do with us gelling
as a team, feeling like we were a group a
family who we looked at each other and said you know, basically,
he can do anything he wants to us. He's not
going to break us.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
The following night, the team's played again. The United States
won nine to zero, but there were still six cuts
to be made, and Brooks was making it clear that
no one was safe, not even the team captain. Here's
team captain Mike Rouzione.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Two weeks before the Olympic Games. He calls me in,
He's gonna cut me from the team. You're not good enough.
You shouldn't be here. I never should have taken you.
I'm going to send you back. Don't think I won't
do it.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
And I'm thinking he might just do this, you know,
I'm like.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Wow, The word gout down that are Rouzione's job was
in jeopardy. So everyone said, if you'll cut the captain,
where do I stand?
Speaker 7 (14:22):
Which is exactly what Brooks wanted today.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
See Jim, Hey, you guys know.
Speaker 7 (14:28):
You turning the screws even tighter. He brought in new
players for tryouts just weeks before the Olympics, provoking the
same fear in his players that Brooks himself experienced in
nineteen sixty when he was cut from the Olympic team
at the last minute. But this was a new generation
of player and they'd had enough. Here's defenseman Jack O'Callahan,
(14:52):
and I said, you know her, I don't think you
should do it.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I think it's wrong.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
We'll go on to Lake Placid in a week.
Speaker 11 (14:57):
I mean, stop it, get rid of these guys and
let us get serious about this.
Speaker 15 (15:01):
And I was looking for that moment where their cohesiveness
and strength of association was such a strong bond. And
then I just kept court and that was the moment.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Brooks sent the late editions back home. He trimmed the
roster to twenty and kept his captain. Twelve Olympic team
members were from Minnesota, four were from Boston, and two
a piece were from Wisconsin and Michigan. But just days
before the Olympics, the Americans had one more test to take.
(15:35):
On February ninth, nineteen eighty at Madison Square Garden in
New York City, they skated onto the ice to play
an exhibition game, just three days before the start of
the Olympics. But to their opponents on this night, it
wasn't just an exhibition. The Soviets had just recently embarrassed
the NHL All Stars the best of the best, defeating
(15:57):
them six to nothing. But before the game, Brooks told
his team to go out and have fun. Have fun.
Brooks himself later described the Garden game as a ploy.
He said, what could possibly be gained by playing the
Soviets tough and waking them up?
Speaker 17 (16:17):
We got crushed, and then we thought, these guys are in
another world.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
They just kicked us around that rink. The goals they
scored well, and you could have filmed them.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
It was so beautiful.
Speaker 8 (16:27):
They were like robots when they scored a goal.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
They never smiled. I don't think I ever saw him smile.
Speaker 14 (16:32):
We were ready to stand up and applaud them because
we didn't see anything like that before.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The guy's hitting now, bod you see that gold.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
You see his moves like we were spectators.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I looked up at the scoreboard. It said ten to three.
It might as well have said twenty to nothing. Ten
to three made it sound closer than it was. It
was no contest.
Speaker 11 (16:52):
They couldn't have done a great low point given the
preparation in the work that we had put in.
Speaker 17 (16:57):
It was very demoralizing.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And you've been listening to the story of the nineteen
eighty US Olympic Hockey teams Lake Placid, New York Miracle
on Ice story, and my goodness, what Brooks did to
get inside these guys' heads to play as a team
and play so far above their collective talents. And he
tried to get him to play Soviet style hockey, not
(17:21):
American hockey. And to bring these regional competitors together is one.
The hatred runs deep between Minnesota hockey and Boston hockey.
And then you get to the particular colleges, and then,
of course, hearing Brooks's voice, you think you can win
on talent alone, he admonishes them. You don't have enough
(17:41):
talent to win on talent alone, he says. When we
come back, how coach Brooks molds these guys into a
team capable of beating the world's greatest hockey machine. Here
on our American stories. And we continue with our American
(18:10):
stories and the story of the nineteen eighty US Olympic
Hockey team's Miracle on Ice story. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
As each team left New York City and headed five
and a half hours north to Lake Placid, their futures
seemed clear. Here's ABC's nineteen eighty Olympic hockey announcer Al Michaels.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Anybody who left Manison Square Garden that day thought to themselves,
the Soviets will win every game in the Olympics, take
home the gold medal and never be challenged. And the
US all you knew is that when it came time
to face the Big Bear, they had no chance.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
As discouraging as the loss to the Soviets was, it
was not something on the minds of Americans. Throughout nineteen
seventy nine. As the hockey team was preparing to compete
in the Olympics, Americans at large were also competing with
the harsh realities of everyday life. Here again is Michael RUZZIONI.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Look at the economy, how much money we're paying for gas?
Inflation was absolutely ridiculous. People just didn't feel good about
the United States. A lot of people wondered where we
were headed.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
And then in November, just when things seemed like they
couldn't get any worse.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
This is NBC Nightly News.
Speaker 7 (19:26):
They did with Jessica Savage.
Speaker 19 (19:28):
Good evening, the American Embassy in Tehran is in the
hands of Moslim students. Tonight, spurred on by an anti
American speech by the Ayah Tolkomani. They stormed the embassy
and took dozens of American hostages.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
In December, it would get even worse.
Speaker 16 (19:45):
Day fifty four in Iran, and while there has been
no significant change in the hostage situation, there has been
a major development in the country next door to where
I'm Afghanistan.
Speaker 14 (19:54):
During the last three days, more than five thousand Soviet
combat troops have been airlifted into Kabble.
Speaker 16 (20:00):
Other fifty thousand Soviet troops have.
Speaker 19 (20:01):
Massed along the Afghanistan's northern border.
Speaker 9 (20:05):
It's very important for the world to realize how serious
the threat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
The Cold War was getting colder by the day, and
with the Soviets on American soil, they were encouraged to
see the American press blaming America for the world woes.
Speaker 20 (20:24):
Newspapers were full of articles like blaming Americans for everything
so and the attitude for the entire Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Let's show them who we are.
Speaker 20 (20:33):
Let's show and what the greatest, Let's show what the strongest,
Let's show them under soil.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
The Winter Olympics began on February twelfth, nineteen eighty. No
one was expecting a showdown between the Americans and the Soviets,
not even the team captain. Here again is Micah RUZIONI.
Speaker 12 (20:54):
I know you guys are really facing a herculean task here.
Speaker 7 (20:57):
It's like sending you into the lion's case. Do you
feel like, yes, we do.
Speaker 8 (21:02):
You know, you gotta be realistic about things.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
We're a young team, with the youngest is Olympic hockey
team ever.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
If you had to pick us, I think it would
probably be picked fifth.
Speaker 7 (21:10):
The Soviets blew out their first two opponents with a
combined score of thirty three to four. The seventh seeded
Americans opened against the heavily favored Sweden and trailed two
to one late in the final third period. Here again
is al michaels I.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Remember the US had several opportunities to tie the game,
and you just got the feeling, and of course as
the clock ticks down and now you're under a minute,
well it's it's not to be and goally Jim Craig
for an extra skater to try to tie.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
It on with only forty one seconds to go, Brooks
pulled goalie Jim Craig, which allowed him to put an
extra skater on the ice, but in return, it also
left the American net empty. It was a desperate move
for a desperate team.
Speaker 18 (21:58):
With twenty nine seconds to play.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Baker, who was just trying to get on net, I
couldn't believe it when it went in.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You know, you can.
Speaker 8 (22:09):
Always wonder if Philly doesn't score, what happens to.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The hockey team. Well, Billy did score.
Speaker 8 (22:14):
In the game and then first round high it up.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
That was the biggest goal of the Olympics, because if
the Americans lose that game, they're virtually out of contention
before the Olympic Games start.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Two days later, the Americans faced Czechoslovakia, underdogs again in
a game they had to win.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
Many people said that the Czechs were considered the second
best team.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
In the world and the only team that had a
chance to beat the Soviets. We pretty much dominated the Czechs.
Speaker 18 (22:49):
Incredible God the footpad first pregnant back of the Vakia
born away the second best team coming in. There's no
question to toobean for the better the check the American league.
The injured American.
Speaker 7 (23:04):
Player then late in the third period, as the Americans
were skating to a seven to three Valentine's Day massacre
victory against the second best team in the world. Mark Johnson,
the TEENU star player, was not to the ice from
a cheap shot by a Czech player. As Johnson lay
in the middle of the ice, Americans watching on television
were introduced to Herb Brooks up close and personal.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Was really expecting it.
Speaker 18 (23:37):
Herb brook thelorious polling.
Speaker 17 (23:42):
Would be upset.
Speaker 14 (23:45):
If you're going to do something our guy, I'm going
to take this stick and I'm going to stop it
down your throat. People were ready to hear that kind
of thing. He would not have said that and let
the iotolic stop all over the US wholly a bunch
of hostages.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
I think that was one of the moments where a
lot of people in this country said, Hey, they've been
a pretty good little story taking place here. If we
have these fresh faced kids, got to keep an eye
on these guys, and look at this coach. I mean,
he's right there back in his players. So everybody's starting
to look ahead to this perspective matchups against the Soviets,
but before that, you have three other games. Norway figured
(24:22):
to be the easiest of the games, and.
Speaker 18 (24:24):
It was there was Pablo you get your back yourself
before they they self more tablick.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Then you had Romania brett Gard before, and they won
that game. Germany presented a little bit of a problem though.
On Wednesday night, the last game prior to going into
the metal round, Germany leads to nothing. So wait a second,
what's going on here? You don't want this bump in
the road. You don't want it now. And then the
(24:53):
US is able to come from behind.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
And beat Germany.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
So they did all the things they had to do.
But then, of course you had Specter of the Soviets
just looming there.
Speaker 7 (25:04):
Seemingly no one, certainly, not a bunch of college kids
could stop them from winning the gold medal. Herb Brooks,
after all, wasn't coaching a dream team. He was coaching
a team full of dreamers. There's a big difference. Today,
the concept of amateurs in the Olympics is as obsolete
as eight track assets. The expression dream team has become
(25:26):
part of the five ring lexicon. Herb Brooks would later
see the dream team as ironic because when you have
dream teams, you seldom get to dream. But this was
a game of striking contrasts. It was experience versus youth,
men versus boys, champions versus upstarts, communism versus capitalism, all
(25:49):
on a sheet of ice in the Adirondack Mountains. After
studying the Soviets for years, Herb Brooks could sense their
overconfidence and told his team to take advantage of it.
Speaker 10 (26:01):
I kept wetting their appetite.
Speaker 7 (26:03):
Someone will beat those guys. Someone's gonna beat those guys.
I don't like how they're playing.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
They think they're better than they are.
Speaker 7 (26:09):
Brooks also thought his team was giving too much respect
to the Soviets, so he began chipping away at their
mystique by poking fun at their leader, one of the
top players in the world, who just happened to look
a lot like a famous comedian.
Speaker 11 (26:23):
Forist Mikailoff was as close to, I mean, the hockey
chief of the world as there was. And Herbie starts
teasing the guy. Always look at that guy's nose. God,
look at that guy's face. Looks like stan Laurel. And
he's insulting the guy. Ah can't play against stan Laurel.
Basic cake guys.
Speaker 15 (26:42):
To relax them, to keep them focused, and also plan
that and say, hey, someone's gonna beat those.
Speaker 7 (26:48):
On them against.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And you've been listening to the story of the nineteen
ady US Olympic Hockey team Lake Placid, New York. Miracle
on ice story. It's experienced versus youth, it's communism versus capitalism.
What will happen next? Well, Herb Brooks is already chipping
away at the mystique of this Soviet team like a
great leader would, mocking and satirizing them. When we come back,
(27:15):
more of this remarkable story, the story of the nineteen
eighty Miracle on ice. Here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
the Miracle on ice. Let's pick up when we last
left off.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
Then, on Friday February twenty second, the Cold War was
put on ice.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
The thirteenth Winter Olympic Games.
Speaker 18 (27:57):
The excitement, the tension building, they are feeling differpacivat.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
In the locker room before the game, Herb Brooks gave
the speech of his life.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
You were born to be hockey players.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
He told us, we were born to be a player,
We were meant to be here here, this moment was ours,
this is your time.
Speaker 11 (28:14):
And he told that story about going up and spitting
in the eye of the tire.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
If this is our time, it's not, there is your line.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Screw them, Stan Laurel. All those Russians go up there
and ticket it's our turn.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
And I remember telegram we got from a lady in Texas,
and all the telegram said was beat those Comeds.
Speaker 17 (28:32):
You realized that the USA on the front of your
sweater meant that you were playing for your.
Speaker 18 (28:40):
Here we go is the game is underway, itsrobe at
Union in Rand in the United States game White.
Speaker 17 (28:45):
I remember for the first five or six minutes the
feeling as though I couldn't feel my feet on the ice.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
N the Soviets struck first, God, and.
Speaker 18 (28:54):
It was a wooden end and it throb me at
Union League one and not being at the nine twelve of.
Speaker 14 (28:59):
The first The Russians scored first, and he winced and thought,
here it comes. But the US team took that blow.
Craig made some key saves and then Buzzy Schneider came
down the left wing.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
The Tian goal failed to unnerve the Soviets. They quickly
scored again, and it looked like the first period would
end with them leading two to one. But with just
seconds remaining, the methodical team that almost never made mistakes
made the worst kind a mental error, and it changed
(29:42):
the course of the game.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
David Christian has the puck. It's about five seconds left
to goal in the period. I stopped the skates to
the bench, sneaking the periods over, and Mark Johnson goes
scooting up like he just didn't stop playing.
Speaker 7 (29:55):
He was still playing.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
The Russians had stopped.
Speaker 18 (29:59):
Long shot with one second a place in the period
right now.
Speaker 7 (30:06):
The Soviets aimed to fix that mistake on the second period,
quickly scoring the go ahead goal. They dominated the action,
out shooting the Americans eleven to two in the second period.
Only Jim Craig's brilliance and goal prevented the game from
becoming a blowout. But the Americans had never come from
behind the best team in the world, and the Soviets
(30:28):
always dominated the third and final period. It looked as
if this night would be no different. That is until
lightning struck just eighty one seconds later. The team's captain,
whose name in Italian means eruption, triggered.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
One and that's when the building went crazy. I mean,
that's when sound had feel I mean that was like
an earthquake.
Speaker 18 (31:04):
Yeah, we've got bed lom Oh. I love Brook reacting here.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
It is again the atmosphere in that arena, it was incredible,
the feeling, the sense that they could do this and
they could actually pull it off.
Speaker 18 (31:17):
That goal coming at a ten minute mark, exactly halfway
through the period.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
When I sat out, I looked up and I went,
ten minutes. That's a long time. I guess these guys they.
Speaker 8 (31:28):
Could score in ten minutes what would take us sixty
minutes to score?
Speaker 15 (31:32):
And I knew that too much time, too much time.
Speaker 7 (31:35):
We can't hold mof this lock.
Speaker 12 (31:36):
It was this a constant clockwatch, shift by shift, shift
by shift.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Eight and a half.
Speaker 18 (31:40):
Finich, the play the heart it's not leading, fourth three.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
It went on forever, and the time just stood still.
Speaker 18 (31:46):
Five and a half. Finich the play three fifty three
remaining in the game, to twenty five, twenty four, twenty
three remaining.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
It kept building and building, and the clock kept winding down,
and it just got louder and louder.
Speaker 18 (31:58):
And fifty five second, but they caught up as a
buck twenty eight second. With that, it's sane malabah. The
leman is there the puppy still loose. Eleven seconds. You
got ten seconds.
Speaker 16 (32:11):
The papaill going on right now?
Speaker 18 (32:12):
Borrow what's your up?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Second?
Speaker 12 (32:16):
You're believe in?
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Believe it.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
The entire US bench cleared everyone except Coach Brooks. After
throwing both arms overhead and doing a tiny pirouette and
punching the air with an emphatic left fist, he walked
straight off the bench, turned right into the runway, got
patted on the back by weepy state troopers, and went
back into locker room five. Herb Brooks locked himself inside
(32:46):
an orange toilet stall and cried. Once the team made
it into the locker room, they broke into a spontaneous
chorus of God Bless America, filling in the words they
couldn't remember with hum and whistles. In Lake Placid and
all over the United States, the victory triggered an outpouring
(33:06):
of national emotion never before provoked by a sporting event
on the Iron Range. In Minnesota, people ran outside and
hollered and shot off guns. In the Mediterranean Sea, the USSNMITS,
one of the world's largest supercarriers, flashed the score to
a Soviet intelligence ship that was nearby the Soviets would
(33:28):
not lose again for five years, and the Americans would
not beat them for another eleven years. But the future
domination came with no rewind mechanism, no clause that could
undo what happened on Friday night, February twenty second, nineteen eighty.
It was the thirteenth anniversary of the film debut of
Walt Disney Cinderella. Maybe it figured. The nation continued celebrating,
(33:55):
but for the hockey team, it wasn't over yet.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
People at least forget that the US had to win
another game on Sunday.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
It was still.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
Possible if the Americans did not beat the Fins that
they would not only not win the gold, they wouldn't
win any medal at all. And Herb understood this.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And we were excited. We were anxious. We couldn't wait
to get out and play.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And Herb Brooks walked into the locker room and he
looked at us and he said, if you lose this game,
you'll take it to your grave. Then he stopped, he
walked a couple of steps, turned, looked at us again
and said, you have grave.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
Once again, the Americans would have to come from behind,
and we went out.
Speaker 11 (34:34):
There on the third period, and I think we just
steamrolled them from the time they opened that door and
let us out.
Speaker 7 (34:41):
They didn't have a chance. Three unanswered goals in the
third period gave the US a four to two win
and the gold medal and Man. The Olympics broke Herbbrook's
(35:04):
heart in nineteen sixty and made him the most celebrated
American hockey coach in history two decades later, but on
August eleventh, two thousand and three, in a single car accident,
a little bit of the Lake Placid Miracle died with
Herbert Paul Brooks on the hot, hard asphalt of Interstate
thirty five in Forest Lake, Minnesota. As his casket descended
(35:28):
down the steps of Assumption Catholic Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota,
it passed under a curved canopy of hockey sticks raised
up by his nineteen eighty gold medal team. Many of
those holding sticks were fighting tears and losing the fight.
If Herb Brook's passing reminds us that human beings have
a shelf life, it also reminds us that miracles do not,
(35:54):
and this miracle didn't happen on accident. I see Neil
brought skating on a flooded rink in Roseau, Minnesota, that
his father got up at two am to make him
twenty five degree below zero weather. I see John Harrington's
late father, Charles, skipping overtime at work to watch his
(36:15):
kids games because his overtime would always be there, but
the games would not, and then see him years later
listening to John's skate against the Russians from the cab
of his locomotive. I envision Margaret Craig running her goaltender
son and all her other kids all over southeastern Massachusetts,
(36:36):
a devotion that was absolutely unstinting until her cigarette habit
caught up to her and cancer arrived. Behind every player,
there are stories of love and sacrifice and struggle. Life
is hard, and Olympic gold medals provide no exemption. You
push on, do your best, and if you are really brave,
(36:59):
you dream big. Doubts and fears be damned. This is
the stuff that miracles are made of, and the proof
was there to see on February twenty second, nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. I love that note from
that lady in Texas beat those commie you know what.
And again this is the story of us against them,
and these college kids against the big bad Soviet bear.
And I'll never forget where I was on that day.
I was at my best friend Paul Biattini's house. He
(37:35):
would later die on nine to eleven on the hundred's
floor of the World Trade Center. But on that day
the family gathered first period, maybe about a dozen of us,
second period, maybe about thirty of us. Last period. The
be a teeny household, being the place you'd go to
watch a sport. The place was packed, and those are
days you'll never forget. The miracle on ice. The story,
(37:55):
it's personal for people who were there, for those who've
never experienced it. Well, there you have it, a story
of not just a hockey game, the story of not
just an Olympic event, but the story of American triumphalism
and the American dream, the original Dream Team. Here on
our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
It's known as the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.
But no matter how familiar you are with the story
of the nineteen eighty US Olympic hockey teams Lake Placid
Miracle on Ice, you will soon see that this event
(00:30):
seems even more unlikely now that it felt decades ago.
We're about to do what we always strive to do
with our storytelling. Here at our American Stories, add new
details to our heart's familiar pictures. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
It was more than a hockey game. It was us
against them.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It was freedom versus Communism.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Nobody gave us a hope in Halloween.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It was a sliver of the Cold War played out
on a sheet of ice. Here you have a bunch
of fresh faced college kids taking on a big bed
Soviet bear in the United States in the Olympics. The
(01:23):
confluence of events was so extraordinary it can never happen again.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Nobody paid attention to what Americans said in the world anymore.
Our hostages had been taken and we couldn't get him back.
The Red Army went into Afghanistan. We couldn't get them out.
Speaker 6 (01:41):
It might have been the all time low point for
American public self esteem. Who knew that these kids would
become the vehicle for making people feel excited and proud
again to wave a flag.
Speaker 7 (01:58):
It was a miracle.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
David slew Goliath.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It was the greatest force moment of the twentieth century.
Speaker 7 (02:15):
No one could know how important one game could possibly
be to a nation that seemed to be losing its way.
Certainly not in nineteen seventy nine, when a weary America
heard from its embattled leader who told us we were
a nation in crisis.
Speaker 8 (02:31):
It is a crisis of confidence.
Speaker 9 (02:36):
It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart
and soul and spirit of our national will.
Speaker 10 (02:41):
President Carter was seen as an expression of the American
self doubt and lack of self confidence of the mid seventies.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
Here's vice president under Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondell.
Speaker 9 (02:53):
Our public support was eroding rapidly. You could feel it
when you're out with people, when you're giving speeches, when
you're shaking. America, I think began to wonder whether we'd
lost our edge.
Speaker 7 (03:04):
In the twenty years since winning the gold medal at
the nineteen sixty Olympics, American teams had become increasingly unable
to compete with the dominant Europeans, especially the Soviet Union,
whose players were amateurs in name only. The goal was
to avoid being embarrassed at home. So in July of
nineteen seventy nine, the best amateur players in the country
(03:27):
were invited to try out for the nineteen eighty Olympic team.
Speaker 11 (03:31):
They invited us all the Colorado Springs and they divided
us up into four teams, basically Eastern guys, Michigan guys,
Minnesota guys, and a large team.
Speaker 12 (03:41):
Over the course of ten days in Colorado Springs, those
spoort teams played around robin. It was a nerve wracking situation.
It was a pressure pack situation, and as that tournament
went on, it was being evaluated by Herb Brooks.
Speaker 7 (03:54):
Minnesota native. Herb Brooks never went to charm school. He
was abrasive and intense. He was also the best college
hockey coach in the country at the University of Minnesota.
The people were a little afraid of him.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
He'd always been considered kind of an outsider at his
own way. Of thinking, his own way of doing things, and.
Speaker 7 (04:13):
He already had a history with the Olympic team as
a University of Minnesota player. Brooks thought he had made
the team in nineteen sixty. He was even in the
team picture, but at the last minute, coach Jack Riley
added a new player to the roster and someone had
to go. The someone was Herb Brooks, cut just one
(04:34):
day before the team left for the games. A crushed
Herb Brooks immediately called his father to vent.
Speaker 13 (04:41):
So, I call us Dan. This whole thing is bulls
the Eastern coach all fix, all politics and went to
the whole thing. Find me honestly, you've done this? Yeah,
I said, want to keep your fleet picked most shut.
Speaker 7 (04:53):
I heard enough of that.
Speaker 13 (04:56):
You get back and thank the coach to get your
rest in lack crew, wishing teammates well and get your assholeus.
My father got her result, Yes, yes, sir. She hiking
home and watched the c unfold. The Americans got hot
and then win our country's first Sobel I didn't watched
the SAC and TV. I finally looked over me. He says,
looks like the coach got the right guy, didn't. He's
(05:18):
just thank.
Speaker 14 (05:20):
That left unfinished business in her Books's life. He had
something to prove.
Speaker 7 (05:26):
He was on a mission, a mission to shake American
hockey out of its slumber. With the first Brooks had
to trim the roster from eighty to twenty six.
Speaker 15 (05:38):
Tough part of me getting thou twenty or four opening.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
Ceremonies behind the iron curtain. The Soviets were the best
hockey team in the world, perhaps the strongest ever assembled,
and everybody knew it. Vladyslav Treatiac grew up outside Moscow
and became immersed in the Soviets communist sports machine at
a young age. He developed into perhaps the greatest goaltender
(06:01):
to ever play and start on the Soviet national team
for over fifteen years. By nineteen eighty, Boris Mikailov was
already a ten year veteran of the Soviet national team
and the most recognizable face in international hockey. Here's Boris Mikhailov.
Speaker 16 (06:20):
Sport was tied with politics, and any victory had big
political undertones, especially during the Olympic gamespen a General Secretary
and everybody else was worried about how we would represent
our country. Howur tesked was only to place first.
Speaker 7 (06:37):
They were government sponsored magicians on ice. The goal was
to win for the Motherland and to show the world
that Karl Marx had it right.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
They played hockey the way we played basketball, with the
same kind of control of the buck, the same kind
of intricate offensive patterns, and of course the presence and
goal of Tretiak.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
How could you beat them?
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And you've been listening to the story of the Miracle
on ice, it was more than hockey. It was us
against them, college kids against the big, bad Soviet bear.
And then of course you hear about Herb Brooks, who
was cut one day before the nineteen sixty Olympics. This
just propelled his engine to succeed. When we come back,
(07:24):
more of the story of the Miracle on Ice here
on our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of
our American Stories. Every day we set out to tell
the stories of Americans past and present, from small towns
to big cities, and from all walks of life doing
extraordinary things. But we truly can't do this show without you.
(07:45):
Our shows are free to listen to, but they're not
free to make. If you love what you hear, go
to our American Stories dot com and make a donation
to keep the stories coming. That's our American Stories dot com.
(08:09):
And we continue with our American stories and the story
of the nineteen eighty Olympics and the Miracle on ice
and the question how could we beat the Soviets. Let's
pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 7 (08:23):
Back in the US. Herb Brooks had been contemplating that
same question for years. After all, how many times does
one have to get hit with the same hammer and
sickle before they learn?
Speaker 2 (08:34):
We also need to change the way we play the game.
Speaker 7 (08:38):
North American hockey had forever been a very linear, dump
and chase style of hockey, unlike the Soviets and Europeans,
who played an artistic, very free flowing system built on finesse, speed, conditioning,
and overlapping movements.
Speaker 13 (08:53):
Most of all, team chemistry.
Speaker 7 (08:55):
Brooks was calling for a revolution in American hockey.
Speaker 15 (08:59):
Try to develop a team that we throwed their game
right back at.
Speaker 7 (09:03):
But first, Brooks would have to get his players to
start thinking as a team, which wouldn't be easy. The
rivalry between the University of Minnesota and Boston University was
one of the fiercest in all of college hockey, and
regional tensions between many of the new teammates ran high.
Speaker 11 (09:22):
As much as I was a Boston hockey player, and
I had pride and my roots as a Boston hockey player,
I had an enemy, and my enemy was University of Minnesota.
Speaker 17 (09:29):
And the Boston guys. You know, we thought we were
pretty savvy, and you know there are guys that didn't
lock their doors or left their wallets out and play
in sight. We thought, you know, these guys are a
bunch of hicks from the cow pastures.
Speaker 15 (09:39):
I wanted to blur the boundaries of our country, build
a Wii and and us and ourselves as opposed to
an I me myself, our spirit was going to be
a big asset. And you can't have that type of
thing if you have pockets of individuals and there's not
those team building exercises throughout the year.
Speaker 7 (09:58):
To fill the most important role, Brooks picked twenty two
year old Boston University goaltender Jim Craig, the man who
would backstop history.
Speaker 15 (10:08):
You know, people I speak to say Craig's game has
been off since his mom died. They were seeing when
his game's on.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
Craig was recovering from the recent death of his mother,
Margaret to cancer. Starting in August of seventy nine, Brooks
began employing his main team building exercise to bond them
as a team. His players needed one common enemy him.
Speaker 13 (10:31):
I won't be your friend if you need one of those.
Speaker 8 (10:33):
I remember when he told us, I'll be a coach,
but I won't be a friend.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And I'm like, it's gonna be a long year.
Speaker 10 (10:39):
He quoted in the paper that I had a million
dollar set of legs and a ten cent park for
a brain.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
He could give you that glare and that look, and
it's like, oh my god, what I do wrong now.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
One of the first things Herb told his assistant coach,
Craig Patrick was I'm going to be tough on them,
and you are going to have to be the one
who keeps everyone together. It was an elaborate and flawlessly
constructed game of good cop, bad cop. He would later
call it his loneliest year in hockey. Here is Coach Brooks.
Speaker 13 (11:11):
A lot of these guys, being college all Americans, said
they were never pushed like that, never pulled. And I
wasn't trying to put greatness into anybody, and I was
trying to pull it out, pull it out way up here,
And I don't like coaches that try to put it
in because they think they've got all the answers. But
you've got to believe in them. I have high standards
and hugged up and pull it out. And my favorite coach,
(11:34):
John Wooden right here, I think he would concur plays.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
That September arrived, it was time to start playing against
the future Olympic competition. So Brooks took the team to
Europe for a series of exhibition games. Before a game
against Norway, a team they would have to face at
the Olympics, he issued a challenge.
Speaker 15 (11:55):
I said, guys, we're gonna have to play the Norwegians
and qualifications.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
So we do it tonight. Send a message right now.
Speaker 7 (12:02):
But playing flat and uninspired hockey, the US could only
muster a three to three tie against a team they
should have trounced. Brooks was furious.
Speaker 12 (12:12):
You guys don't want to work during a game, Oh problem,
will work?
Speaker 11 (12:16):
No goal line and standing there with the suit on
it makes us all get behind the net and bombita
goal line.
Speaker 10 (12:22):
And he starts blowing as liten and we did what
are called Kirby's, which are blue lineback, red line back, far,
blue line back, all the way down and back.
Speaker 11 (12:31):
I think you can win on talent alone, gentlemen, you
don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.
Speaker 17 (12:39):
Again, two or three of those would be tiring.
Speaker 7 (12:43):
Blue lineback, red.
Speaker 17 (12:44):
Line back, blue line back, down back, Ten or twelve
of them would be excessive.
Speaker 14 (12:50):
You better think about something else, each and every one
of you.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and
your teammates, and.
Speaker 18 (12:59):
A name enough is a hell of a lot more
important than the one on the back. Get that through
your head again.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
When we did them for about forty five minutes to
an hour, the rink attendant turned the lights off on us,
and we still skated in the dark.
Speaker 11 (13:16):
In the dark, He's screaming at us, booming voice around
this empty areen.
Speaker 12 (13:20):
How about it, Zolpi, you're gonna be the first one
to put on me.
Speaker 11 (13:22):
It was pretty intense.
Speaker 15 (13:23):
The message went out right that down, They're not going
to play the game like that and disgrace their abilities
or our collective uptors.
Speaker 17 (13:32):
That moment probably had more to do with us gelling
as a team, feeling like we were a group a
family who we looked at each other and said you know, basically,
he can do anything he wants to us. He's not
going to break us.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
The following night, the team's played again. The United States
won nine to zero, but there were still six cuts
to be made, and Brooks was making it clear that
no one was safe, not even the team captain. Here's
team captain Mike Rouzione.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Two weeks before the Olympic Games. He calls me in,
He's gonna cut me from the team. You're not good enough.
You shouldn't be here. I never should have taken you.
I'm going to send you back. Don't think I won't
do it.
Speaker 8 (14:12):
And I'm thinking he might just do this, you know,
I'm like.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Wow, The word gout down that are Rouzione's job was
in jeopardy. So everyone said, if you'll cut the captain,
where do I stand?
Speaker 7 (14:22):
Which is exactly what Brooks wanted today.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
See Jim, Hey, you guys know.
Speaker 7 (14:28):
You turning the screws even tighter. He brought in new
players for tryouts just weeks before the Olympics, provoking the
same fear in his players that Brooks himself experienced in
nineteen sixty when he was cut from the Olympic team
at the last minute. But this was a new generation
of player and they'd had enough. Here's defenseman Jack O'Callahan,
(14:52):
and I said, you know her, I don't think you
should do it.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I think it's wrong.
Speaker 7 (14:55):
We'll go on to Lake Placid in a week.
Speaker 11 (14:57):
I mean, stop it, get rid of these guys and
let us get serious about this.
Speaker 15 (15:01):
And I was looking for that moment where their cohesiveness
and strength of association was such a strong bond. And
then I just kept court and that was the moment.
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Brooks sent the late editions back home. He trimmed the
roster to twenty and kept his captain. Twelve Olympic team
members were from Minnesota, four were from Boston, and two
a piece were from Wisconsin and Michigan. But just days
before the Olympics, the Americans had one more test to take.
(15:35):
On February ninth, nineteen eighty at Madison Square Garden in
New York City, they skated onto the ice to play
an exhibition game, just three days before the start of
the Olympics. But to their opponents on this night, it
wasn't just an exhibition. The Soviets had just recently embarrassed
the NHL All Stars the best of the best, defeating
(15:57):
them six to nothing. But before the game, Brooks told
his team to go out and have fun. Have fun.
Brooks himself later described the Garden game as a ploy.
He said, what could possibly be gained by playing the
Soviets tough and waking them up?
Speaker 17 (16:17):
We got crushed, and then we thought, these guys are in
another world.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
They just kicked us around that rink. The goals they
scored well, and you could have filmed them.
Speaker 7 (16:26):
It was so beautiful.
Speaker 8 (16:27):
They were like robots when they scored a goal.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
They never smiled. I don't think I ever saw him smile.
Speaker 14 (16:32):
We were ready to stand up and applaud them because
we didn't see anything like that before.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
The guy's hitting now, bod you see that gold.
Speaker 7 (16:38):
You see his moves like we were spectators.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
I looked up at the scoreboard. It said ten to three.
It might as well have said twenty to nothing. Ten
to three made it sound closer than it was. It
was no contest.
Speaker 11 (16:52):
They couldn't have done a great low point given the
preparation in the work that we had put in.
Speaker 17 (16:57):
It was very demoralizing.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And you've been listening to the story of the nineteen
eighty US Olympic Hockey teams Lake Placid, New York Miracle
on Ice story, and my goodness, what Brooks did to
get inside these guys' heads to play as a team
and play so far above their collective talents. And he
tried to get him to play Soviet style hockey, not
(17:21):
American hockey. And to bring these regional competitors together is one.
The hatred runs deep between Minnesota hockey and Boston hockey.
And then you get to the particular colleges, and then,
of course, hearing Brooks's voice, you think you can win
on talent alone, he admonishes them. You don't have enough
(17:41):
talent to win on talent alone, he says. When we
come back, how coach Brooks molds these guys into a
team capable of beating the world's greatest hockey machine. Here
on our American stories. And we continue with our American
(18:10):
stories and the story of the nineteen eighty US Olympic
Hockey team's Miracle on Ice story. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 7 (18:20):
As each team left New York City and headed five
and a half hours north to Lake Placid, their futures
seemed clear. Here's ABC's nineteen eighty Olympic hockey announcer Al Michaels.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
Anybody who left Manison Square Garden that day thought to themselves,
the Soviets will win every game in the Olympics, take
home the gold medal and never be challenged. And the
US all you knew is that when it came time
to face the Big Bear, they had no chance.
Speaker 7 (18:49):
As discouraging as the loss to the Soviets was, it
was not something on the minds of Americans. Throughout nineteen
seventy nine. As the hockey team was preparing to compete
in the Olympics, Americans at large were also competing with
the harsh realities of everyday life. Here again is Michael RUZZIONI.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Look at the economy, how much money we're paying for gas?
Inflation was absolutely ridiculous. People just didn't feel good about
the United States. A lot of people wondered where we
were headed.
Speaker 7 (19:19):
And then in November, just when things seemed like they
couldn't get any worse.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
This is NBC Nightly News.
Speaker 7 (19:26):
They did with Jessica Savage.
Speaker 19 (19:28):
Good evening, the American Embassy in Tehran is in the
hands of Moslim students. Tonight, spurred on by an anti
American speech by the Ayah Tolkomani. They stormed the embassy
and took dozens of American hostages.
Speaker 7 (19:42):
In December, it would get even worse.
Speaker 16 (19:45):
Day fifty four in Iran, and while there has been
no significant change in the hostage situation, there has been
a major development in the country next door to where
I'm Afghanistan.
Speaker 14 (19:54):
During the last three days, more than five thousand Soviet
combat troops have been airlifted into Kabble.
Speaker 16 (20:00):
Other fifty thousand Soviet troops have.
Speaker 19 (20:01):
Massed along the Afghanistan's northern border.
Speaker 9 (20:05):
It's very important for the world to realize how serious
the threat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is.
Speaker 7 (20:14):
The Cold War was getting colder by the day, and
with the Soviets on American soil, they were encouraged to
see the American press blaming America for the world woes.
Speaker 20 (20:24):
Newspapers were full of articles like blaming Americans for everything
so and the attitude for the entire Olympic team.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Let's show them who we are.
Speaker 20 (20:33):
Let's show and what the greatest, Let's show what the strongest,
Let's show them under soil.
Speaker 7 (20:41):
The Winter Olympics began on February twelfth, nineteen eighty. No
one was expecting a showdown between the Americans and the Soviets,
not even the team captain. Here again is Micah RUZIONI.
Speaker 12 (20:54):
I know you guys are really facing a herculean task here.
Speaker 7 (20:57):
It's like sending you into the lion's case. Do you
feel like, yes, we do.
Speaker 8 (21:02):
You know, you gotta be realistic about things.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
We're a young team, with the youngest is Olympic hockey
team ever.
Speaker 8 (21:06):
If you had to pick us, I think it would
probably be picked fifth.
Speaker 7 (21:10):
The Soviets blew out their first two opponents with a
combined score of thirty three to four. The seventh seeded
Americans opened against the heavily favored Sweden and trailed two
to one late in the final third period. Here again
is al michaels I.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Remember the US had several opportunities to tie the game,
and you just got the feeling, and of course as
the clock ticks down and now you're under a minute,
well it's it's not to be and goally Jim Craig
for an extra skater to try to tie.
Speaker 7 (21:41):
It on with only forty one seconds to go, Brooks
pulled goalie Jim Craig, which allowed him to put an
extra skater on the ice, but in return, it also
left the American net empty. It was a desperate move
for a desperate team.
Speaker 18 (21:58):
With twenty nine seconds to play.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
Baker, who was just trying to get on net, I
couldn't believe it when it went in.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
You know, you can.
Speaker 8 (22:09):
Always wonder if Philly doesn't score, what happens to.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The hockey team. Well, Billy did score.
Speaker 8 (22:14):
In the game and then first round high it up.
Speaker 5 (22:19):
That was the biggest goal of the Olympics, because if
the Americans lose that game, they're virtually out of contention
before the Olympic Games start.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Two days later, the Americans faced Czechoslovakia, underdogs again in
a game they had to win.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
Many people said that the Czechs were considered the second
best team.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
In the world and the only team that had a
chance to beat the Soviets. We pretty much dominated the Czechs.
Speaker 18 (22:49):
Incredible God the footpad first pregnant back of the Vakia
born away the second best team coming in. There's no
question to toobean for the better the check the American league.
The injured American.
Speaker 7 (23:04):
Player then late in the third period, as the Americans
were skating to a seven to three Valentine's Day massacre
victory against the second best team in the world. Mark Johnson,
the TEENU star player, was not to the ice from
a cheap shot by a Czech player. As Johnson lay
in the middle of the ice, Americans watching on television
were introduced to Herb Brooks up close and personal.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Was really expecting it.
Speaker 18 (23:37):
Herb brook thelorious polling.
Speaker 17 (23:42):
Would be upset.
Speaker 14 (23:45):
If you're going to do something our guy, I'm going
to take this stick and I'm going to stop it
down your throat. People were ready to hear that kind
of thing. He would not have said that and let
the iotolic stop all over the US wholly a bunch
of hostages.
Speaker 4 (23:59):
I think that was one of the moments where a
lot of people in this country said, Hey, they've been
a pretty good little story taking place here. If we
have these fresh faced kids, got to keep an eye
on these guys, and look at this coach. I mean,
he's right there back in his players. So everybody's starting
to look ahead to this perspective matchups against the Soviets,
but before that, you have three other games. Norway figured
(24:22):
to be the easiest of the games, and.
Speaker 18 (24:24):
It was there was Pablo you get your back yourself
before they they self more tablick.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
Then you had Romania brett Gard before, and they won
that game. Germany presented a little bit of a problem though.
On Wednesday night, the last game prior to going into
the metal round, Germany leads to nothing. So wait a second,
what's going on here? You don't want this bump in
the road. You don't want it now. And then the
(24:53):
US is able to come from behind.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
And beat Germany.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
So they did all the things they had to do.
But then, of course you had Specter of the Soviets
just looming there.
Speaker 7 (25:04):
Seemingly no one, certainly, not a bunch of college kids
could stop them from winning the gold medal. Herb Brooks,
after all, wasn't coaching a dream team. He was coaching
a team full of dreamers. There's a big difference. Today,
the concept of amateurs in the Olympics is as obsolete
as eight track assets. The expression dream team has become
(25:26):
part of the five ring lexicon. Herb Brooks would later
see the dream team as ironic because when you have
dream teams, you seldom get to dream. But this was
a game of striking contrasts. It was experience versus youth,
men versus boys, champions versus upstarts, communism versus capitalism, all
(25:49):
on a sheet of ice in the Adirondack Mountains. After
studying the Soviets for years, Herb Brooks could sense their
overconfidence and told his team to take advantage of it.
Speaker 10 (26:01):
I kept wetting their appetite.
Speaker 7 (26:03):
Someone will beat those guys. Someone's gonna beat those guys.
I don't like how they're playing.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
They think they're better than they are.
Speaker 7 (26:09):
Brooks also thought his team was giving too much respect
to the Soviets, so he began chipping away at their
mystique by poking fun at their leader, one of the
top players in the world, who just happened to look
a lot like a famous comedian.
Speaker 11 (26:23):
Forist Mikailoff was as close to, I mean, the hockey
chief of the world as there was. And Herbie starts
teasing the guy. Always look at that guy's nose. God,
look at that guy's face. Looks like stan Laurel. And
he's insulting the guy. Ah can't play against stan Laurel.
Basic cake guys.
Speaker 15 (26:42):
To relax them, to keep them focused, and also plan
that and say, hey, someone's gonna beat those.
Speaker 7 (26:48):
On them against.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And you've been listening to the story of the nineteen
ady US Olympic Hockey team Lake Placid, New York. Miracle
on ice story. It's experienced versus youth, it's communism versus capitalism.
What will happen next? Well, Herb Brooks is already chipping
away at the mystique of this Soviet team like a
great leader would, mocking and satirizing them. When we come back,
(27:15):
more of this remarkable story, the story of the nineteen
eighty Miracle on ice. Here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
the Miracle on ice. Let's pick up when we last
left off.
Speaker 7 (27:49):
Then, on Friday February twenty second, the Cold War was
put on ice.
Speaker 8 (27:54):
The thirteenth Winter Olympic Games.
Speaker 18 (27:57):
The excitement, the tension building, they are feeling differpacivat.
Speaker 7 (28:01):
In the locker room before the game, Herb Brooks gave
the speech of his life.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
You were born to be hockey players.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
He told us, we were born to be a player,
We were meant to be here here, this moment was ours,
this is your time.
Speaker 11 (28:14):
And he told that story about going up and spitting
in the eye of the tire.
Speaker 7 (28:18):
If this is our time, it's not, there is your line.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Screw them, Stan Laurel. All those Russians go up there
and ticket it's our turn.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
And I remember telegram we got from a lady in Texas,
and all the telegram said was beat those Comeds.
Speaker 17 (28:32):
You realized that the USA on the front of your
sweater meant that you were playing for your.
Speaker 18 (28:40):
Here we go is the game is underway, itsrobe at
Union in Rand in the United States game White.
Speaker 17 (28:45):
I remember for the first five or six minutes the
feeling as though I couldn't feel my feet on the ice.
Speaker 7 (28:51):
N the Soviets struck first, God, and.
Speaker 18 (28:54):
It was a wooden end and it throb me at
Union League one and not being at the nine twelve of.
Speaker 14 (28:59):
The first The Russians scored first, and he winced and thought,
here it comes. But the US team took that blow.
Craig made some key saves and then Buzzy Schneider came
down the left wing.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
The Tian goal failed to unnerve the Soviets. They quickly
scored again, and it looked like the first period would
end with them leading two to one. But with just
seconds remaining, the methodical team that almost never made mistakes
made the worst kind a mental error, and it changed
(29:42):
the course of the game.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
David Christian has the puck. It's about five seconds left
to goal in the period. I stopped the skates to
the bench, sneaking the periods over, and Mark Johnson goes
scooting up like he just didn't stop playing.
Speaker 7 (29:55):
He was still playing.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
The Russians had stopped.
Speaker 18 (29:59):
Long shot with one second a place in the period
right now.
Speaker 7 (30:06):
The Soviets aimed to fix that mistake on the second period,
quickly scoring the go ahead goal. They dominated the action,
out shooting the Americans eleven to two in the second period.
Only Jim Craig's brilliance and goal prevented the game from
becoming a blowout. But the Americans had never come from
behind the best team in the world, and the Soviets
(30:28):
always dominated the third and final period. It looked as
if this night would be no different. That is until
lightning struck just eighty one seconds later. The team's captain,
whose name in Italian means eruption, triggered.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
One and that's when the building went crazy. I mean,
that's when sound had feel I mean that was like
an earthquake.
Speaker 18 (31:04):
Yeah, we've got bed lom Oh. I love Brook reacting here.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
It is again the atmosphere in that arena, it was incredible,
the feeling, the sense that they could do this and
they could actually pull it off.
Speaker 18 (31:17):
That goal coming at a ten minute mark, exactly halfway
through the period.
Speaker 7 (31:21):
When I sat out, I looked up and I went,
ten minutes. That's a long time. I guess these guys they.
Speaker 8 (31:28):
Could score in ten minutes what would take us sixty
minutes to score?
Speaker 15 (31:32):
And I knew that too much time, too much time.
Speaker 7 (31:35):
We can't hold mof this lock.
Speaker 12 (31:36):
It was this a constant clockwatch, shift by shift, shift
by shift.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Eight and a half.
Speaker 18 (31:40):
Finich, the play the heart it's not leading, fourth three.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
It went on forever, and the time just stood still.
Speaker 18 (31:46):
Five and a half. Finich the play three fifty three
remaining in the game, to twenty five, twenty four, twenty
three remaining.
Speaker 4 (31:54):
It kept building and building, and the clock kept winding down,
and it just got louder and louder.
Speaker 18 (31:58):
And fifty five second, but they caught up as a
buck twenty eight second. With that, it's sane malabah. The
leman is there the puppy still loose. Eleven seconds. You
got ten seconds.
Speaker 16 (32:11):
The papaill going on right now?
Speaker 18 (32:12):
Borrow what's your up?
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Second?
Speaker 12 (32:16):
You're believe in?
Speaker 6 (32:19):
Believe it.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
The entire US bench cleared everyone except Coach Brooks. After
throwing both arms overhead and doing a tiny pirouette and
punching the air with an emphatic left fist, he walked
straight off the bench, turned right into the runway, got
patted on the back by weepy state troopers, and went
back into locker room five. Herb Brooks locked himself inside
(32:46):
an orange toilet stall and cried. Once the team made
it into the locker room, they broke into a spontaneous
chorus of God Bless America, filling in the words they
couldn't remember with hum and whistles. In Lake Placid and
all over the United States, the victory triggered an outpouring
(33:06):
of national emotion never before provoked by a sporting event
on the Iron Range. In Minnesota, people ran outside and
hollered and shot off guns. In the Mediterranean Sea, the USSNMITS,
one of the world's largest supercarriers, flashed the score to
a Soviet intelligence ship that was nearby the Soviets would
(33:28):
not lose again for five years, and the Americans would
not beat them for another eleven years. But the future
domination came with no rewind mechanism, no clause that could
undo what happened on Friday night, February twenty second, nineteen eighty.
It was the thirteenth anniversary of the film debut of
Walt Disney Cinderella. Maybe it figured. The nation continued celebrating,
(33:55):
but for the hockey team, it wasn't over yet.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
People at least forget that the US had to win
another game on Sunday.
Speaker 7 (34:04):
It was still.
Speaker 5 (34:05):
Possible if the Americans did not beat the Fins that
they would not only not win the gold, they wouldn't
win any medal at all. And Herb understood this.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
And we were excited. We were anxious. We couldn't wait
to get out and play.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And Herb Brooks walked into the locker room and he
looked at us and he said, if you lose this game,
you'll take it to your grave. Then he stopped, he
walked a couple of steps, turned, looked at us again
and said, you have grave.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
Once again, the Americans would have to come from behind,
and we went out.
Speaker 11 (34:34):
There on the third period, and I think we just
steamrolled them from the time they opened that door and
let us out.
Speaker 7 (34:41):
They didn't have a chance. Three unanswered goals in the
third period gave the US a four to two win
and the gold medal and Man. The Olympics broke Herbbrook's
(35:04):
heart in nineteen sixty and made him the most celebrated
American hockey coach in history two decades later, but on
August eleventh, two thousand and three, in a single car accident,
a little bit of the Lake Placid Miracle died with
Herbert Paul Brooks on the hot, hard asphalt of Interstate
thirty five in Forest Lake, Minnesota. As his casket descended
(35:28):
down the steps of Assumption Catholic Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota,
it passed under a curved canopy of hockey sticks raised
up by his nineteen eighty gold medal team. Many of
those holding sticks were fighting tears and losing the fight.
If Herb Brook's passing reminds us that human beings have
a shelf life, it also reminds us that miracles do not,
(35:54):
and this miracle didn't happen on accident. I see Neil
brought skating on a flooded rink in Roseau, Minnesota, that
his father got up at two am to make him
twenty five degree below zero weather. I see John Harrington's
late father, Charles, skipping overtime at work to watch his
(36:15):
kids games because his overtime would always be there, but
the games would not, and then see him years later
listening to John's skate against the Russians from the cab
of his locomotive. I envision Margaret Craig running her goaltender
son and all her other kids all over southeastern Massachusetts,
(36:36):
a devotion that was absolutely unstinting until her cigarette habit
caught up to her and cancer arrived. Behind every player,
there are stories of love and sacrifice and struggle. Life
is hard, and Olympic gold medals provide no exemption. You
push on, do your best, and if you are really brave,
(36:59):
you dream big. Doubts and fears be damned. This is
the stuff that miracles are made of, and the proof
was there to see on February twenty second, nineteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. I love that note from
that lady in Texas beat those commie you know what.
And again this is the story of us against them,
and these college kids against the big bad Soviet bear.
And I'll never forget where I was on that day.
I was at my best friend Paul Biattini's house. He
(37:35):
would later die on nine to eleven on the hundred's
floor of the World Trade Center. But on that day
the family gathered first period, maybe about a dozen of us,
second period, maybe about thirty of us. Last period. The
be a teeny household, being the place you'd go to
watch a sport. The place was packed, and those are
days you'll never forget. The miracle on ice. The story,
(37:55):
it's personal for people who were there, for those who've
never experienced it. Well, there you have it, a story
of not just a hockey game, the story of not
just an Olympic event, but the story of American triumphalism
and the American dream, the original Dream Team. Here on
our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!