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.
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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.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We're about to do what we always strive to do
with our storytelling.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Here at our American Stories, add new details to our
hearts familiar pictures.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
It was more than a hockey game.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
It was us against them. It was freedom versus Communism.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Nobody gave us a hope in Halloweenen.
Speaker 5 (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 the 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 6 (01:29):
Nobody paid attention to what Americans said in the world anymore.
Our hostages had been taken and we couldn't get them back.
The Red Army went into Afghanistan, we couldn't get them out.
Speaker 7 (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 3 (01:58):
It was a miracle. David slew Goliath.
Speaker 8 (02:05):
It was the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.
Speaker 3 (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 9 (02:31):
It is a crisis of confidence. 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 3 (02:49):
Here's vice President under Jimmy Carter, walter Mondale.
Speaker 11 (02:53):
Our public support was eroding rapidly.
Speaker 9 (02:56):
You could feel it when you're out with people, when
you're giving speeches, when you're shaking, and America, I think,
began to wonder whether we'd lost our.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Edge 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 12 (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 at large team. Over the course of
ten days in Colorado Springs, those four teams played around robin.
It was a nerve racking situation. It was a pressure
pack situation, and as that tournament went on, it was
(03:52):
being evaluated by Herb Brooks.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 11 (04:05):
Yepple were a little afraid of him.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
He'd always been considered kind of an outsider at his
own way of thinking, his own way of doing things.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And 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.
Speaker 11 (04:31):
The someone was.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Herb Brooks, cut just one 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 Dan the sole things both the Eastern
coach all fixed all politics and went through the whole thing.
Speaker 11 (04:48):
Find me honestly, you've done this? Yeah, I said, let
to keep your fleet picked moss shut. I heard enough
of them. You get back and thank the coach.
Speaker 14 (04:57):
You get your best in lock crew, wish teammates well,
and get your asshole.
Speaker 11 (05:01):
As my father got her rest.
Speaker 13 (05:02):
The soul said, yes, sir, she hiking home.
Speaker 11 (05:05):
I'll watched the s unfold.
Speaker 13 (05:07):
The Americans got hot and then Winter Company's first Sobel,
I didn't watch the scan TV.
Speaker 11 (05:12):
My father looked over to me.
Speaker 13 (05:13):
He says, looks like the coach got the right guy,
didn't He just.
Speaker 15 (05:18):
Angle that left unfinished business in her books's life. He
had something to prove.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
He was on a mission, a mission to shake American
hockey out of its slumber. First, Brooks had to trim
the roster from eighty to twenty six.
Speaker 14 (05:38):
The tough part of me getting about twenty or for
reopening ceremonies.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Behind the Iron curtain. The Soviets were the best hockey
team in the world, perhaps the strongest ever assembled, and
everybody knew it. Vladislav Treatiac grew up outside Moscow and
became immersed in the Soviets communist sports machine at a
young age. He developed perhaps the greatest goaltender to ever
play and start on the Soviet national team for over
(06:05):
fifteen years. By nineteen eighty, Boris Mikhailov 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 Games. We spent a
general secretary and everybody else was worried about how we
would represent our country. Our test was only to place first.
Speaker 3 (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 7 (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 17 (06:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
But we truly can't do this show without you. Our
shows are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
If you love what you hear, go to our Americanstories
dot com and make a donation to keep the stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with
(08:10):
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 3 (08:23):
Back in the US.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
HERB.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
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 played the game.
Speaker 3 (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 3 (08:55):
Brooks was calling for a revolution in American hockey.
Speaker 11 (08:59):
I tried to develop a team that we throwed their
game right back at.
Speaker 3 (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 as.
Speaker 12 (09:22):
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 18 (09:29):
And the Boston guys. Yeah, 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 14 (09:39):
I wanted to blur the boundaries of our country, build
a Wii 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 3 (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 11 (10:08):
You know, people I speak to say Craig's game has
been office. His mom died and they were seeing when
his game's on.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 11 (10:30):
Him, I won't be your friend if you need one
of those.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I remember when he told us him, I'll be a coach,
but I won't be a friend.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And I'm like, it's going to 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 4 (10:45):
He could give you that glare and that look, and
it's like, oh my god, what I do wrong now.
Speaker 3 (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. 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,
hub dep and pull it out. And my favorite coach,
(11:34):
John Wooden, right here, I think he would concur a plays.
Speaker 3 (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 14 (11:55):
I said, guys, we're gonna have to play the Norwegians
and qualifications, so we do it tonight.
Speaker 11 (12:00):
Send a message right now.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
But playing flat and uninspired hockey, the US can 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 again, no problem
will work, not on.
Speaker 14 (12:17):
Goal line and standing there with a suit on it
makes us all get behind the net and bombita goal line.
Speaker 10 (12:22):
And he starts blowings listening, and we did what are
called Kirby's, which are blue lineback, red line back, far
blue lineback. All the way down and back.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
I think you can win on talent alone.
Speaker 14 (12:34):
Gentlemen, you don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Again, two or three of those would be tiring.
Speaker 11 (12:43):
Blue lineback, red line back, blue line back, down.
Speaker 18 (12:46):
Back, Ten or twelve of them would be excessive.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
You better think about something else, each and every one
of you.
Speaker 7 (12:53):
When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and
your teammates, and a name.
Speaker 17 (12:59):
On the front is a hell of a lot more
important than the one on the back.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Get that throw your head again.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
When we did them for about forty five minutes to
an hour, your rink attendant turned the lights off on us,
and we still skated in the dark.
Speaker 18 (13:16):
In the dark, He's screaming at us, booming voice around
this empty arena.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
How about it, Zolpi, you're gonna be the first one
to put on me.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
It was pretty intense.
Speaker 11 (13:23):
The message went up right that down.
Speaker 14 (13:25):
They're not going to play the game like that and
disgrace their abilities or our collective uptors.
Speaker 18 (13:32):
And 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.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
He's not gonna break us. 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 4 (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.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Don't think I won't do it.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And I'm thinking he might just do this, you know,
I'm like, wow.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
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 3 (14:22):
Which is exactly what Brooks wanted to see.
Speaker 11 (14:26):
Give here.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Hey, you guys know your.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
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.
Speaker 11 (14:52):
And I said, you know her, I don't think you
should do it.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I think it's wrong.
Speaker 11 (14:55):
We'll go on to Lake Placid in a week.
Speaker 12 (14:57):
I mean, stop it, get rid of these guys and
let us get serious about this.
Speaker 14 (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 3 (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 18 (16:17):
We got crushed and then we thought, these guys are
in another world.
Speaker 11 (16:22):
They just kicked us around that rink.
Speaker 8 (16:24):
The goals they scored were you could have filmed them.
Speaker 11 (16:26):
It was so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
They were like robots when they scored a goal.
Speaker 11 (16:30):
They never smiled.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I don't think I ever saw him smile.
Speaker 15 (16:32):
We were ready to stand up in a plot them
because we didn't see anything like that before.
Speaker 10 (16:36):
The guy's hitting now, but you see that gold, You
see his moves like we were spectators.
Speaker 5 (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 12 (16:52):
They couldn't have done a great low point given the
preparation and the.
Speaker 11 (16:55):
Work that we had put in. 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 the 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 teams Miracle on Ice story.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (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 5 (18:31):
Anybody who left Manison Square Garden that they 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 3 (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 Ruzione.
Speaker 4 (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 3 (19:19):
And then in November, just when things seemed like they
couldn't get any worse, this.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Is NBC Nightly News they did with Jessica Savage.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Good Evening.
Speaker 19 (19:29):
The American Embassy in Tehran is in the hands of
Moslim students tonight, spurred on by an Ani American speech
by the Ayat Tolkomeni. They stormed the embassy and took
dozens of American hostages.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
In December, it would get even worse.
Speaker 9 (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.
Speaker 16 (19:52):
Next door to where I'm Afghanistan.
Speaker 9 (19:54):
During the last three days, more than five thousand Soviet
combat troops have been airlifted into Kabble to An their
fifty thousand Soviet troops have massed along the Afghanistan's northern border.
It's very important for the world to realize how serious
the threat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
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 in the attitude for the entire Olympic team, Let's show.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
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 on the soil.
Speaker 3 (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 9 (20:54):
I know you guys are really facing a herculean task here.
Speaker 11 (20:57):
It's like sending you into a lion's case.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Do you feel like, yes, we do.
Speaker 12 (21:02):
You know, you gotta be realistic about things.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
We're a young team with the youngest is the Olympic
hockey team. Ever, if you had to pick us, I
think it would probably be picked fifth.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
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 5 (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 pulling goally Jim Craig
for an extra skater to try to tie.
Speaker 3 (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 17 (21:58):
With twenty nine seconds to play, Baker, They're.
Speaker 11 (22:03):
Just trying to get on net. I couldn't believe it
when it went in. You know, you can always wonder.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
If Philly doesn't score, what happens to the hockey team.
Speaker 13 (22:12):
Well, Philly did, spoke.
Speaker 17 (22:14):
The American in the game, and then perfre High it up.
Speaker 6 (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 3 (22:26):
Two days later, the Americans faced the Czechoslovakia underdogs again
in a game they had to win.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Many people said that the Czechs were considered the second
best team in the world and the only team that
had a chance.
Speaker 11 (22:38):
To beat the Soviets.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
We pretty much dominated the checks.
Speaker 17 (22:49):
Incredible, got the pots for back at Lakia, bar and
away the second best team coming in no question to
to for the bet the American League. The injured American player.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
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 tenue star player, was knocked 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 are close and person was.
Speaker 17 (23:28):
Really expecting it. Herb brook the glorious Poment would be upset.
Speaker 15 (23:45):
If you're going to do something our guy, I'm going
to take this stick and I want to stop it
down your throat. People were ready to hear that kind
of thing. He would not have sat back and let
the iotolic stop all over the US wholly a bunch
of hostages.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I think that was one of the more moments where
a lot of people in this country said, hey, they've
been a pretty good little story taking place here. 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 it was
there's Pablach.
Speaker 17 (24:25):
You get to back yourself before, maybe self more tabler.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Then you had Romania Reddah before, and they won that game.
Speaker 11 (24:36):
Germany presented a little bit of a problem though.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
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
US is able to come from behind and beat Germany.
Speaker 11 (24:55):
So they did all the things they had to do.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
But then, of course you had specter of the Soviets
just looming there.
Speaker 3 (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 on
(25:49):
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 it advantage of it.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
I kept wetting their appetite.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Someone will beat those guys.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
Someone's gonna beat those guys.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I don't like how they're playing.
Speaker 11 (26:06):
They think they're better than they are.
Speaker 3 (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 12 (26:23):
Forrest Mikhailoff, was as close to, I mean, the hockey
chief of the world as there was.
Speaker 11 (26:28):
And Herbie starts teasing the guy all the week.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
Look at that guy's nose, God, look at that guy's face.
Speaker 12 (26:34):
Looks like Stan Laurel, and he's insulting the guy.
Speaker 11 (26:37):
Ah can't play against stan Laurel, piece of cake. Guys.
Speaker 14 (26:42):
To relax them, to keep them focused, and also plan
that and say, hey, someone's gonna beat those on them against.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And you've been listening to the story of the nineteen
eighty US Olympic Hockey team Lake Placid, New York.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Miracle on ice story.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
It's experience for versus youth, It's communism versus capitalism.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
What will happen next?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Well, Herb Brooks is already chipping away at the mystique
of this Soviet team like a great leader would, mocking
and satirizing. When we come back more of this remarkable story,
the story of the nineteen eighty Miracle on ice. Here
on our American stories, and we continue with our American
(27:38):
stories and the story of the Miracle on ice.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Then, on Friday, February twenty second, the Cold War was put.
Speaker 19 (27:53):
On ice the thirteenth Winter Olympic Games.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
The excitement, attention building the Olympics building differpaculate.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
In the locker room before the game, Herb Brooks gave
the speech of his life.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
You were born to be hockey players, 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 12 (28:14):
And he told that story about going up and spitting
in the eye of the tire.
Speaker 11 (28:18):
If this is our time, it's not, there.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Is your time.
Speaker 11 (28:21):
Screw them, Stan Laurel. All those rushings go up there
and tickets. It's our turn.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
And I remember a telegram we got from a lady
in Texas, and all the telegram said was beat those comeds.
Speaker 18 (28:32):
You realized that the USA on the front of your
sweater meant that you were playing for your.
Speaker 17 (28:40):
Here we go is the game is underway. The Tobe
at Union in Random, the United States game light.
Speaker 18 (28:45):
I remember for the first five or six minutes and
the feeling as though I couldn't feel my feet on
the ice.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
Bud Nider.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
The Soviets struck first, and it was the wood in.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
And if Toby had Union League wand it not at
the time well mark of the first the.
Speaker 15 (29:00):
Russians scored first, and he winced and thought, here it comes.
But the US team took that blow, and then Craig
made some key saves and then Buzzy Schneider came down
the left wing.
Speaker 3 (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 4 (29:44):
David Christian has the puck. It's about five seconds left
to goal in the period. I stopped to skate to
the bench, leaking the periods over.
Speaker 8 (29:52):
Seeing Mark Johnson goes scoot up like he just didn't
stop playing.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
He was still playing.
Speaker 8 (29:56):
The Russians had stopped.
Speaker 11 (29:59):
Long shot.
Speaker 17 (30:02):
With one second to play in the period.
Speaker 19 (30:05):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
The Soviets aimed to fix that mistake in 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 5 (30:50):
One and that's when the building went crazy. I mean
that's when sound at feeling. I mean, that was like
an earthquake.
Speaker 17 (31:04):
Yeah, we've got bed love Oh, I love brook reaction.
Here it is again.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
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 17 (31:17):
That goal coming at a ten minute mark, exactly halfway
through the period.
Speaker 11 (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 3 (31:28):
Could score in ten minutes what would take us sixty
minutes to score?
Speaker 11 (31:32):
And I knew that too much time, too much time.
We can't hold them off. This lock.
Speaker 12 (31:36):
It was this a constant clockwatch, shift by shift, shift
by shift.
Speaker 17 (31:39):
Eight and a half.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Finich to play the hurt. It's not leaving fourth Gree.
Speaker 11 (31:43):
It went on forever, and the time just stood still.
Speaker 17 (31:46):
Five and a half Finich to play grade fifty three
remaining in the game, to twenty five, twenty four, two
twenty three remaining.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
It kept building and building, and the clock kept winding down,
and it just got louder and louder, and.
Speaker 8 (31:58):
Fifty five second put they came up as the pluck
twenty eight seconds, the rod going, it's sae marlab.
Speaker 17 (32:06):
The Lennon is there the pump is still loose. Eleven seconds.
You got ten seconds. The Papa going on right now,
borrow look this sup.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Believing, 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,
(32:39):
got patted on the back by weepy state troopers, and
went back into locker room five. Herb Brooks locked himself
inside 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 hums and whistles. In Lake Placid
(33:02):
and all over the United States, the victory triggered an
outpouring 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
(33:23):
score to a Soviet intelligence ship that was nearby. The
Soviets would 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,
(33:43):
nineteen eighty. It was the thirteenth anniversary of the film
debut of Walt Disney Cinderella. Maybe it figured. The nation
continued celebrating, but for the hockey team, it wasn't over yet.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
People least forget that the US had to win another
game on Sunday.
Speaker 6 (34:04):
It was still 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.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
And Herb understood this, and we were excited, we were anxious.
We couldn't wait to get out and play.
Speaker 4 (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 your grave.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Once again. The Americans would have to come from behind,
and we went out.
Speaker 12 (34:34):
There in the third period, and I think we just
steamrolled them from the time they opened that door and
let us out.
Speaker 11 (34:41):
They didn't have a chance.
Speaker 17 (34:42):
Got me.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Three unanswered goals in the third period gave the US
a four to two win and the gold medal. The
Olympics broke Herb Brook's heart in nineteen sixty and made
(35:06):
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.
(35:27):
As his casket descended 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
(35:47):
us that human beings have a shelf life, it also
reminds us that miracles do not, and this miracle didn't
happen on accident. I see Neil Broad skating on a
flooded rink in Roseau, Minnesota, that his father got up
at two am to make in twenty five degree below
(36:07):
zero weather. I see John Harrington's late father, Charles, skipping
overtime at work to watch his kid's 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
(36:28):
envision Margaret Craig running her goaltender son and all her
other kids all over southeastern Massachusetts, a devotion that was
absolutely unstinting until her cigarette habn't caught up to her
and cancer arrived. Behind every player, there are stories of
love and sacrifice and struggle. Life is hard, and Olympic
(36:52):
gold medals provide no exemption. You push on, do your best,
and if you are really brave, 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 the 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.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We're about to do what we always strive to do
with our storytelling.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Here at our American Stories, add new details to our
hearts familiar pictures.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Let's take a listen.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
It was more than a hockey game.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
It was us against them. It was freedom versus Communism.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Nobody gave us a hope in Halloweenen.
Speaker 5 (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 the 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 6 (01:29):
Nobody paid attention to what Americans said in the world anymore.
Our hostages had been taken and we couldn't get them back.
The Red Army went into Afghanistan, we couldn't get them out.
Speaker 7 (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 3 (01:58):
It was a miracle. David slew Goliath.
Speaker 8 (02:05):
It was the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.
Speaker 3 (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 9 (02:31):
It is a crisis of confidence. 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 3 (02:49):
Here's vice President under Jimmy Carter, walter Mondale.
Speaker 11 (02:53):
Our public support was eroding rapidly.
Speaker 9 (02:56):
You could feel it when you're out with people, when
you're giving speeches, when you're shaking, and America, I think,
began to wonder whether we'd lost our.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Edge 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 12 (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 at large team. Over the course of
ten days in Colorado Springs, those four teams played around robin.
It was a nerve racking situation. It was a pressure
pack situation, and as that tournament went on, it was
(03:52):
being evaluated by Herb Brooks.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 11 (04:05):
Yepple were a little afraid of him.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
He'd always been considered kind of an outsider at his
own way of thinking, his own way of doing things.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
And 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.
Speaker 11 (04:31):
The someone was.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Herb Brooks, cut just one 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 Dan the sole things both the Eastern
coach all fixed all politics and went through the whole thing.
Speaker 11 (04:48):
Find me honestly, you've done this? Yeah, I said, let
to keep your fleet picked moss shut. I heard enough
of them. You get back and thank the coach.
Speaker 14 (04:57):
You get your best in lock crew, wish teammates well,
and get your asshole.
Speaker 11 (05:01):
As my father got her rest.
Speaker 13 (05:02):
The soul said, yes, sir, she hiking home.
Speaker 11 (05:05):
I'll watched the s unfold.
Speaker 13 (05:07):
The Americans got hot and then Winter Company's first Sobel,
I didn't watch the scan TV.
Speaker 11 (05:12):
My father looked over to me.
Speaker 13 (05:13):
He says, looks like the coach got the right guy,
didn't He just.
Speaker 15 (05:18):
Angle that left unfinished business in her books's life. He
had something to prove.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
He was on a mission, a mission to shake American
hockey out of its slumber. First, Brooks had to trim
the roster from eighty to twenty six.
Speaker 14 (05:38):
The tough part of me getting about twenty or for
reopening ceremonies.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Behind the Iron curtain. The Soviets were the best hockey
team in the world, perhaps the strongest ever assembled, and
everybody knew it. Vladislav Treatiac grew up outside Moscow and
became immersed in the Soviets communist sports machine at a
young age. He developed perhaps the greatest goaltender to ever
play and start on the Soviet national team for over
(06:05):
fifteen years. By nineteen eighty, Boris Mikhailov 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 Games. We spent a
general secretary and everybody else was worried about how we
would represent our country. Our test was only to place first.
Speaker 3 (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 7 (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 17 (06:58):
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.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
But we truly can't do this show without you. Our
shows are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
If you love what you hear, go to our Americanstories
dot com and make a donation to keep the stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with
(08:10):
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 3 (08:23):
Back in the US.
Speaker 11 (08:24):
HERB.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
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 played the game.
Speaker 3 (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 3 (08:55):
Brooks was calling for a revolution in American hockey.
Speaker 11 (08:59):
I tried to develop a team that we throwed their
game right back at.
Speaker 3 (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 as.
Speaker 12 (09:22):
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 18 (09:29):
And the Boston guys. Yeah, 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 14 (09:39):
I wanted to blur the boundaries of our country, build
a Wii 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 3 (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 11 (10:08):
You know, people I speak to say Craig's game has
been office. His mom died and they were seeing when
his game's on.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 11 (10:30):
Him, I won't be your friend if you need one
of those.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
I remember when he told us him, I'll be a coach,
but I won't be a friend.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And I'm like, it's going to 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 4 (10:45):
He could give you that glare and that look, and
it's like, oh my god, what I do wrong now.
Speaker 3 (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. 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,
hub dep and pull it out. And my favorite coach,
(11:34):
John Wooden, right here, I think he would concur a plays.
Speaker 3 (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 14 (11:55):
I said, guys, we're gonna have to play the Norwegians
and qualifications, so we do it tonight.
Speaker 11 (12:00):
Send a message right now.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
But playing flat and uninspired hockey, the US can 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 again, no problem
will work, not on.
Speaker 14 (12:17):
Goal line and standing there with a suit on it
makes us all get behind the net and bombita goal line.
Speaker 10 (12:22):
And he starts blowings listening, and we did what are
called Kirby's, which are blue lineback, red line back, far
blue lineback. All the way down and back.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
I think you can win on talent alone.
Speaker 14 (12:34):
Gentlemen, you don't have enough talent to win on talent alone.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Again, two or three of those would be tiring.
Speaker 11 (12:43):
Blue lineback, red line back, blue line back, down.
Speaker 18 (12:46):
Back, Ten or twelve of them would be excessive.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
You better think about something else, each and every one
of you.
Speaker 7 (12:53):
When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and
your teammates, and a name.
Speaker 17 (12:59):
On the front is a hell of a lot more
important than the one on the back.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Get that throw your head again.
Speaker 10 (13:07):
When we did them for about forty five minutes to
an hour, your rink attendant turned the lights off on us,
and we still skated in the dark.
Speaker 18 (13:16):
In the dark, He's screaming at us, booming voice around
this empty arena.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
How about it, Zolpi, you're gonna be the first one
to put on me.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
It was pretty intense.
Speaker 11 (13:23):
The message went up right that down.
Speaker 14 (13:25):
They're not going to play the game like that and
disgrace their abilities or our collective uptors.
Speaker 18 (13:32):
And 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.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
He's not gonna break us. 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 4 (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.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Don't think I won't do it.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
And I'm thinking he might just do this, you know,
I'm like, wow.
Speaker 6 (14:15):
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 3 (14:22):
Which is exactly what Brooks wanted to see.
Speaker 11 (14:26):
Give here.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Hey, you guys know your.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
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.
Speaker 11 (14:52):
And I said, you know her, I don't think you
should do it.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I think it's wrong.
Speaker 11 (14:55):
We'll go on to Lake Placid in a week.
Speaker 12 (14:57):
I mean, stop it, get rid of these guys and
let us get serious about this.
Speaker 14 (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 3 (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 18 (16:17):
We got crushed and then we thought, these guys are
in another world.
Speaker 11 (16:22):
They just kicked us around that rink.
Speaker 8 (16:24):
The goals they scored were you could have filmed them.
Speaker 11 (16:26):
It was so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
They were like robots when they scored a goal.
Speaker 11 (16:30):
They never smiled.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I don't think I ever saw him smile.
Speaker 15 (16:32):
We were ready to stand up in a plot them
because we didn't see anything like that before.
Speaker 10 (16:36):
The guy's hitting now, but you see that gold, You
see his moves like we were spectators.
Speaker 5 (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 12 (16:52):
They couldn't have done a great low point given the
preparation and the.
Speaker 11 (16:55):
Work that we had put in. 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 the 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 teams Miracle on Ice story.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (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 5 (18:31):
Anybody who left Manison Square Garden that they 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 3 (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 Ruzione.
Speaker 4 (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 3 (19:19):
And then in November, just when things seemed like they
couldn't get any worse, this.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Is NBC Nightly News they did with Jessica Savage.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Good Evening.
Speaker 19 (19:29):
The American Embassy in Tehran is in the hands of
Moslim students tonight, spurred on by an Ani American speech
by the Ayat Tolkomeni. They stormed the embassy and took
dozens of American hostages.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
In December, it would get even worse.
Speaker 9 (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.
Speaker 16 (19:52):
Next door to where I'm Afghanistan.
Speaker 9 (19:54):
During the last three days, more than five thousand Soviet
combat troops have been airlifted into Kabble to An their
fifty thousand Soviet troops have massed along the Afghanistan's northern border.
It's very important for the world to realize how serious
the threat the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
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 in the attitude for the entire Olympic team, Let's show.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
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 on the soil.
Speaker 3 (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 9 (20:54):
I know you guys are really facing a herculean task here.
Speaker 11 (20:57):
It's like sending you into a lion's case.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Do you feel like, yes, we do.
Speaker 12 (21:02):
You know, you gotta be realistic about things.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
We're a young team with the youngest is the Olympic
hockey team. Ever, if you had to pick us, I
think it would probably be picked fifth.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
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 5 (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 pulling goally Jim Craig
for an extra skater to try to tie.
Speaker 3 (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 17 (21:58):
With twenty nine seconds to play, Baker, They're.
Speaker 11 (22:03):
Just trying to get on net. I couldn't believe it
when it went in. You know, you can always wonder.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
If Philly doesn't score, what happens to the hockey team.
Speaker 13 (22:12):
Well, Philly did, spoke.
Speaker 17 (22:14):
The American in the game, and then perfre High it up.
Speaker 6 (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 3 (22:26):
Two days later, the Americans faced the Czechoslovakia underdogs again
in a game they had to win.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Many people said that the Czechs were considered the second
best team in the world and the only team that
had a chance.
Speaker 11 (22:38):
To beat the Soviets.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
We pretty much dominated the checks.
Speaker 17 (22:49):
Incredible, got the pots for back at Lakia, bar and
away the second best team coming in no question to
to for the bet the American League. The injured American player.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
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 tenue star player, was knocked 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 are close and person was.
Speaker 17 (23:28):
Really expecting it. Herb brook the glorious Poment would be upset.
Speaker 15 (23:45):
If you're going to do something our guy, I'm going
to take this stick and I want to stop it
down your throat. People were ready to hear that kind
of thing. He would not have sat back and let
the iotolic stop all over the US wholly a bunch
of hostages.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I think that was one of the more moments where
a lot of people in this country said, hey, they've
been a pretty good little story taking place here. 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 it was
there's Pablach.
Speaker 17 (24:25):
You get to back yourself before, maybe self more tabler.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
Then you had Romania Reddah before, and they won that game.
Speaker 11 (24:36):
Germany presented a little bit of a problem though.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
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
US is able to come from behind and beat Germany.
Speaker 11 (24:55):
So they did all the things they had to do.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
But then, of course you had specter of the Soviets
just looming there.
Speaker 3 (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 on
(25:49):
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 it advantage of it.
Speaker 11 (26:01):
I kept wetting their appetite.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Someone will beat those guys.
Speaker 11 (26:03):
Someone's gonna beat those guys.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
I don't like how they're playing.
Speaker 11 (26:06):
They think they're better than they are.
Speaker 3 (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 12 (26:23):
Forrest Mikhailoff, was as close to, I mean, the hockey
chief of the world as there was.
Speaker 11 (26:28):
And Herbie starts teasing the guy all the week.
Speaker 8 (26:30):
Look at that guy's nose, God, look at that guy's face.
Speaker 12 (26:34):
Looks like Stan Laurel, and he's insulting the guy.
Speaker 11 (26:37):
Ah can't play against stan Laurel, piece of cake. Guys.
Speaker 14 (26:42):
To relax them, to keep them focused, and also plan
that and say, hey, someone's gonna beat those on them against.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
And you've been listening to the story of the nineteen
eighty US Olympic Hockey team Lake Placid, New York.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Miracle on ice story.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
It's experience for versus youth, It's communism versus capitalism.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
What will happen next?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Well, Herb Brooks is already chipping away at the mystique
of this Soviet team like a great leader would, mocking
and satirizing. When we come back more of this remarkable story,
the story of the nineteen eighty Miracle on ice. Here
on our American stories, and we continue with our American
(27:38):
stories and the story of the Miracle on ice.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Let's pick up when we last left off.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Then, on Friday, February twenty second, the Cold War was put.
Speaker 19 (27:53):
On ice the thirteenth Winter Olympic Games.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
The excitement, attention building the Olympics building differpaculate.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
In the locker room before the game, Herb Brooks gave
the speech of his life.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
You were born to be hockey players, 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 12 (28:14):
And he told that story about going up and spitting
in the eye of the tire.
Speaker 11 (28:18):
If this is our time, it's not, there.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Is your time.
Speaker 11 (28:21):
Screw them, Stan Laurel. All those rushings go up there
and tickets. It's our turn.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
And I remember a telegram we got from a lady
in Texas, and all the telegram said was beat those comeds.
Speaker 18 (28:32):
You realized that the USA on the front of your
sweater meant that you were playing for your.
Speaker 17 (28:40):
Here we go is the game is underway. The Tobe
at Union in Random, the United States game light.
Speaker 18 (28:45):
I remember for the first five or six minutes and
the feeling as though I couldn't feel my feet on
the ice.
Speaker 11 (28:50):
Bud Nider.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
The Soviets struck first, and it was the wood in.
Speaker 5 (28:55):
And if Toby had Union League wand it not at
the time well mark of the first the.
Speaker 15 (29:00):
Russians scored first, and he winced and thought, here it comes.
But the US team took that blow, and then Craig
made some key saves and then Buzzy Schneider came down
the left wing.
Speaker 3 (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 4 (29:44):
David Christian has the puck. It's about five seconds left
to goal in the period. I stopped to skate to
the bench, leaking the periods over.
Speaker 8 (29:52):
Seeing Mark Johnson goes scoot up like he just didn't
stop playing.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
He was still playing.
Speaker 8 (29:56):
The Russians had stopped.
Speaker 11 (29:59):
Long shot.
Speaker 17 (30:02):
With one second to play in the period.
Speaker 19 (30:05):
Right now.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
The Soviets aimed to fix that mistake in 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 5 (30:50):
One and that's when the building went crazy. I mean
that's when sound at feeling. I mean, that was like
an earthquake.
Speaker 17 (31:04):
Yeah, we've got bed love Oh, I love brook reaction.
Here it is again.
Speaker 7 (31:08):
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 17 (31:17):
That goal coming at a ten minute mark, exactly halfway
through the period.
Speaker 11 (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 3 (31:28):
Could score in ten minutes what would take us sixty
minutes to score?
Speaker 11 (31:32):
And I knew that too much time, too much time.
We can't hold them off. This lock.
Speaker 12 (31:36):
It was this a constant clockwatch, shift by shift, shift
by shift.
Speaker 17 (31:39):
Eight and a half.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Finich to play the hurt. It's not leaving fourth Gree.
Speaker 11 (31:43):
It went on forever, and the time just stood still.
Speaker 17 (31:46):
Five and a half Finich to play grade fifty three
remaining in the game, to twenty five, twenty four, two
twenty three remaining.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
It kept building and building, and the clock kept winding down,
and it just got louder and louder, and.
Speaker 8 (31:58):
Fifty five second put they came up as the pluck
twenty eight seconds, the rod going, it's sae marlab.
Speaker 17 (32:06):
The Lennon is there the pump is still loose. Eleven seconds.
You got ten seconds. The Papa going on right now,
borrow look this sup.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Believing, 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,
(32:39):
got patted on the back by weepy state troopers, and
went back into locker room five. Herb Brooks locked himself
inside 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 hums and whistles. In Lake Placid
(33:02):
and all over the United States, the victory triggered an
outpouring 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
(33:23):
score to a Soviet intelligence ship that was nearby. The
Soviets would 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,
(33:43):
nineteen eighty. It was the thirteenth anniversary of the film
debut of Walt Disney Cinderella. Maybe it figured. The nation
continued celebrating, but for the hockey team, it wasn't over yet.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
People least forget that the US had to win another
game on Sunday.
Speaker 6 (34:04):
It was still 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.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
And Herb understood this, and we were excited, we were anxious.
We couldn't wait to get out and play.
Speaker 4 (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 your grave.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Once again. The Americans would have to come from behind,
and we went out.
Speaker 12 (34:34):
There in the third period, and I think we just
steamrolled them from the time they opened that door and
let us out.
Speaker 11 (34:41):
They didn't have a chance.
Speaker 17 (34:42):
Got me.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Three unanswered goals in the third period gave the US
a four to two win and the gold medal. The
Olympics broke Herb Brook's heart in nineteen sixty and made
(35:06):
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.
(35:27):
As his casket descended 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
(35:47):
us that human beings have a shelf life, it also
reminds us that miracles do not, and this miracle didn't
happen on accident. I see Neil Broad skating on a
flooded rink in Roseau, Minnesota, that his father got up
at two am to make in twenty five degree below
(36:07):
zero weather. I see John Harrington's late father, Charles, skipping
overtime at work to watch his kid's 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
(36:28):
envision Margaret Craig running her goaltender son and all her
other kids all over southeastern Massachusetts, a devotion that was
absolutely unstinting until her cigarette habn't caught up to her
and cancer arrived. Behind every player, there are stories of
love and sacrifice and struggle. Life is hard, and Olympic
(36:52):
gold medals provide no exemption. You push on, do your best,
and if you are really brave, 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 the 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
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