28 years ago, did you believe?

Hpslugga

Hpslugga

2,500+ Posts
Miracle_on_Ice_2.jpg
 
28 years ago i did not believe that the run and shoot was going to land in the park cities. i thought they were just going to continue buying players and using a strong run game and defense.
 
28 years later, and I still don't care about hockey.

But yeah, that was a great moment for our country, considering the context.
 
Years ago, my father gave a minor league hockey player who was passing through town a couple of used tires. All the guy had was an old hockey stick to trade. From then on, dad became the biggest and probably only hockey fan in Southeast Texas. So, yeah, we believed. There was no alternative in our house.
 
i believe the american media made it sound like a bigger win then it was. dont get me wrong, it was huge. but the soviets were old (still good, but old). canada's win in '72 i think was harder to do
 
From what I've read about it, it would be kind of like the Texas Longhorns going out and beating the Houston Texans.
 
I was 8 years old. I sure as hell remember watching that.

HBO did a documentary about the Miracle on Ice. It was fantastic.

This was basically like Baylor beating the New England Patriots. That Russian team was loaded with international stars, and the US team had a bunch of college kids divided into two camps = the Boston area kids and the Minnesota based kids. There was some bad blood between teammates that had to be dealt with. Herb Brooks handled it perfectly. He made sure the players focused their hatred towards the same thing - him. Brooks was a prick. But it worked. They came together and pulled one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports. I still get goosebumps watching it.
 
Anyone with a decent knowledge of sports history knows that win was an epic accomplishment in the annuals of sports.

I was a teenager at the time. I've never been a hockey fan, but that game and that win was one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever seen.

Nobody thought the Americans had a chance. As the game wound down and a victory was in sight, you could feel the electricity of the crowd through the TV.

In terms of excitement, I'll compare it to the moment Vince crossed the goal line and won the NC. As a UT fan that was a great feeling. Imagine most of the United States feeling that way and you'll get an idea how exciting it was.
 
gotta remember that this was at the height of Cold War tensions. the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan. Carter was threatening boycott (which they did in the summer). bad blood between the countries, so this was more than just a "game." this was democracy v. communism.

the good guys won.
 
Greatest game ever.

I had never watched hockey before that Olympics, but I got into it when the team started pulling upsets. The Soviet game was tape-delayed on TV, and I had already heard the score before the telecast came on, and I remember Jim McKay being so openly excited when the telecast did come on that it was clear to everyone that the US had won, but it was still thrilling to watch.

The championship game was Sunday morning. My dad made me go to church and I probably got more pissed at him than I ever did in my life. When we got home, Finland was leading 2-1 going into the third, and I just about came unglued, but they rallied again.

"Miracle" is a pretty great movie, partly because Disney couldn't have possibly Disneyed up that story more than it actually was.

This is also an awesome book. When you read about the backgrounds of the players, you can almost understand how they pulled it off.

BTW, if they had lost the Finland game, they could have gone home without a medal. Brooks' pre-game speech in its entirety was, "Boys, if you lose this game, you will take it to your ******* grave."
 
I was born in upstate NY...and I remember that day very well. The game was tape delayed and we all tried to not listen to the radio or watch tv...but people were driving through my town honking their horn and screaming about the game. It didn't matter, I stayed up and watched it...one of the greatest sporting events I have even seen.

The HBO documentary was outstanding.
 
the hockey team wasn't supposed to do **** in 1980. they were expected to be out before the medal round. then they rolled their way into the semis and beat the big, bad ussr team that could not lose. then they came back in the 3rd to win the gold medal game. if you are looking for several wins put together, its there. if you're looking for the single greatest upset in sports history, you could argue that its there as well.

love that pic. also like the one of them on the podium. shows the team camaraderie.
 
If you can't comprehend the difference between a series of pros vs pros and a game of pros vs ams, there's no point in having this discussion.

The Soviets that participated in both events would unanimously disagree with you (be they player, coach, or member of the Soviet press).

And by the way, Canada was actually FAVORED to win that series. If you want to argue that it was a greater test of endurance, I'll agree with that. But greatest upset? It wasn't even an upset. You said it was, and I quote "harder to do." How can it be harder to do when one of the winning sides is a favorite and the other is one of the biggest underdogs in the history of sports?
 
i never said it was a bigger upset. i said its harder to do becuase you have to beat the soviets 4-5 times ( for some reason they had an 8 games series) compared to beating them once.

if app. state played michigan 8 times do you really think they would have won 3 more times?
 
The summit series wouldn't be like App State beating Michigan 4 times. It'd be like Ohio State beating them 4 times. And knowing that, no one would be ridiculous enough to suggest that Ohio State beating Michigan 4-3-1 in a series would be "harder to do" than Appalachian State beating them one time. It's not like the Canadians were running some sort of gauntlet. One team had to win, one team had to lose. When you get those kinds of series' going, the better team usually won. Canada was the better team going into the series and they won.

You can't speak as if the American and Canadian national teams were the same caliber. One had pros, the other had college kids. And again, Canada was favored to win the series. You cannot just gloss over those facts as if they don't matter.
 
That's precisely my point and it's why your comparison fails. You use "it was a series" as if both of the winning teams were equal. They weren't. I'll say it again: it is much harder for an Appalachian State to beat a Michigan just one time than it is for an Ohio State to beat that same Michigan team 4 times over a wide span. Hell, Ohio State has beaten them 4 times in a row. There's not one player, coach or observer for/of that Michigan team who is more impressed with that than they were with App. State beating them one time. If you asked any competent football observer before the 2004 season began, "What's more likely: that Ohio State will beat Michigan the next 4 times they play or that Appalachian State will beat Michigan once?" They'd pick Ohio State and the 4 in a row in a heartbeat and you know it. The phrase "it's a series" by itself is not enough. It completely ignores context. And again, I have to point this out because you won't address it: the Soviet players, coaches, and media agree with what I've said.
 
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