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Miracle on Ice
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The Miracle on Ice was a famous hockey game between the U.S. and the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid N.Y. The Soviet athletes were professional athletes, many of whom had already competed in and won medals in previous Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, the American team was made up of minor league and college players. With tensions high because of shaky international relations, this was a game of great significance to the two countries.
Do you like sports? I’ve never been a big sports fan, but a friend I met in college wrote a long paper and did a presentation about how sports impact international relations. It was really cool! I still don't often watch sports, but I have a new respect for how important they can be. Today, we are going to talk about hockey. Specifically, we are going to talk about a hockey game between the United States and the Soviet Union, which is now Russia and other eastern European and Asian countries.This game took place in the 1980 winter Olympics Hockey tournament in Lake Placid NY, and is now considered the most famous hockey game ever played, partly because of how it connects to international relations. You’ve Probably heard of it before, it's called the Miracle on Ice.
ADKX Podcast Intro
Ready to earn some extra credit? You are listening to ADKX-tra Credit, a podcast for students about the history of the Adirondack Mountains and the people that have lived, worked, and played here. The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, is located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State.
Now if you’ve ever been to lake placid, you might have thought to yourself “why on earth were the olympics held here, TWO WHOLE TIMES?! Lake Placid is a pretty small town, far away from any major U.S. cities, in the northern part of the Adirondack park. Now don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful town! It's a great place to visit to see beautiful views, go hiking, shopping, canoeing or kayaking, or just relax outdoors. But it isn't very big, it has a population of just over 2,000 today, and not a much higher one in 1980. And it’s hard to get to. So what made it such a good spot for the olympics?
Turns out, it was less about the town, and more about the people and terrain. You see, in 1932 and in 1980 a local group campaigned to host the olympics, and had a lot of community support. Winter sports have been a big part of Lake Placid's history even before it hosted the olympics.
But equally important is the terrain, you see, many of the sports played at the winter olympics require hills and mountains, either natural, or human made. Down hill skiing, luge, bobsled, and more need a steeply angled surface in order to work, and Lake placid had just the thing. Lake placid is in the high peaks region of the adirondacks, the part with the tallest mountains, and at the highest elevation. That means it tends to be even colder and snowier than the rest of the adirondack park, and has the perfect natural steep slopes for the winter sports that need them!
The Lake Placid Olympic complex has even been selected as the backup location for the downhill sports in the 2026 Winter Olympics, if the location in Italy is not ready!
In 1980, when the Miracle on Ice game was played in Lake Placid NY, the United States and the Soviet Union were not very friendly towards each other. This was during the Cold War, a time of conflict and competition mostly between the US and the Soviet Union that was very scary and serious, but never actually involved active combat. International relations between the two countries were rocky at best, so a Hockey game that normally would be only as important as every other Olympic challenge, was much more significant because of the teams involved. It was almost as if instead of having a battle with soldiers, the two countries were having a battle of hockey.
The Soviet team was highly favored to win. They were expert Hockey players, and the team had won gold in 5 of the 6 previous winter olympics! The soviet team also had older, more experienced players, One of the soviet players had already played in two olympics! Meanwhile, the US team was made up of much younger, much less experienced players. In fact, one of the American players was only 19 years old!
The soviet team was not too worried about this game. One of the top hockey teams in the world up against college students and amateurs? It would be like taking candy from a baby.
The Coach of the American team, though, had other ideas.
Meet Herb Brooks, a former Olympic hockey player himself, and coach of the 1980 Team USA.
Brooks began coaching Hockey at the University of Minnesota, where he got his own degree. Brooks was able to lead the previously mediocre team to 3 NCAA championship titles by the time he was selected to coach the 1980 olympic team, and he was not ready to accept defeat from the soviets just yet.
Brooks valued a spirit of competition and a strong motivation to practice, prepare, and perfect the sport. He said:
“My recruiting key -- I looked for PEOPLE first, athletes second. I wanted people with a sound value system as you cannot buy values. You're only as good as your values. I learned early on that you do not put greatness into people...but somehow try to pull it out."
Brooks was an incredibly dedicated and passionate coach. He admitted to pushing his team almost to the breaking point, wanting them to always strive for the next level of playing.
He had a tough job ahead of him, he had to bring together players from many different walks of life, players who had competed against each other, players who many people believed didn’t stand a chance in the olympics.
Brooks employed a unique style of playing and a mixture of techniques. Rather than rigidly following one style, he took bits and pieces from the Canadian hockey techniques, and the European hockey techniques. Making a new style of playing that was all his own.
Brooks knew his players weren’t going to get along very well, but luckily, he had a plan. Brooks thought that the best way to make his players get along and work as a cohesive team was to be the bad guy. If all his players disliked him, they could bond over it. That was the plan he told assistant coach Craig Patrick. Brooks had the plan and the experience, and he needed Patrick to help him hold it all together.
It seems like a crazy plan. How can you coach a team if they all hate you?? But amazingly, Brooks’ plan seemed to work. His players didn’t always like him, they didn’t always agree with him, but they always respected him. And when they needed a break, or to blow off steam, Patrick was there to help make it happen
But what about the game itself? The famed “miracle” on ice? It was a tense, close match the whole time.
First period.
The Soviets scored first, as everyone expected, about ten minutes into the first period. No one was surprised by this, after all, they were one of the best, if not the absolute best, team in the world. And the Americans were probably just ok.
14 minutes in, and Buzz Schnieder scored for the Americans.
17 minutes in, the Soviets score a second point.
After 2 points for the Soviets, American goaltender, or goalie, Jim Craig, upped his game and blocked many shots from the Soviets before his team even had a chance to try for another goal.
Just barely in the nick of time before the end of the first period, the Americans scored a second point, tying the game.
Second period.
The Soviets swapped out their goalie for a different player. The new goalie, Vladimir Myshkin, blocked both shots the Americans took.
Meanwhile Craig, the American goalie, blocked 11 of the 12 shots the Soviets took, and the second period ended with the Soviets at 3 points, and the Americans at 2.
Third period.
The final stretch. This was when the Soviets would wipe the floor with the Americans, or by some miracle, the Americans would pull through and win the game.
8 and a half minutes into the third period, the Americans scored their 3rd goal. Tying the game once again.
A few minutes later, the Americans scored a 4th goal. This placed them in the lead, with exactly 10 minutes remaining.
The americans would later describe these final ten minutes as “the longest ten minutes of our lives”
Coach Brooks instructed his team to continue playing offense, instead of falling back into a defensive position. They continued to play a strong game, getting several more shots in, though none entered the goal.
Meanwhile, the Russians were panicking! How could this happen?? They were the best! How was this rag-tag group of American college and minor league players beating them at THEIR sport?! They fell apart, playing erratically. But then, by some miracle, they got the puck close to the American goal in the last minute of the game!
Was this it? The end? Would the Soviets score a 4th goal and tie the game?
33 seconds left in the game.
Craig blocks a shot by the soviets.
20 seconds left.
The puck nears the goal again.
11 seconds.
Sports announcer Al Michaels begins his famous countdown.
“11 seconds, you've got 10 seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!”
The Americans won! That's amazing! Can you imagine what it felt like to be watching that game? How proud and excited the American fans would have been, and how shocked and disappointed the Soviet fans were? Imagine being the best team in the world at your sport, and getting beaten by a bunch of amateurs! It would be like your 5 year old cousin beating you at tag! How is that even possible?? But possible it was.
However, even though the American team beat the Soviets, they hadn’t won the Olympics yet. You see, in 1980, olympic hockey was played Round Robin style. Because there were 12 teams, each team can't just play and see who wins, because there would be more than one winning team. Instead all 12 competing teams were split into two “divisions,” a red division and a blue division. Each team got to play 5 games, and got 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and zero points for a loss. then the two teams in each division with the most points got to move on to the medal round. That means 4 teams total had a chance to win medals.
In the medal round, the 4 teams got to keep the points they won when they played against each other in the earlier round and count those along with any new points they won. Kind of. I’ll explain how it worked in a minute. The 4 teams that got to the medal round in 1980 were the Soviet team, the American team, the Swedish team, and the Finnish team -as in from the country of Finland.
Team USA and the Swedish team were the top two teams in the blue division. Because they tied in the game they played against each other, they both got to bring one point to the medal round.
The Soviet team and Team Finland were the top two teams in the red division. Because the Soviets won the game they played against Finland in the first round the Soviets got to bring 2 points to the medal round, and Finland didn’t get to bring any.
Confused yet? Me too. Brace yourself, I’m not done explaining yet!
The first game in the medal rounds was between the US team and the Soviet team. That's right, the miracle on ice had begun. After team USA won, there were still three more games, and if the U.S. team didn’t win their second game, they would not win the gold medal.
The second medal round game was between Finland and Sweden, and ended in a tie. The third game though, saw Team USA back on the ice playing against Finland, and Team USA won their second game! This cemented their first place win and legendary status. There was still one more game between the Soviets and Sweden to determine which teams got the remaining silver and bronze medals. The soviets won and took home silver, while Sweden took home bronze. Ending what is probably the most famous Olympic hockey series ever played.
Were you confused by my explanation of how the 1980 Olympic Hockey tournament worked? Or maybe you're a bigger sports fan than I am and already knew all that. Either way, if you want to learn more about the miracle on ice, or the lake placid Olympics in general, go to the Lake Placid Olympic Museum, or visit our woods and waters exhibit, where you can get an even more in depth look into the olympics our little corner of NY state got to host.
"Success is won by those who believe in winning and then prepare for that moment. Many want to win, but how many prepare? That is the big difference. A sound value system held water then, holds water today, and will hold water in the future."
Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. Ask us a question, or tell us what you thought by clicking the link above the episode description. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future. If you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org