People and Pop Culture
Closing Shot: ‘Do you believe in miracles?!’
Forty years ago this week, the U.S. stunned the hockey world by knocking off the Soviet Union en route to winning gold at the 1980 Olympics. The performance provided one of the most iconic moments in Olympics history and was a feat matched only by the work that went on to develop the team off the ice.
Team USA upset the four-time reigning Olympic champions from the USSR in the semifinals before beating Finland for the gold.getty images
Herb Brooks had asked Craig Patrick about helping him coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team before, but by the time he asked again in May 1979, Brooks only had one day to make up his mind. Brooks needed Patrick in St. Paul, Minn., to begin on-ice and training camp preparations for the future months.
Patrick said yes, embarking on a journey that would give him a rinkside view of one of the most significant moments in American sports history. Nine months later, the upstart group of Americans pulled off the “Miracle on Ice,” upsetting the heavily favored Soviet Union team, 4-3, in the Olympics semifinals on Friday, Feb. 22, 1980.
As the 40th anniversary of that magical night approaches, the 73-year-old Patrick — who became a Hockey Hall of Famer largely for his work as an NHL GM — remembered Brooks saying that the group of ragtag college kids didn’t like each other. For years, they had competed against one another for the NCAA championship; tempers would be high as they selected the team.
But Brooks, who died in 2003, had a plan. “The only way I can think of making them a team is for me to really push hard, not be their friend and have them unite against me,” he told Patrick at the outset. “Your job is going to be to keep the peace together.”
And, said Patrick, “That’s how it played out.”
The seven-month stretch consisted of 65-plus exhibition games in the U.S. and abroad. But there was a benefit from all that preparation. “At the end of the day, they were the best conditioned sports team on the planet that year,” said Patrick.
My heart was in my mouth the whole way.
Despite that hard work, the chance of winning a gold medal seemed impossible after the U.S. was drubbed 10-3 by the Russians at Madison Square Garden four days before the Olympics kicked off in Lake Placid, N.Y. Patrick said that some of the Russian players from that semifinals match eventually told him how surprised they were that the U.S. players could skate with them.
The U.S. did more than that, tying the score early in the third period and then taking a shocking 4-3 lead on a goal by Mike Eruzione with 10 minutes remaining. From then on, Patrick remembers, “my heart was in my mouth the whole way.”
As the final seconds ticked down on ABC’s delayed broadcast, those watching heard Al Michaels shout, “Do you believe in miracles?! Yes!”
The victory brought more awareness to hockey in the United States, and would one day inspire the Disney movie “Miracle,” but with the team nestled in the Olympic Village, and with no access to newspapers and televisions, the players and coaches were shut off from the outside world. They had no idea what their victory meant for the country until they later visited President Jimmy Carter at the White House.
“Naturally, there was the immediate high on the ice, and it carried into the locker room for a moment,” Patrick said. “It sunk in right away, though. ‘We have the gold medal game to play.’ Everybody got real again. It wasn’t over.”
The team won the gold two days later with a 4-2 victory against Finland.
