Miraculous memory rediscovered in Hollywood

February 27, 2004
by Mike Moore
Staff Reporter

“Miraculous.” One word sums up the night in American sports history that will never be forgotten. The night that sent an entire nation into a frenzy. The victory that was more than a win for a hockey team—it was a defining moment for a country in search of triumph.

The 1980 United States men’s hockey team is one that will never be forgotten. Not because it won a gold medal, but because it beat an unbeatable power and unified a nation through the “Miracle on Ice.” As students, most of us were either too young to remember or simply not around in 1980. Now Hollywood has given us a chance to relive, remember, or experience for the first time how magical that team was. Ironically though, in the making of Miracle, very little “Hollywood” was needed.

The New York Times movie critic Elvis Mitchell explained how even the most creative writers would have difficulty topping the story’s fairy tale events: “This movie version of the team’s Cinderella season faces a hurdle that most fact-based films don’t have to contemplate: the actual story the picture is based on was so corny and rousing that it hit all of the notes many filmmakers would have too much shame to embrace.”

If you already know the story, you must admit it seemed too good to be true.

The Soviet Union had captured every Olympic hockey gold medal since 1964, and 1980 was to be no different. It was the unstoppable force, the Superman of hockey—only kryptonite was no match.

It was the Hope College of Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association women’s basketball. Dominant and with tradition, but ready for defeat.

The notion that any team could ever defeat the “Red Machine” was not only improbable, it was impossible.

On the other hand, there was the United States, a group of college students and amateurs brought together from across the country and molded into a team by coach Herb Brooks.

Want to make the story even more unbelievable? The Soviets defeated the United States 10-3 in an exhibition game just one week before the Olympics began.

After tying Sweden in the opening game, the United States won 7-3 over Czechoslovakia, 5-1 over Norway, 7-2 over Romania and 4-2 over West Germany.

The stage was oh-so-perfectly set. On Feb. 22, 1980, the United States faced off against the Soviet Union in one of the tournament’s semifinals, broadcast tape delayed on ABC. David vs. Goliath was unfair. The United States matching up against the Soviets was laughable.

However, once the game began, the fairy tale was in full swing. With one second left in the first period, an American goal tied the game, and after getting out-shot 12-2 in the second, the United States trailed by just one goal, 3-2, heading into the final period.

Enter the final 20 minutes. Not only did the United States tie the game at 3-3, but minutes later a Mike Eruzione goal put the Americans ahead for good.

ABC broadcaster Al Michaels never forgot those last incredible seconds, once saying, “The arena was so loud, the emotion so great. I remember thinking, ‘Stay with it. Don’t get swept up.’ I remember thinking one word in my mind : ‘miraculous.’” So what could Disney use for the finale? How could this dramatic clash end?

The actual broadcast from Michaels himself: “Eleven seconds, you’ve got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now…five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

The United States hockey team had come out of nowhere, beaten the unbeatable, achieved the impossible, and captured the heart of a nation.

As ESPN writer Ray Ratto said, “We [the American people] made it a miracle because we wanted one so badly...The U.S. hockey team happened to be available for just such an occasion.”

Although Pope John Paul II has declared on 12 separate occasions the game was in fact not a miracle, it certainly was “miraculous.”