Many are saying that the biggest miracle in the history of American sports is the return of A2Z Sports after a lengthy battle with our website hosting service over what people are saying is bullshit predatory pricing and horrendous customer service.
I cannot blame these people, as this is a great story of a two man blog overcoming the big bad corporate wolf against all odds, but on this day, we look back on a true moment of unbelievable American athletic excellence in the face of a seemingly insurmountable foe.
44 years ago today, a group of amateur college hockey players, largely formed from Massachusetts and Minnesota, defeated the vaunted hockey machine that was the Soviet Union. Freedom prevailed. Communism never recovered.
Putting aside the geopolitical context of the Cold War and the US being able to win an inspiring display of soft power against frigid enemy, the game itself is perhaps the biggest upset in sports history (David +12500 against Goliath is up there too, though Goliath bettors are still up in arms about David’s use of the slingshot).
It’s hard to explain how good the Soviets were in modern terms. I’ll give a screenshot to give you an idea, but even that won’t tell the whole story.
Do you see how ludicrous that is? They had been winning almost every international tournament they’d been in for decades. They had an .844 winning percentage in international play. In the 1979 Challenge Cup, the Soviets went to Madison Square Garden to take on a team of NHL All-Stars in a 3 game series, and they won 2-1. They were beating the best players from the best league in the world. The USA team was full of 21 year old college kids who weren’t even playing professionally and were probably used to spending their Saturday nights crushing beers at the local college bar. In an exhibition at MSG less than 2 weeks before they played in the Olympics, the Soviets pounded the US 10-3. It can’t be overstated the magnitude of this upset.
Every few years there’s a really horrible NFL team that’s bad enough to make people question if they’d lose to the best college team (e.g. in 2017: Could Alabama beat the 0-16 Cleveland Browns?). Of course, the answer to this kind of question should always be “no, the NFL team would blow out the college team.”
In 1980, the situation was reminiscent of this hypothetical, but was arguably even more daunting, because the Soviets would probably be considered much better than the worst NHL team. Also, if the details of the movie Miracle are to be taken at face value, coach Herb Brooks didn’t necessarily even select college hockey’s best players, and was primarily focused on how the pieces of the team would work with each other. “I’m not looking for the best players, Craig, I’m looking for the right ones.”
On this topic, if you somehow are a sports fan that hasn’t seen Miracle, do yourself a favor and watch it. The pregame speech alone is worth it. It’s one of the greatest sports movies ever and one of my favorite movies, period. I actually watched it again today for like, the hundredth time.
On February 22nd, 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, those college kids defeated the mighty Soviets 4-3. They were heavily outshot, but they were able to hang onto the one-goal lead given by a goal by captain Mike Eruzione with ten minutes left. As time ran out, Al Michaels gave one of the most iconic sports calls of all time.
“Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”
Chills. I remember it like it was yesterday (it happened like 20 years before I was born).
The US went on to take care of business in the gold medal game against Finland, capping off the story with the perfect ending.
The US hasn’t been able to capture Olympic gold in hockey since. Fortunately, the hockey talent in the US is at an all-time high now (Auston Matthews might deserve his own blog post. 51 goals in 54 games. Insane), and hopefully we get to witness a Team USA gold medal very soon, maybe even in 2026.
What better topic to get back on the blog with? It’s good to be back, my loyal A2Z readers.