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Miracle on Ice. Do You Remember?

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On this day in sports history....

In 1980 -- U.S. upsets the Soviets in the "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid

For millions of people, their single, lasting image of the Lake Placid Games will be the infectious joy displayed by the U.S. hockey team following its 4-3 win over the Soviet Union last Friday night. It was an Olympian moment, the kind the creators of the Games must have had in mind, one that said: Here is something that is bigger than any of you. It was bizarre, it was beautiful. Upflung sticks slowly cartwheeled into the rafters. The American players?in pairs rather than in one great glop?hugged and danced and rolled on one another (see cover).

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1123214/index.htm?eref=sisf

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I was only 39 years old then and my friend and i were playing racketball at the Boardman Athletic Club that night. Word spread like wildfire that the USA team just scored the go ahead goal on the Russians. Everybody stopped playing racketball and rushed out into the lobby where they had a TV in one of the offices. There was about 8 or 10 of us there and hearts were beating so fast and the last two minutes of that game was an eternity. You would have thought we had just won the war of some kind that night. Cars driving up and down market street beeping thier horns and people screaming and yelling. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life. And to this day i still get goose bumps when i watch "Miracle" a fine and great movie of that moment in time. Great stuff here.
 
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Eruzione's 'Miracle' memorabilia sold for $1.3M

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The jersey worn by hockey great Mike Eruzione in the U.S. Miracle on Ice victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics was auctioned for almost $660,000 Saturday, though surprising strong interest in the stick he used to score the winning goal and his gold medal game jersey pushed the overall sale to more than $1.3 million.
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Eruzione, 58, sold the Olympic items to benefit his three adult children and a grandson, along with the Winthrop Foundation, which finances charities in his hometown of Winthrop, Mass., just outside Boston.
Though he received no lucrative endorsements after the hockey victory, Eruzione said in a recent interview that he was not hurting financially.
"I thought this would be a great little nest egg for them for their future with their kids,'' he said.
He added that the memorabilia had remained in his USA hockey bag in the attic of his home since the historic Olympic victories.
Still, he kept one treasure.
"As long as I'm alive, the gold medal won't be sold,'' said Eruzione, now director of special outreach at Boston University and a partner in a nutritional supplement business that includes several other ex-Olympians, including gymnasts Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner.

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20130223/eruzione-auction.ap/#ixzz2Lo5IVRBm
 
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ScriptOhio said:
The game against the Soviet Union didn't clinch a gold medal, beating Finland (4-2) two days later did.
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I just found out yesterday that the win over the Soviet Union didn't even clinch ANY medal, for the US hockey team. (I'd always thought that the game vs. the Soviets would clinch at least silver, with the game with Finland being for gold.)

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_on_ice
The United States did not immediately win the gold medal upon defeating the USSR. In 1980 the medal round was a round-robin, not a single elimination format as it is today. Under Olympic rules at the time, the group game with Sweden was counted along with the medal round games versus the Soviet Union and Finland so it was mathematically possible for the United States to finish anywhere from first to fourth.
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The US tied Sweden, and beat the Soviets. The Soviets beat Finland, and lost to the US. Finland lost to the Soviets, and tied Sweden, and Sweden tied both the US and Finland. That means the US had 3 points in the medal round, the Soviets had 2, Finland had 1, and Sweden had 2. If the USSR tied Sweden AND the US lost to Finland, they all would have had 3 points in the medal round. I don't know what tie-breakers they use in that case. The Soviet Union ended up beating Sweden, so the United States would have won at least bronze (they would have tied Finland, if Finland won - again, I don't know the tie-breakers, so I don't know who would have gotten silver and who would have gotten bronze). But that game was after the US vs. Finland, so the US team couldn't count on the outcome of that game, regardless of what it was. Besides, a loss to Finland meant that they COULDN'T win gold.

I've read it in a couple of different places, but the following quote (same wikipedia link as above) from Herb Brooks sums it up:
"If you lose this game, you'll take it to your fucking graves." He then paused, took a few steps, turned again, said, "Your fucking graves", and walked out.
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First Mike Eruzione now Jim Craig is selling his stuff....

'Miracle on Ice' goaltender is selling gold medal

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The American flag that goalie Jim Craig wrapped around his shoulders after the U.S. Miracle on Ice victory at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics is on the auction block.

The flag is one of 19 items in ''The Jim Craig `Miracle on Ice' Collection,'' which also includes Craig's Olympic gold medal, the jersey he wore against the vaunted Soviet Union and in the gold-medal win against Finland. Also included are the only mask Craig wore during the Winter Games, his skates and goalie equipment, and the goalie sticks from the games against the Soviets and Finland.

Asking price for the collection is $5.7 million. The items are on display through Sunday at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago.

Entire article: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2016/05/18/miracle-on-ice-goaltender-is-selling-gold-medal.html
 
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Honor&Glory said:
breaks my heart seeing these guys selling this stuff for whatever reason.
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Doesn't break mine. Most of these guys had no, or in Craig's case, very brief NHL careers. I'm quite a bit younger than him, but I'm already getting to the point where I can see a pile of [historic] stuff over here, and a trust fund so all my kids and grandkids (or whatever) can go to college, and probably quite a number of other things too.

5.7 million is a lot of money. And well, honestly, you're probably in the peak of the market. In another generation, the people who have the $ to spend on something like that won't remember the game. (Unlike, say a Jesse Owens gold medal, they all have one so... there's some saturation) So, really what's the point of passing it on to someone if the value might decrease, and then again on to someone who won't understand as much the big deal.

Further, you probably would like to actually see the benefit of that in your lifetime.

Its really awesome stuff, but, its just stuff.
 
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AKAK said:
Doesn't break mine. Most of these guys had no, or in Craig's case, very brief NHL careers. I'm quite a bit younger than him, but I'm already getting to the point where I can see a pile of [historic] stuff over here, and a trust fund so all my kids and grandkids (or whatever) can go to college, and probably quite a number of other things too.

5.7 million is a lot of money. And well, honestly, you're probably in the peak of the market. In another generation, the people who have the $ to spend on something like that won't remember the game. (Unlike, say a Jesse Owens gold medal, they all have one so... there's some saturation) So, really what's the point of passing it on to someone if the value might decrease, and then again on to someone who won't understand as much the big deal.

Further, you probably would like to actually see the benefit of that in your lifetime.

Its really awesome stuff, but, its just stuff.
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Kind of like a quote I saw from Shirley Temple once. She was asked something about her childhood movies. "I was there."

These guys were there. The stuff may be nice, but they were actually there. The memory of that is the real souvenir.
 
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