The First Cold War Victory of the 1980's

Are you familiar with the names Schneider, Eruzione, Craig, Broten, Pavelich, Christian, Johnson and Brooks? They and their fellow teammates were The Boys, and Herb Brooks was The Coach.

I was a high school senior when The Game was played, and it seems like just yesterday. I was unfamiliar with the east coast players but my father had season ice hockey tickets at Michigan Technological University, so I saw up front and personal many of the western players, Neil and Aaron Broten, Davy Christian, Mark Pavelich, and many others.

Looking back from my current perspective, I consider The Game to be the most significant sports victory which ever took place in this country. The Russian Red Army team was a professional team in every sense of the word except open monetary compensation for their efforts. It was the greatest hockey team on the face of the earth in 1980, playing together constantly with a great coach, great players, and the budget of a propaganda hungry dictatorship to back it up. They beat their opponents the vast majority of the time and were considered a sure thing to take the Gold in Lake Placid.

The Boys were a group of very good college players who had for the most part never played together as a team prior to the 80 Olympics, were very young, and had but a few months to prepare for the Olympics. But they had drive, pride, and a Coach who was able to instill over-achievement in his troops. The best thing they had going for them was the fact that they were Americans who were expected to bow out of the medal round quickly. Americans who are underestimated in this way frequently make monkeys out of those who underestimate them in the first place. Just ask George W. Bush.

I have been involved in youth hockey over the years, and I always tell the kids I'm coaching about the Greatest Hockey Game Ever Played. That's how I remember it. I watched it sitting on the floor of my parent's house, with about a half dozen relatives present, and when the final horn sounded you would have guessed that upwards of a hundred people were present, from the yelling and everyone jumping up and down. We had our national pride back. The fact that a bunch of college boys (and that's exactly what they were) defeated the Russian Red Army team on that day was indeed a miracle, akin to a high school team defeating an NHL championship team. Winning The Game guaranteed The Boys the Silver Medal, but the victory over the Russians made the Gold Medal game a bit of a walk.

But. Since that day the legacy which those boys left on this country seems to have begun to wane a bit. Many US citizens today have never heard of The Game, a tragedy.

The Game occurred around the time that the Carter administration had this country on the ropes. Ronald Reagan ultimately brought a sense of honor and national pride back to this country during his tenure, completing the Western Cold War victory, but The Boys should be remembered for starting that process during the last dying days of the Carter malaise. They and their victory were a reincarnation of the Boston Tea Party, an opening salvo which ushered in the Reagan years. Ronald Reagan would have most likely achieved his Cold War goals without The Game, but it may have been more difficult. The victory by The Boys served notice to the Soviet Union that a supposedly infallible Soviet entity was capable of being beaten after all. The victory was the start of the collapse of the Soviet Empire.

This was much more than a victory on the field of play; it was a military victory in every sense of the phrase. We all owe The Boys and The Coach a great deal. They should not be allowed to slowly retreat into the depths of our national conscience as mere sports heroes, and so they won't. Their victory was the first step to toppling the mighty USSR machine.

And now it's 2003. The Game took place 23 years ago. Have you forgotten? The Boys and The Coach are recently back in the news. The Boys the Olympic Gold Medal Ice Hockey Champions of 1980, Defeaters of the Evil Empire, are to be enshrined in the US Hockey Hall of Fame on October 18 in Eveleth, Minnesota. The honor will sadly be missing something, as The Coach will be present in spirit only. The Coach, Herb Brooks, died in recent weeks of injuries sustained in a car accident, but much like Obi-Wan Kenobi, he will be looking down on the team's final triumph in Eveleth.

It was an unbelievable, impossible,incredible,thrilling,unforgettable win.I know exactly where I was.It made my spirits soar.I can't imagine another like it ever reoccurring.Thank you to the team and their great coach.

I remember watching that game as a freshman at Taylor University in the TV room at the dorm. There were 3 of us watching and none of us knew who won and could not believe the US was playing so well. Just then another person walked into the room and said "man, i cant believe we beat those guys". We were in shock. What a game.

Then for the gold medal game which was a sunday morning start the tv room was full to capacity and everyone went crazy over a US victory.

It was the one weekend that EVERYONE was a hockey fan!

Anyone alive and sentient in 1980 remembers the mood of the country at the time -- moribund, to put it nicely.

From that night on, America seemed renewed.

Many non-sports types condescendingly poo-poo the importance of "men playing kids' games". Sometimes, however, sport elevates itself over mere entertainment and can comfort a wounded nation, as the 2001 World Series did, or energize a weary one, as the boys of Lake Placid did.

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