Life can be one obstacle after another, with adventures thrown in. As we approach the 35th anniversary next month of the Miracle on Ice, I continue to marvel over the many challenges that team faced during their journey into history 35 winters ago. The United States Olympic Committee gave hardly any support to the team. They were an after thought, not expected to compete for a bronze medal, let alone challenge the dynasty Soviet team. The USOC checked in on them every two weeks, if that, and restricted their expenditures.
One of the reasons coach Herb Brooks scheduled a grueling 61 game exhibition slate from July of 1979 up until the February 1980 Winter Games was to pay for things through gate receipts. While he came up with most of their schedule, the USOC did make them play a game in Warroad, Minnesota when a blizzard was going on.
After the game, the team plane couldn’t take off because there was too much weight on the plane and the runway was too short. The plane flew without the equipment to Thief River Falls, where the airport had a longer runway. The trainer, Gary Smith, had to drive the equipment to Thief River in a blizzard, and then load up the plane. As the plane was taking off it clipped a pole and the pilot had to land at the end of the runway. But the plane couldn’t go in reverse, so all the players got off the plane and had to push it back to the start of the runway.
Can you imagine getting off a plane, and pushing the thing backwards all the way back down the runway?
One of the reasons audiences find their story so fascinating is that things happened to them that seem surreal. Herb took the team to Europe to play exhibition games in September of 1979. There was one night near the Arctic Circle on a rickety old bus. They were way up by the northern border of Russia and Finland. Team team looked out the window and saw these huge Russian machine gun towers pointed directly at them. Barbed wire was strung all across these beautiful trees.
While over there they played a lower rung Soviet B squad in an exhibition game. The Soviets had a shady-looking KGB man on their bench. He was there to make sure the players wouldn’t defect. The Russians thought so little of our American team that they let the KGB guy play in the game. The KGB guy got hit into the boards, his jersey rode up, and there was a pistol in his pads.
Have you ever played a recreational sport where your opponent was packing heat?!
Their ability to show a sense of humor the whole way was huge. If you can laugh not just at life but with life, then you are on the mark. There was a time they were flying commercial. As a team bonding thing, they all had cowboy hats. First class was rather empty, so they put their hats up their for the flight. The flight attendant threw a fit and threatened them with a $4000 fine. The players then took the hats and went seat to seat asking for donations.
They wrapped up their 61 game exhibition game schedule by playing the mighty Soviets in Madison Square Garden in New York City. In the ‘make sure your remember everything’ category, game organizers did everything right, but they forgot to schedule the game officials! Thirty minutes before the start they were frantically running around the stands looking for qualified people to ref the game. They ended with with a couple of men who officiated pee wee hockey back home! These guys ended up on the ice staring at Boris Mikhailov, Valeri Kharmalouv, and Vladislav Tretiak, who were the absolute gods of hockey in the world.
I also continue to marvel at the genius of coach Herb Brooks, he of the degree in psychology and minor in economics with ten years of sales experience before getting into coaching. Team USA lost that exhibition game to the Soviet 10-3, but Herb held his team back. He took out goalie Jim Craig early. “Why show them our hand now?” he would later say. The Soviet coach, Viktor Tikhonov would tell the New York Times that he suspected the U.S. held back and that he later told his players to be aware of them later.
“No problem,” they told him. “It turned out to be a very beeeeeg problem later,” Tikhonov would later say.
By scheduling the Soviets just before the Olympics, Herb was also able to take away the awe factor of his team. The U.S. players had watched the Soviets while growing up as elementary, middle and high school students. They stared at them during introductions in Madison Square Garden. Had Herb not schedule that game, the players would have had to deal with the awe factor in the game two weeks later in Lake Placid.
Herb’s mental mastery the whole time was nothing short of amazing. Even little things like when he announced the first cut from 60 something players to 26. Neal Broten was one of the most physically gifted players there, if not the most. Herb had his named called near the end. His subtle result there was that players hearing their names before him felt in a way that meant they were better than him.
I believe Herb Brooks would have been one of the most effective Presidents ever, even though he would never consider political office in his life. Both Republican and Democratic parties would pursue him. He was the leader America was looking for after the dreadful 70’s and the Iranian hostage situation and Soviet tanks in Afghanistan.
In the second game of the 1980 Winter Games, his Team USA blasted the Czech’s 7-3. It was stunning because the Czech’s were the 2nd seed, behind only the Soviets.
The Czech’s got mad and late in the game one of their players delivered a hard cheat shot to Mark Johnson, one of Herb’s best players.
With millions watching on ABC, the network took a shot of Herb. Realize, at this point America didn’t know him. This was just the 2nd game and the U.S. had tuned in after hearing of their tie with Sweden in the first game and how ABC had played up their potential. Ninety eight percent of the nation didn’t know Herb Brooks from Adam at that point.
He proceeded to ‘turn the air blue’ with a verbal barrage on the Czech player and telling him where he would like to take his hockey stick and exactly where he would like to put it. For some reason, the ABC director stayed on this for almost a minute. Announcer Al Michaels tried to talk over it, as the language was very salty. While many viewers would write ABC upset about it, thousands and thousands sat up with the reaction of, “That guy wouldn’t put up with hostages in Iran! That guy wouldn’t let the Soviets roll into Afghanistan!”
To his players, his reaction also showed he had their backs. Even though he had trained them to the limit, he loved them, and the fury he showed over Johnson showed volumes.
In being around the world for over half a century, I have never come across a story like their story. It was a fairy tale that actually happened. And as I always say at the end of my presentation, after hearing their story you will feel there is nothing you or your organization cannot accomplish and nothing you cannot overcome.
Peak Performance speaker Charlie Adams is a 1980 grad of Lafayette High who is an Ole Miss alum. His new motivational keynote More Than a Miracle is a powerful description of the greatest moment in United Sports history. He shares how a group of college kids upset the best team in hockey history in Lake Placid in the winter of 1980, and galvanized America along the way.
“I literally had to choke back tears about 5 times during this Talk. Now I now feel as if I can do anything! ANYTHING!!” – Christopher Pataro, lawyer
“As powerful a motivational talk as I have heard in 40 years.” – Bob Bayliss, former tennis coach at Notre Dame and Navy
Charlie can be reached at charlie@stokethefirewithin.com
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