Believe it or not, it was 30 years today that the United States Hockey Team defeated the Soviet Union in the Medal Round of the 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey Tournament in a game now known simply as the Miracle On Ice.
What is frequently forgotten is that this was just a Medal Round game and was not the gold medal game. The gold medal would be clinched by the United States 2 days later on February 24 by defeating Finland by a 4-2 score.
Update: Perusing YouTube, I just stumbled upon gold, pure gold. We all know Al Michaels' famous call on TV, however, the game was also broadcast on radio with Curt Chaplin standing on a platform and recording every word into a tape recorder. In 2005, these tapes were rediscovered and matched to the video, thus essentially giving you a second call of The Miracle On Ice. I know some people worship the Michaels call and would not ever want to hear anyone else call that game, but if you are interested, the video is below and Chaplin's call is just as emotional.
From Wikipedia: "The top two teams from each group play the top two teams from the other group once. Points from previous games against their own group carry over, excluding teams who failed to make the medal round. First place team wins gold, second silver and third bronze." So technically the US didn't play a gold medal game against Finland. The Soviets won silver, Sweden bronze, and Finland got squadoosh.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, that format doesn't make any sense to me either.
@ kt: I always knew that Miracle game was not a gold medal game (despite many others forgetting it) however I did not stumble upon that format until I read that.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and very messed up. It certainly would not go over too well today, imho.
JFein I didn't know about the format either, until I saw the Al Michaels story yesterday on NBC(which is a must view) and they showed the medal ceremony w/ the Soviets 2nd. That didn't make sense to me, so I went and looked it up.
ReplyDelete@ kt1000: Is there a place I can go to see that piece, by any chance?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe NBC's website hasn't posted it yet. My favorite part was the less well known open to the broadcast, when Al says to the camera, "Most of the people here tonight don't know a blue line from a clothes line." That really made me laugh.
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