Who remembers the Miracle On Ice in 1980? The USA Olympic hockey team beat the highly favored USSR and went on to capture the Olympic Gold Medal in Ice Hockey. Those who weren't around then might say... well that's no big deal. Well it actually was a big deal. The Soviets entire team was considered "amateurs"... since they technically had no professional sports. Even though their full time occupation in the Soviet Army was to train to play hockey.
In the USA they had the professional NHL. Most really good players were playing professionally back then and could not compete in the Olympics. It was not like today when athletes making $12 million per year compete in the Olympic games. The Russians had 25-30 year old players who had been serving in "The Soviet Army" and did nothing but play hockey... like professional athletes of today. It was sort of like a AAA minor league baseball team taking on the New York Yankees.
So when Team USA beat them the USSR 4-3 in the medal round and then topped Finland 4-2 to win the Gold it really was a BIG DEAL. . Herb Brooks was the coach. Walt Disney Pictures made a movie in 2004 named "Miracle" starring Kurt Russell as Brooks. Pictured atop this blogspot is Team USA goalie Jim Craig.
No comments:
Post a Comment