![]() ![]() In other words, most people think it was one game against the Russians. It’s amazing to hear how we were able to uplift people in a time when our country needed hope. They’ll say, “That was the greatest moment it meant way more than just a hockey game-I was with my father.” They tell me how they can remember where they were and why it was meaningful to them and sometimes, I hear how it changed their lives. People don’t normally ask me a question they tell me where they were and who they were with when they saw us win. Team USA Goaltender Jim Craig shut down the powerful Soviet onslaught to end the game and send the American hockey team directly to the history books. And to do it in our own country in such a great little place like Lake Placid is pretty amazing. I don’t think I would change anything it was an amazing experience, athletically, and was the proudest moment of my life to win a gold medal. Is there a moment you would change from the 1980 Winter Olympic Games? It’s an amazing place people treated us like kings, and when I go back now, I still find it to be special and always welcoming with open arms. What are your memories of Lake Placid? Did the citizens treat you guys well? If Hollywood were to remake the movie Miracle, which Hollywood A-list actor would play you? Mostly Jack O’Callahan, but the entire team does try to get together a couple of times a year. Who, if any, of your teammates do you still keep in touch with? ![]() No, not really, because even 40 years later, we realize how special that moment was for so many people and with the movie, Miracle, there’s a new generation that realizes and understands what that moment was and what it still means. Is it strange to perpetually be asked about an event that literally occurred four decades ago? So the Soviet game was a big game, but Finland was even bigger. What’s the most surprising thing about the “Miracle On Ice” game that most people don’t know?Ī lot of people didn’t know that if we lost on Sunday to Finland, we could’ve come in fourth place and not even won a medal. Usually, it’s “What was it like to win a gold medal?” Mike Eruzione Team USA Captain Mike Eruzione was part of the 1980 Olympic team that not only defied the odds and triumphed over the Soviets, but also did nothing less than inspire an entire nation.(Nezih Payzin) ![]() So, yeah, I must still believe in miracles. I still tremble thinking about that glorious moment in American history. Given our country’s current climate, I wonder if, as Americans, there’ll ever be another time when we all come together to celebrate the actions of a band of fearless young men on skates, who not only defied the impossible odds and triumphed, but also did nothing less than inspire an entire nation. But as their answers that follow illustrate, they’ll never tire of reliving the greatest sport moment of their lives. Not at all surprisingly, these days, both Eruzione and Craig are red-hot commodities as public and motivational speakers throughout the country. So, here we are, four decades later-almost to the very day of that singular athletic, patriotic achievement-when I’ve been given the chance to revisit this gargantuan, epic memory with two of its leading participants, US Team Captain Mike Eruzione, who improbably scored the winning goal, and Goaltender Jim Craig, who shut down the powerful Soviet onslaught to end the game and send the American hockey team directly to the history books. It was, truly, unbelievable, and I knew this was a moment for the ages and filed it away forever. I remember, mere seconds after the victory, how my entire family simultaneously burst into joyful, delirious tears, shouting and jumping up and down and how my own skin trembled to the touch. But, right up there with those unforgettable events in my life, was the US men’s hockey team’s seemingly impossible David-and-Goliath victory over the mighty USSR’s hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid. There are certain moments in everyone’s life that are, literally, exactly like snapshots, frozen in time in our memories: When I received the call that I got the job that changed the trajectory of my career when I saw the airplane fly into the second tower in lower Manhattan that devastating, fateful September morning when my sister gave birth to her first born, my nephew and godson when the person I loved told me I was loved, too. ![]()
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