Speaker 1: It's night time with Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm Deeli Easy Boston's Radio.
Speaker 3: Gabby Gas Gay Thomas.
Speaker 4: Is an.
Speaker 2: How you Like Them Apples? Gabby Thomas, Massachusetts own Gabby
Speaker 2: Thomas getting another medal for the Bay State, a gold
Speaker 2: one in a track and field at the Olympics in Paris,
Speaker 2: dominating the women's two ordered me to race, finishing first
Speaker 2: with a time of twenty one point eight three seconds.
Speaker 2: She runs awful fast, as the world found out today.
Speaker 2: Northampton raised and a Harvard student, Gabby Thomas. So, congratulations
Speaker 2: Massachusetts showing up on the world stage once again, and
Speaker 2: it is Olympics time. Maybe you're watching, maybe you're not.
Speaker 2: Maybe you're just getting periodic updates either from the news
Speaker 2: or online, or maybe you don't care at all. I
Speaker 2: don't know what's up to you. You didn't do it.
Speaker 2: We want, but it is Olympics toime, and don't forget,
Speaker 2: by the way, the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics. Once
Speaker 2: upon a time, a long long time ago. People wanted
Speaker 2: to have them in Boston and they didn't, so Paris
Speaker 2: has them, and good for Paris. They wanted them and
Speaker 2: they got them. And there you go. Speaking of Olympians
Speaker 2: from Massachusetts. We have a very special guest tonight and
Speaker 2: really special well for me to a degree, and I'll
Speaker 2: explain why in a second after I tell you who's
Speaker 2: joining us. An Olympic gold medalist himself did it with
Speaker 2: a big team effort in nineteen eighty at the Winter Olympics,
Speaker 2: Winthrop's own Mike Ruzione, the captain of that team. And welcome, Captain.
Speaker 2: Good to have you with us.
Speaker 1: Good evening, Yeah, welcome, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Don I'm going to tell you one thing here, and
Speaker 2: I did talk to you off the year about something,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna tell this story to everybody because well, look,
Speaker 2: you and the Olympic team of nineteen eighty hold a
Speaker 2: very dear place in my heart. And now you'll all
Speaker 2: be able to tell how old I am. But I
Speaker 2: was thirteen years old in nineteen eighty and it was
Speaker 2: February vacation when you guys took on the Russians and
Speaker 2: then eventually went on and won the gold medal, And
Speaker 2: everybody knows the backstory, so I don't really have to
Speaker 2: tell it again. But because of my age and because
Speaker 2: of the fact that you beat the Russians and come on,
Speaker 2: we were in the middle of the Cold War and
Speaker 2: everybody hated the Russians. Then. I know we've grown and
Speaker 2: matured since then, but boy, I mean, right in the
Speaker 2: back of my heart there's Michael Ruzioni and the US
Speaker 2: Olympic Hockey team and no one will ever dislodge it
Speaker 2: from there. So thank you for that and a great
Speaker 2: memory from my childhood.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: It was a special time, obviously for my teammates and
Speaker 1: I and a little did we know the world was
Speaker 1: watching the way they were. It surprised us the reaction
Speaker 1: from our country, and you know, I said, somewhere we
Speaker 1: could use in nineteen eighty right now, But it was
Speaker 1: a special time and something that you know, we still
Speaker 1: cherish and a great pride in being a part of.
Speaker 2: Well back then, of course, you know, beating the Russians.
Speaker 2: You didn't need anything more than beating the Russians to
Speaker 2: bring in the United States together, that's for darn sure.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, But I always tell people, if we don't
Speaker 1: beat Finland, you and I are having this conversation.
Speaker 2: That that's correct, and a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 2: forget that, and they remember the Russian game, and of
Speaker 2: course you know, people always talk about in sports, in
Speaker 2: professional sports, this is our World Series, this is our
Speaker 2: super Bowl. Even if we don't make it at the
Speaker 2: super Bowl, if we beat these people, I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: I know we're not having this conversation certainly not the
Speaker 2: same conversation. But you beat the Russians. I mean, you
Speaker 2: know that, right, right? That was big. That was a
Speaker 2: big deal, regardless of what happened after that. By the way,
Speaker 2: I'm glad everything that happened after that happened after that too.
Speaker 2: So I digress. But are you paying attention to these
Speaker 2: summer games over there in Perry?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I'm kind It'm back and forth between the
Speaker 1: Red Stocks and the Summer Olympics.
Speaker 5: And talking to me, so media, what's that.
Speaker 2: And talking to me so it's the Red Sox of
Speaker 2: the Olympics and talking to me, Well, I feel honored, really.
Speaker 1: But I love watching the Olympic Games, you know, summer winter.
Speaker 1: You know when to me, it's it's the greatest sporting
Speaker 1: event you can be a part of, when you represent
Speaker 1: your country, when you put a USA years, you know,
Speaker 1: and it means so much more than just you know,
Speaker 1: a Boston team or an LA team or super Bowl
Speaker 1: over a World Series, and I think that's why I
Speaker 1: just love watching it. And it's not always about gold,
Speaker 1: bronze and silver. You know, some of these athletes trained
Speaker 1: for years for that one race, that one moment, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's not a gold medal or a bronze or
Speaker 1: a sober, but maybe it was their best time, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe they performed at a level that they dreamed about doing.
Speaker 1: And still maybe you didn't win, but still partaking it
Speaker 1: and being a part of it is is pretty special.
Speaker 2: And I agree with that. And I am the biggest
Speaker 2: you know, flag waiver an American that there is, and
Speaker 2: and I but the one thing that I have and
Speaker 2: this is why I wanted to ask you, And by
Speaker 2: the way, feel free to disagree with me. I lived
Speaker 2: in the era of amateur athletes in the Olympics, and
Speaker 2: I know there was always the argument all the Russians
Speaker 2: are center their pros and the Germans and their pros
Speaker 2: and blah blah blah. But I like the fact that you,
Speaker 2: and I'll use your team as an example. You guys
Speaker 2: did that whole you know, David Goliath thing. You were
Speaker 2: not supposed to win because you were the amateurs and
Speaker 2: you were the college kids. And there's part of me,
Speaker 2: and maybe it's just because I'm getting old, you know,
Speaker 2: but there's a part of me that really would like
Speaker 2: to see the Olympics be all amateurs again. And God
Speaker 2: bless Lebron James and all the players you know who
Speaker 2: are playing in basketball. But they have their they have
Speaker 2: their their platform, they have their championships, they have their
Speaker 2: television appearances. I just think it would be nice if
Speaker 2: we could make sure that all Olympians were amateurs. So maybe, maybe,
Speaker 2: just maybe we could capture a nineteen eighty hockey miracle again.
Speaker 1: Well it's you know, it's it would be nice to
Speaker 1: have that, but you know, I can't see ever happening again.
Speaker 1: I mean, you look at the world of sports in general,
Speaker 1: look at how much college athletes are being paid and
Speaker 1: out of play, you know, at the nil money and
Speaker 1: professional athletes to track and field athletes for years have
Speaker 1: received moneys to compete. So it's a it's a whole
Speaker 1: different mindset now than it was, you know, obviously in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. I mean, basketball is a totally different sport.
Speaker 1: Other countries aren't as powerful and as dominant as we are.
Speaker 1: But when you look at all the other you know,
Speaker 1: the track and field athletes, and you look at some
Speaker 1: of the other athletes that are competing in the Olympic Games. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of money out there. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of endorsement deals, so everybody's kind of a professional in
Speaker 1: many ways.
Speaker 2: Now, Yeah, and I don't you know, I don't disagree. Obviously,
Speaker 2: money is the king or the root of all evil,
Speaker 2: depending on how you look at it. And probably I'm
Speaker 2: an old sentimental softy getting older there and and you know,
Speaker 2: kind of want to hold on to one little more
Speaker 2: piece of my younger days. I get that, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm the I'm not quite a boomer, but you know,
Speaker 2: my kid calls me that, so I guess, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm just kind of trying to hold onto the
Speaker 2: path I suppose, but I just I don't know. It
Speaker 2: just it was something special from my childhood, and boy,
Speaker 2: I'd love to be able to bring it to someone
Speaker 2: else's childhood. When those you know, those college kids go
Speaker 2: over into and beat some team they're not supposed to
Speaker 2: beat because they have a lot of heart and they're
Speaker 2: wearing that red, white and blue.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, Yeah, you know, and I think
Speaker 1: to you, if let's just take hockey as an example,
Speaker 1: the other countries are so much better now than they
Speaker 1: were years ago. You know, the Swedes defends the Czechs,
Speaker 1: the Russians, obviously, obviously Canada, United States. I mean, these
Speaker 1: players are so good, and the pros in the games,
Speaker 1: the skill level is just off the charts. And I
Speaker 1: was curious how it would be if the pros played
Speaker 1: against each other. Would they play hard against each other?
Speaker 1: And I talked to some NHL players and they put
Speaker 1: their differences aside. When you put the USA jersey on
Speaker 1: in the Olympic Games, it means something special and they
Speaker 1: go after each other just as hard as they would
Speaker 1: in the Stanley Cup games. So when I saw that,
Speaker 1: when I saw the intensity, it makes me, you know,
Speaker 1: proud that we have so many great American players now
Speaker 1: in the National Hockey League that play at such a
Speaker 1: high level.
Speaker 2: Obviously we're not doing a hockey during the Summer Olympics,
Speaker 2: but and you've been watching them. Is there a sport
Speaker 2: that Michael Rouzioni really likes to to watch on the Olympic.
Speaker 1: Stage from the summer games? Yeah, I love the gymnastics
Speaker 1: and I love. The swimming, track and field is probably third.
Speaker 1: And I was pretty excited to watch the golf to
Speaker 1: see Scotti Scheffler stand in that podium with that gold
Speaker 1: medal around his neck and what it meant to him.
Speaker 1: You know, you saw his response and you know the
Speaker 1: tears in his eyes when the anthem was being played.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's pretty special. So it means a
Speaker 1: lot of the athletes that are competing and when you
Speaker 1: get to see that, he kind of enjoy it even more.
Speaker 1: But those of the probably the sports that I that
Speaker 1: I like to watch more in the summer games.
Speaker 2: He's not an American, but I got to tell you,
Speaker 2: and you must have seen it, that that that guy
Speaker 2: from Turkey with the pistol shooting, who had just had
Speaker 2: his hand in his pocket and just like a casual
Speaker 2: guy doing his thing. Hey here I am at the Olympics.
Speaker 2: So what are you gonna do about it?
Speaker 5: Right? Well?
Speaker 1: You know, and then and then the women's rugby game,
Speaker 1: I mean that was absolutely incredible how they ended that game,
Speaker 1: you know, scoring at the very end to win I
Speaker 1: win a bronze medal. So you see those kind of
Speaker 1: moments and the joy that the athletes are having it,
Speaker 1: can't help but embrace it and want to watch it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna bet you and and uh, I would put
Speaker 2: even money on it at least that after that happened,
Speaker 2: that that rugby finish that got the US the bronze medal.
Speaker 2: I guarantee you a lot of Americans are sitting on
Speaker 2: their their computers that night looking up rugby rules and
Speaker 2: how do you score? And what's it worth? And you know,
Speaker 2: because you know hockey and basketball, we know how the
Speaker 2: scores that though those are our sports, but rugby, come on, really,
Speaker 2: I got to figure that out.
Speaker 1: I had to follow it myself. So it was pretty
Speaker 1: interesting to watch. So it's again, uh to see their
Speaker 1: girls and their performance to win it like they did
Speaker 1: at the end was a highlight so far of the game.
Speaker 2: Michael Rouzioni joins us he has quite the knowledge of
Speaker 2: the Olympics and has a gold medal to show for it.
Speaker 2: We'll continue to talk about the Olympics with Mike and
Speaker 2: a little bit about what I think about the Olympics,
Speaker 2: which nobody cares about. But I'm gonnay it anyway, because
Speaker 2: I'm the host of the show tonight. I'm Ben Parker.
Speaker 2: And I'm filling in for Dan Ray on Night's Side
Speaker 2: on WBZ. Now back to Dan Ray Mine from the
Speaker 2: Window World Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Yes, yes,
Speaker 2: we do. We believe in miracles. Al Michaels with that
Speaker 2: famous call from the end of the Russia US game
Speaker 2: in the nineteen eighty Winter Olympics, and one of the
Speaker 2: people on that ice that game, and of course the
Speaker 2: game winner, Michael RUZIONI. You know, I wasn't gonna play
Speaker 2: that because I said, well, that's too cliche, but then
Speaker 2: I figured I gotta play it right. How many times
Speaker 2: have you heard that call in your life?
Speaker 1: Quite a bit. It's funny when I played golf once
Speaker 1: in a while with Al Michaels, some of these charity
Speaker 1: events or celebrity events. I'll look at him, I'll go, okay,
Speaker 1: let's see how long before something happens and we know
Speaker 1: what it's going to be. We're walking off the tee
Speaker 1: and someone five seconds in says, hey, Mike, do you
Speaker 1: believe in miracles? I like, I told you, how wouldn't
Speaker 1: be wrong before somebody yells it.
Speaker 2: Of course, when we all heard it, you didn't. You
Speaker 2: guys were on the ice, and you were trying. Look,
Speaker 2: here's the thing, you were counting down. Al Michaels is
Speaker 2: doing that famous countdown of his to the end of
Speaker 2: the miracle on ice. You guys are just trying to
Speaker 2: make sure that the Russians don't get a goal because
Speaker 2: you're only up by one. You don't care what al
Speaker 2: Michael's is saying.
Speaker 1: And I didn't hear it till till about a week later. So,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of my teammates saw the game
Speaker 1: right after I had gotten taken away by ABC, so
Speaker 1: I never got to watch the game and didn't get
Speaker 1: to hear his call till till a week later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was I mean, obviously for those who heard it,
Speaker 2: it was great. And again, as I mentioned, I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm a young teen in nineteen eighty and this is
Speaker 2: something that just you know, hangs with me and will
Speaker 2: tell the day I die. So thanks again, thanks for that,
Speaker 2: and thanks to Alan Michaels for one of the you know,
Speaker 2: obviously greatest calls in the history of hockey, if not
Speaker 2: all of sports in American history. So, so you're watching
Speaker 2: the Olympics, Michael Ruzioni, and you're you're you're you're trying
Speaker 2: to decide, well, not who to cheer for, obviously, but
Speaker 2: I mean there's a lot of sports to pick from,
Speaker 2: and you've got to watch one of them. You mentioned
Speaker 2: you like the swimming. Is that just because it's a
Speaker 2: it's a melted ice and it was easier for you
Speaker 2: to relate to.
Speaker 1: No, you know, over the years, I got to know
Speaker 1: a lot of our swimmers, you know, obviously Michael Phelps.
Speaker 1: Got to know Michael really well. And when you see
Speaker 1: some of our athletes, when you see a Katie Ladecki
Speaker 1: perform the way she did this this time around and
Speaker 1: even the last Olympic Games, you get to kind of
Speaker 1: know a little more about the athletes. And as like
Speaker 1: I said, I think the swimmers, you know, rowdy games,
Speaker 1: who's doing the commentating. I got to know Rowdy over
Speaker 1: the years. So I guess by just knowing some of
Speaker 1: the athletes makes you probably want to watch it a
Speaker 1: little more, I guess.
Speaker 2: And this is where maybe I don't know, A couple
Speaker 2: of people will be like, you're a jerk, Ben, But
Speaker 2: so I like watching sports, all sports that I know, right,
Speaker 2: like hockey, got it, understand it, baseball, got it, Football,
Speaker 2: got it. Even you know, even when you get to
Speaker 2: like archery, well, I know, you got to put that
Speaker 2: arrow in the middle of that thing down there, so
Speaker 2: I understand it. But there are certain sports like I
Speaker 2: just I don't get and so I'm not as enthralled
Speaker 2: by them. And it always strikes me funny when somebody
Speaker 2: comes up to you know, and we talked about the
Speaker 2: rugby thing, but when people come up to me and say, hey,
Speaker 2: did you see that you know, dark throwing competition? No,
Speaker 2: did you? Yeah, I didn't know what the heck they
Speaker 2: were doing, but I watched it, and I'm thinking, okay,
Speaker 2: but I'd rather watch something that I like. Maybe, and
Speaker 2: maybe that's why I like the sports from the Olympics
Speaker 2: that I actually understand rugby aside, and I didn't watch
Speaker 2: that game in live time or real time. I mean,
Speaker 2: I saw the highlights like a lot of other people
Speaker 2: who did. And by the way, let's be honest, I
Speaker 2: might not want to sit down and watch six hours
Speaker 2: of gymnastics. I might not want to sit down and
Speaker 2: watch an entire match of I don't know, rugby or
Speaker 2: something like that. But I'm rooting for the Americans just
Speaker 2: because I don't know or like your sport particularly, doesn't
Speaker 2: mean I'm not cheering for you. I mean I'm not
Speaker 2: all of a sudden like the fan of the you know,
Speaker 2: some other countries rugby team, because I don't understand rugby.
Speaker 1: No, I think you're right. I mean, clearly, we're watching
Speaker 1: how US athletes compete at whatever sport it might be.
Speaker 1: You know, I just found out not long ago that
Speaker 1: breakdancing is an event this year, and I know nothing
Speaker 1: about break dancing, so I'm sure that's something I'm not
Speaker 1: going to sit around my TV and watch. But yet
Speaker 1: I congratulate those athletes who trained so hard to get here,
Speaker 1: and you want to see.
Speaker 5: Them do well.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there are a lot of sports in the game,
Speaker 1: especially now in the summer games, that I don't know
Speaker 1: a lot about. But again, when I see a US
Speaker 1: athlete representing our country, you want to you want to
Speaker 1: follow him and support him as much as you can.
Speaker 2: I thought when you said I just found out that, uh,
Speaker 2: break dancing with a sport, and I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 2: sign up next year, I thought that's what you.
Speaker 1: Were going to say, which you got. Well, it's like curling.
Speaker 1: I think I'm I'm you know, I think I got
Speaker 1: a chance to maybe do curling because I don't have
Speaker 1: to work out every day. And I know curling is
Speaker 1: a very difficult sport because I've tried to play it.
Speaker 1: But that might be a game that maybe if I
Speaker 1: wanted to come back in the Olympic Games, maybe I
Speaker 1: could try that.
Speaker 2: You know, I you know, I've seen it. I know
Speaker 2: a few people who played it. I still don't know
Speaker 2: how to score it or how to do it. I mean,
Speaker 2: I know you got to you got to brum and
Speaker 2: you got to roll that thing down the ice and
Speaker 2: all that. But but yeah, I mean that that is
Speaker 2: one of those sports that I don't know anything about.
Speaker 2: But you will catch me going what are they doing
Speaker 2: over there?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so absolutely right.
Speaker 2: We have a we have a caller. Let's let's go
Speaker 2: to the funes, as they say, Tom's in West Virginia.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Night's Side with Ben Parker and Michael Ruzione.
Speaker 5: Hey, Mike, I want to tell you something. Uh my
Speaker 5: roots are from Boston, can you hear me? Well?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I got you?
Speaker 5: Can you? Okay, So let's wind the clock back. You
Speaker 5: guys won if I'm not mistaken. On a Sunday afternoon
Speaker 5: Eastern Standard time, somewhere in early afternoon. I was working
Speaker 5: in Boston as a busboy at a restaurant called TGI
Speaker 5: Fridays on the corner of Exeter and Newbury Street. And
Speaker 5: I was going to technical school back then. And if
Speaker 5: I wind the clock back to age twenty back then,
Speaker 5: I'm sixty four now. And that time in America was
Speaker 5: a really bad time in this country. High gas prices,
Speaker 5: high inflation, the Iranian Crisis of fifty two, Americans held hostage.
Speaker 5: And you guys were nothing more than college athletes. You
Speaker 5: didn't get paid to go to the Olympics. The Russian
Speaker 5: team was the cream of the crop. They were like
Speaker 5: the Boston Bruins, the Montreal Canadians of the Toronto maple
Speaker 5: Leafs over in Eastern Europe. They were professionals. That was
Speaker 5: their job under the old Soviet Union. And I will
Speaker 5: never forget. I didn't watch the game. I was working
Speaker 5: as a busboy that afternoon, and as a matter of fact,
Speaker 5: I worked with WBZ former radio host Bradley J. And
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, I hear our manager call out
Speaker 5: under the microphone. Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Olympic
Speaker 5: hockey team has now defeated the Soviet Union in the Olympics,
Speaker 5: and the place went wild. And for a twenty year
Speaker 5: old kid that didn't know what had life had in
Speaker 5: store for me back then, it was an incredible high
Speaker 5: of believing in America.
Speaker 2: We all we all felt that way. Tom, I got
Speaker 2: let you gocause we run up against the clock. I mean,
Speaker 2: you let your stories like that like all the time.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a great to hear that, And Tom, thank
Speaker 1: you very much for looking, you know, remembering. I guess,
Speaker 1: but it was one of those moments that touched the
Speaker 1: lives of our country. It was an athletic event and
Speaker 1: we did. Like I said to you, we didn't know
Speaker 1: it was going to have the impact that it did.
Speaker 1: And as he mentioned, at a difficult time in our country,
Speaker 1: we were looking for something to feel good about in
Speaker 1: a long week time. I know a bunch of you know,
Speaker 1: young young you know, our Olympic team in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: would be the youngest team in college hockey today. So
Speaker 1: I just think when you put on that jersey, your
Speaker 1: whole country fails a part of it. People come up
Speaker 1: to me and they'll say, I remember where I was
Speaker 1: when we won, and I always go WEE. I didn't
Speaker 1: know you were on the team, but that's what it
Speaker 1: felt like for people, everybody, you know, proud to waive
Speaker 1: the flag and take great pride in our country, which,
Speaker 1: like I said, I can't stress it enough. Other than
Speaker 1: being in the military or a firefighter or a police officer,
Speaker 1: putting a USA jersey on is the ultimate thing that
Speaker 1: you can be a part of because you do represent
Speaker 1: your country.
Speaker 2: You don't, Mike, if you had lost, it would have
Speaker 2: been you guys lost. We won, but you would have lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, Yeah, that's how it happened to you, guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what happened to your guys? You were going to win.
Speaker 1: That's that's why you played the game. And clearly we
Speaker 1: we we, as our assistant coach said after the Olympics,
Speaker 1: that our team we deserve and that was to win
Speaker 1: that tournament. And hopefully if we had to play the
Speaker 1: Soviets ten times, who knows what would have happened. But
Speaker 1: that's not the way the format is. You play one
Speaker 1: game at a time, and we were able to put
Speaker 1: together a two week span of some pretty good hockey
Speaker 1: by a team that turned out to be some pretty
Speaker 1: good players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we're as Americans were all happy that you
Speaker 2: did that. Mike. Listen, thanks for joining us. And let
Speaker 2: me know when we're going to start training for the
Speaker 2: curling because I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go the I'm going to go to
Speaker 1: the rink next week and see if we can put
Speaker 1: a you know, one of those curling facilities in the
Speaker 1: in the building.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm expecting a call from you, Mike. Thanks,
Speaker 2: you got it, all right, Michael Rouzioni. He really needs
Speaker 2: no introduction or anything else, And thanks for what he
Speaker 2: did for so many people's childhood memories, adult memories, memories,
Speaker 2: memories and lasts a lifetime. Really, we'll be back. We'll
Speaker 2: take some of your calls too. Are you watching the Olympics.
Speaker 2: Maybe you want to give me one of your favorite
Speaker 2: Olympic memories from the past. You can do that by
Speaker 2: picking up the telephone as we move here six one, seven, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. We'll take your calls and we get back
Speaker 2: from News and the Break about the Olympics. Do you
Speaker 2: like it? Do you watch it? Are you excited about it?
Speaker 2: Ben Parker filling in for Dan Ray on Night Side.
Speaker 2: It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Hello there, Hello, Oh, that's all Yeah, when it's on,
Speaker 2: it's on. Hi there, it's Ben Parker filling in for
Speaker 2: Dan Ray here on night's side. Just coming off a
Speaker 2: nice conversation with Michael Rouzioni, the captain of the US
Speaker 2: Olympic hockey team from nineteen eighth that won a gold
Speaker 2: medal and catapulted everybody to hysteria back then. Really and
Speaker 2: and and Tom inventioned to the guy that called in
Speaker 2: from West Virginia. Look at that time, and if you
Speaker 2: weren't around, then maybe you don't know. If you were,
Speaker 2: you do. We were at a weird time in life
Speaker 2: that the Gold War was going on. The Russians were
Speaker 2: public enemy number one, two and three, and everybody knew
Speaker 2: they were senting their professional athletes there. And here's these
Speaker 2: college kids from all over the place, a lot of
Speaker 2: them from the Boston area, Uh, going over there and
Speaker 2: kicking some Russian hockey pucks and winning gold. But not
Speaker 2: against the Russians. They had to beat Finland later. So anyway,
Speaker 2: we're taking your phone calls if you want to call
Speaker 2: in and talk about the Olympics. At six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. You can join in on the conversation are
Speaker 2: you watching the Olympics? NBC comcasts. The people who were
Speaker 2: showing the Olympics set a statistic or came out the
Speaker 2: other day that like the seventy nine seventy six percent
Speaker 2: more viewership this time around than the twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: games in Tokyo, which is interesting, except I found it
Speaker 2: kind of weird that nobody watched the Tokyo Games. It's
Speaker 2: like the lowest ranked Olympics in history. So of course
Speaker 2: this year should be better. No knock on the fine
Speaker 2: folks at Comcast, but it's nobody watched this year. A
Speaker 2: lot more people are watching. Well, yeah, of course, and
Speaker 2: it was a weird Olympics, that Tokyo Olympics. I mean
Speaker 2: I only vaguely remember it. Anyway, they had to postpone
Speaker 2: it because of the pandemic, and so it was in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one and not in twenty twenty. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of weird the way things played out anyway, But
Speaker 2: I guess folks are watching the Olympics. Thirty four million
Speaker 2: Americans I think was the number they had thrown out
Speaker 2: something in that vicinity, which is only a little under
Speaker 2: ten percent of the population of America, so you think
Speaker 2: there'd be more. It's the Olympics and the United States
Speaker 2: could win the medals and everybody would be happy. Are
Speaker 2: you watching the Olympics? And if you're not, you can
Speaker 2: call in too and tell us why you're not. And
Speaker 2: if you are, and you can tell us why you are.
Speaker 2: Patrick's in Charlestown. What's going on? Patrick? Good evening?
Speaker 5: Hey, how you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good? Are you? Are you an Olympics fan?
Speaker 6: Uh? Well, you know when I was a kid, I
Speaker 6: certainly was. I remember the eighty Olympics. I actually, I'm
Speaker 6: so happy to speak to you. I was hoping to
Speaker 6: speak to Mike too. I'm sorry he's gone, but that's
Speaker 6: right you. I'm so thrilled that you picked this topic.
Speaker 6: It's a great topic. You know, if I may I
Speaker 6: talk a little bit about the eighty Olympics or is that?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, we're not you you may because
Speaker 2: and of course of anybody of a certain age, as
Speaker 2: you apparently are. It's it's it's it's a big memory.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Just a couple of things. Number one is you
Speaker 6: know I didn't hear your whole call with Mike, But uh,
Speaker 6: you know one thing, uh you know that we have
Speaker 6: to remember too, is that in the Boston area was
Speaker 6: intimately involved with winning with with winning that thing. Like
Speaker 6: there were four kids from Great Boston that were on
Speaker 6: that team, including Jack o'calliyan from Charlestown. I might add,
Speaker 6: so I was like ten years old. I was playing,
Speaker 6: you know, hockey in Charlestown at the time. Was a
Speaker 6: big deal. Mike's from Winthrop and jeez, there were a
Speaker 6: couple other guys. Is that Jack Silk and who else?
Speaker 6: It was on the fourth guy?
Speaker 2: I think, you know, it's funny you said. I feel bad.
Speaker 2: I could look it up, of course, but I you know,
Speaker 2: back back in the day when it right after it happened,
Speaker 2: I mean, we all knew every one of those players
Speaker 2: names because they were they were our heroes. They really were.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and uh so the one other thing I wanted
Speaker 6: to bring up was on I think, you know the
Speaker 6: movie Miracle. If anybody hasn't seen it, I would highly recommend. Yeah,
Speaker 6: it Herb Brooks's Motivate motivational Methods. That's one thing I
Speaker 6: was hoping that Mike is listening. I'd love to hear
Speaker 6: him call the back and talk a little bit about
Speaker 6: Herb Brooks's motivational methods. There's this one scene where he
Speaker 6: has the the uh they lost the game, and he
Speaker 6: keeps them on the ice after the game so late
Speaker 6: that the guy cleaning up and closing up the arena
Speaker 6: had to give the keys of the well.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I would like to know too.
Speaker 2: You know, if I ever told when when Mike and
Speaker 2: I are training, uh for for doing the curling, I
Speaker 2: will ask him these questions. But uh No, what I'd
Speaker 2: like to know is, just like every other movie, right,
Speaker 2: there's always some poetic license that's taken by Hollywood. So
Speaker 2: how much was taken, uh and and run with by Hollywood?
Speaker 2: And how much was what that team actually did go
Speaker 2: through leading up to winning gold?
Speaker 6: Yeah? Absolutely, Well that the next time you're on it
Speaker 6: would be a great show. Thank you for a great show,
Speaker 6: and go USA. Jim Craig, I think I think that
Speaker 6: was a fourth Massachusetts kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and of course Jim Jim Craig. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: Jim Craig was the you know the backstory there with
Speaker 2: you know, looking for his dad and and and draped
Speaker 2: in the American flag and all these things. Is they when?
Speaker 2: When they when they won? There were so many backstories
Speaker 2: to this, and of course the biggest story of them
Speaker 2: all was this group of college age kids went and
Speaker 2: beat up on the Soviet Union, which we of course
Speaker 2: all loved so.
Speaker 6: And the Soviet Union's hockey team, people might not realize,
Speaker 6: was basically the equivalent of playing like the nineteen ninety
Speaker 6: two USA basketball team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they.
Speaker 6: Had beat all the NHL teams to a pulp. They
Speaker 6: were a superstar team. It was so improbable that it's
Speaker 6: almost on an ague. What a beautiful moment. Thank you
Speaker 6: for the show, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Patrick, thanks a lot. I appreciate the call. And
Speaker 2: the Russian team, the Soviets team in the Olympics there
Speaker 2: they were good, I mean really good, and they knew
Speaker 2: they were really good. See, I think that that did
Speaker 2: play against them a little bit. And again I was
Speaker 2: thirteen at the time, so I wasn't really analyzing hockey
Speaker 2: games as a as a hockey analyst. But yeah, that
Speaker 2: was the deal. I mean, you know, when you're that
Speaker 2: good and you think you're that much better than somebody else,
Speaker 2: that's when stuff like that happens. And we're glad it
Speaker 2: did it made. It made for great theater in nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty and it has made for some great books, some
Speaker 2: great documentaries, and some great movies ever since. We are
Speaker 2: into the Olympics. Now you know who I'd like to
Speaker 2: hear from if you want to give us a call,
Speaker 2: that would be a fan tab. Well, anybody can give
Speaker 2: us a call. I don't want to make it sound
Speaker 2: like I'm limiting it to people, but six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty is there anyone? Is there anyone out there
Speaker 2: who was big into wanting Boston to get the Olympics.
Speaker 2: Remember there was a time I have a wristband that
Speaker 2: says Boston twenty twenty four, when it was being pushed
Speaker 2: for Boston to host these very Olympic games. Of course
Speaker 2: it all went away and it didn't happen. Former Mayor
Speaker 2: Marty Walls wanted to make sure that the Boston was going
Speaker 2: to get a fair shake, which of course we probably weren't.
Speaker 2: So it all folded up and went away, and that
Speaker 2: was fine, and I think most people are fine with that.
Speaker 2: But is there anybody out there who who wanted the
Speaker 2: Olympics to come to Boston? And more importantly, perhaps is
Speaker 2: there anybody out there who still wishes they'd come to Boston.
Speaker 2: We have traffic problems and transportation problems and all kinds
Speaker 2: of other problems. The only thing we might have that's
Speaker 2: that that's better than Paris for handling an Olympics is
Speaker 2: the river. Like I would rather swim in the Charles
Speaker 2: than the said, So, I mean, maybe that's our our
Speaker 2: leg up next time around. Our water is not as
Speaker 2: dirty as your water. We have cleaner water in our rivers.
Speaker 2: So I would love to hear from someone. Are you
Speaker 2: watching the Olympics and if you are favorite sports? I
Speaker 2: mean there have been some pretty dynamic moments. I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna lie to you, I'm not watching the Olympics religiously.
Speaker 2: I do the news here at wbz's so I kind
Speaker 2: of need to know what's happening, our Americans winning, who's
Speaker 2: doing what and whatever? And speaking of Americans winning and
Speaker 2: people from this area winning gold medals, Gabby Thomas Northampton
Speaker 2: and harrived one today a goal medal running in the
Speaker 2: track and field event. It was the women's two hundred
Speaker 2: meter race, and she came in first twenty one point
Speaker 2: eight three seconds two hundred meters twenty one seconds. Wow,
Speaker 2: I couldn't do that in my car. I don't think Rob,
Speaker 2: I don't think I could drive that fast in my car. Really,
Speaker 2: how fast she ran two hundred meters? All right, maybe
Speaker 2: I could, But good for her. Congratulations to Gabby Thomas,
Speaker 2: another Massachusetts gold medal winner. Favorite sports. I mentioned it
Speaker 2: with Mike and every but look, if you're on the
Speaker 2: social media, if you're on the web, it was viral.
Speaker 2: Still is out there. I don't even know his name,
Speaker 2: who cares, mom probably, but the guy from Turkey doing
Speaker 2: the shooting event, the pistol event with his hand in
Speaker 2: his pockets, just kind of like, hey, whatever, I'm shooting,
Speaker 2: just leave you alone. Wins a silver medal. Good for him.
Speaker 2: And those are the by the way, those are the
Speaker 2: kind of stories that real are exciting. The US men's
Speaker 2: basketball team, for example, is probably gonna win a gold, right,
Speaker 2: I mean they should, Okay. Anyway, that being said, that's great,
Speaker 2: and of course, as an American, yes, yay, we want
Speaker 2: another gold. But some of these sidebar stories, the little ones,
Speaker 2: the people you don't know of, And even though this
Speaker 2: guy's from from from Turkey and not from America, it's still,
Speaker 2: you know, these great stories of people you don't know
Speaker 2: who are winning medals doing things you didn't even know
Speaker 2: they did. And and Simone Biles want won more medals
Speaker 2: at the Olympics, and the US women's gymnastics team got
Speaker 2: some medals, and and and great for them. And I'm
Speaker 2: really happy that they did. Obviously, why would it be
Speaker 2: mad that they did well, darn it, they won more medals.
Speaker 2: That's terrible. No, of course, I'm happy that they won
Speaker 2: more medals. But we know who they are, right, I mean,
Speaker 2: most of us do. We've heard about them. But every
Speaker 2: once in a while, you get somebody who nobody knows about,
Speaker 2: and even if it's from you know, in this case
Speaker 2: with the with the with the Turkish pistol shooter guy, Look,
Speaker 2: that's a cool story. I don't care. It's cool. And
Speaker 2: those are the types of stories that we see in
Speaker 2: the Olympics sometimes, and that's what makes it kind of
Speaker 2: all worthwhile for people watching it at home. Look, I
Speaker 2: know what you know, good basketball looks like, right, I
Speaker 2: mean I do. I see it all the time. We
Speaker 2: have the Celtics. They just won an NBA title. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you were sleeping through it, but that
Speaker 2: just happened this year. We know what good hockey looks like.
Speaker 2: We've had championships in Boston. We talked about, obviously the
Speaker 2: Olympics in nineteen eighty, so we know all this stuff.
Speaker 2: You don't know anything about pistol shooting, all right. One
Speaker 2: guy's gonna call up and says, yeah, I tried pistol
Speaker 2: shoot all the time. Most people don't. Most people don't
Speaker 2: know anything about like the rugby, right, I mean, I
Speaker 2: know what rugby is, but I don't know the scoring
Speaker 2: routine and regimen, and most people don't. But then the
Speaker 2: US women's team goes on and wins that last second play,
Speaker 2: winning the bronze medal. I'm telling you a lot of
Speaker 2: people were on the computer that night going rugby's goor ring?
Speaker 2: What is it? And how do you win a game?
Speaker 2: And please So those are the things when you go, hey,
Speaker 2: that's kind of cool. I didn't know that. Anyway. If
Speaker 2: you want to give us a call and chime in.
Speaker 2: Watching the Olympics, not watching the Olympics, don't care about
Speaker 2: the Olympics, don't care that we're talking about the Olympics.
Speaker 2: You can call in and say that too, if you
Speaker 2: want six one, seven, two, five, four, ten, thirty. Ben
Speaker 2: Parker's filling in for Dan Ray tonight on Nightside on WBZ.
Speaker 2: Now back to Dan Ray Live from the Window World
Speaker 2: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio. Hey there, Ben Parker
Speaker 2: filling in for Dan Ray on night Side. For those
Speaker 2: who don't know who I am. I do Afterdrew News
Speaker 2: here on WZ from two to six in the afternoon,
Speaker 2: occasionally filling in for Dan Ray as I am right now,
Speaker 2: and we would love to hear from you at six
Speaker 2: one seven, seven eight seven. Uh sorry, I'm giving you
Speaker 2: the wrong number. What am I dumb? Yes, six one seven,
Speaker 2: two five four ten thirty. I was going to give
Speaker 2: you the news room phone number. Let's call me there
Speaker 2: later if you want. John's and Hopkinson. We're talking about
Speaker 2: the Olympics and whether you're watching or whether you're not watching,
Speaker 2: don't care? Do care? Love something? Don't love something? John?
Speaker 2: What's going on? Hey Ben?
Speaker 3: How are you?
Speaker 5: I am?
Speaker 2: Well? Thank you? What do you got?
Speaker 4: I mean the Olympics. I mean I've caught a lot
Speaker 4: of the Olympics, and it's one of those things that
Speaker 4: sometimes as uh as American sports.
Speaker 7: Fans, we don't we forget like it's not.
Speaker 5: A yearly thing.
Speaker 4: This is every four years. I mean, so this is
Speaker 4: pretty significant time in sports history. And uh, you know,
Speaker 4: those of us with American you know, sports fandom, if
Speaker 4: you will, we just we assume that it's just gonna
Speaker 4: happen again every year. So this is this is a
Speaker 4: pretty sigficate thing being of enjoyed all of it.
Speaker 2: Do you have a do you have a sport that
Speaker 2: that you like and I mean maybe one that you
Speaker 2: would never normally be watching.
Speaker 5: So I actually I've quite a couple.
Speaker 4: I mean, and you know, for whatever entertainment value, I
Speaker 4: find that the kayak cross, I'm not sure if any
Speaker 4: much's caught that has been really uh that's been entertaining.
Speaker 4: I mean I've watched it all. But these you know,
Speaker 4: there's the other sports you don't normally get to see,
Speaker 4: uh like that obviously, all the track and seals, all
Speaker 4: the gymnastics, I mean they're just I mean those are athletes, right,
Speaker 4: incredible athletes.
Speaker 7: But but yeah, just a couple of things stood out
Speaker 7: for me from what I've been able to watch. But uh,
Speaker 7: the kayak cross, those kind of emerging sports has been interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean some of them certainly have been interesting.
Speaker 2: I mean track and field. We see, I mean, we're
Speaker 2: familiar with track and field, you know, the one sport
Speaker 2: that a lot of people probably aren't familiar with the
Speaker 2: broader sense of gymnastics. Yes, but most people probably aren't
Speaker 2: sitting around their house, uh, breaking down the odds on
Speaker 2: the pommel horse. And we we've got that guy from Worcester,
Speaker 2: Stephen the de Rozaak or how you say his name.
Speaker 2: I probably mispronounced it, and I apologize, but he won
Speaker 2: a bronze in the in the in the pommel horse,
Speaker 2: and won the bronze with the with the team as well.
Speaker 2: When was the last time, John, you talked about the
Speaker 2: pommel horse competition in your life? I did? There I have.
Speaker 7: It's actually, you know, it's interesting because I was watching
Speaker 7: the women's you know, the women's competition, and you sometimes forget,
Speaker 7: I mean, they're completely different techniques or what they call
Speaker 7: skills in any particular event, and the women and the
Speaker 7: men have different ones.
Speaker 4: But yeah, of course the.
Speaker 7: Pommel horse is a perfect example for you. Right when
Speaker 7: do you see it? But every four years unless you're
Speaker 7: really tuned in, so perfect example.
Speaker 5: Ben.
Speaker 2: Yeah, John, listen, I appreciate your calling in and if
Speaker 2: I feel free to do so anytime. And by the way,
Speaker 2: you can call in and tell us what you think
Speaker 2: about the Olympics and the sports that are going on.
Speaker 2: Maybe you're watching, maybe you're not. We did see that
Speaker 2: about was about two thirty four million Americans that watched.
Speaker 2: These were some of the numbers that came out. NBC
Speaker 2: Comcast has the Olympic Games and the ratings for this
Speaker 2: year's Olympics. The twenty twenty four games seventy five percent,
Speaker 2: seventy six percent higher than they were in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one when they were in Tokyo. But that's because the
Speaker 2: Tokyo Olympics were the lowest ranked or watched Olympics like ever,
Speaker 2: like in history. Like more people watched the Olympics on
Speaker 2: TV in eighteen fourteen than they did in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: All right, not quite, but you get my point. So
Speaker 2: a lot of people are watching compared to the last Olympics.
Speaker 2: But are a lot of people watching and it's under
Speaker 2: ten percent roughly. I mean, if you do the math
Speaker 2: on how many people there are in the United States
Speaker 2: and how many people were watching, thirty four million, less
Speaker 2: than ten percent. You'd think there'd be more are you
Speaker 2: watching six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty? If
Speaker 2: you want to chime in, I want you to put
Speaker 2: your thinking caps on too, because later on this evening
Speaker 2: we have special guests coming up in the eleven o'clock hour.
Speaker 2: But at eleven thirty, we're gonna pick your brain and
Speaker 2: maybe you'll know why we're doing this. Maybe you won't,
Speaker 2: but you'll find out at eleven thirty. If you could
Speaker 2: put any one person, one additional person on Mount Rushmore,
Speaker 2: who would it be? And I don't want to be
Speaker 2: I don't want to be boring and leave it to well,
Speaker 2: just presidents or just politicians or no, anybody got to
Speaker 2: be American. And you've got to defend your decision. Who
Speaker 2: would you put on Mount Rushmore to honor someone else?
Speaker 2: We'll talk about that at eleven thirty, because I'm interested
Speaker 2: in what people think could By the way, it could
Speaker 2: be a president or a politician, but it doesn't have
Speaker 2: to because I don't want to limit it to that.
Speaker 2: There might be someone in American history, maybe even someone
Speaker 2: is still a lot doing whatever they do, that deserves
Speaker 2: to be up there as the fifth person on Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 2: We'll do that at eleven thirty. But coming up in
Speaker 2: the next half hour, we're going to take trip to Maui.
Speaker 2: Did you know it's just over a year ago that
Speaker 2: the that the Maui wildfires took place, the ones that
Speaker 2: devastated Lahina. Just just over a year now they're starting
Speaker 2: to rebuild, although they have big problems there financially, people
Speaker 2: don't have places to stay because well, their houses burnt down.
Speaker 2: I spent time in Hawaii many many years ago. I
Speaker 2: worked in Hawaii for a while and spent two days
Speaker 2: a week on Maui every week that I was there.
Speaker 2: And so we're gonna talk to somebody from Maui who's
Speaker 2: gonna give us a litt update on that. It was
Speaker 2: one of those stories that gripped the world really, I mean,
Speaker 2: everybody was interested in it, right You were hearing about
Speaker 2: it on the radio, seeing it on TV, it was
Speaker 2: on the social media, it was everywhere, and rightfully, so,
Speaker 2: it was a huge story and a lot of devastation
Speaker 2: and death and injury and just just wild times. And
Speaker 2: they're trying to rebuild there. It's been a year. Let's
Speaker 2: get a let's get a little bit of a uh
Speaker 2: a check there on how things are going. On in
Speaker 2: in Maui and if anybody could do it, why not
Speaker 2: I will. So we're gonna we're gonna take it to Maui.
Speaker 2: Coming up in the next half hour here on WBZ,
Speaker 2: Ben Parker, I'm filling in for Dan Ray in his
Speaker 2: night side stay with us. What did that h