Speaker 1: Welcome to This Moment in Sports History. Podcast number The
Speaker 1: Miracle on Ice begins January eighteenth, nineteen eighty. On January eighteenth,
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, something special started brewing in Lake Placid, New York.
Speaker 1: Though nobody quite realized it yet, this was the day
Speaker 1: that would mark an early step in what became one
Speaker 1: of the greatest underdog stories in sports history, the US
Speaker 1: Olympic Hockey team's journey toward the Miracle on Ice. While
Speaker 1: the actual miracle game against the Soviet Union wouldn't happen
Speaker 1: until February twenty second, January eighteenth was significant as it
Speaker 1: fell during the critical final preparation period before the thirteenth
Speaker 1: Winter Olympics officially opened on February thirteenth. The young American
Speaker 1: teen with an average age of just twenty one, was
Speaker 1: in the midst of intense training and exhibition matches that
Speaker 1: would forge them into the cohesive unit that shocked the world.
Speaker 1: Head coach Herb Brooks had been putting his squad through
Speaker 1: absolutely grueling practices at this point in the preparation. Brooks,
Speaker 1: known for his demanding and sometimes harsh coaching style, was
Speaker 1: implementing a hybrid hockey system that combined the best elements
Speaker 1: of North American physicality with European finesse and skating. This
Speaker 1: was revolutionary for American hockey at the time. The roster
Speaker 1: was filled with college players, many from Brooks's own University
Speaker 1: of Minnesota, who were about to face the seemingly impossible
Speaker 1: task of competing against the Soviet juggernaut. The Soviet team
Speaker 1: had won gold in five of the last six Olympic
Speaker 1: tournaments and had demolished the NHL All Stars six to
Speaker 1: zero just a year earlier in the Challenge Cup. They
Speaker 1: were professionals in everything but name, training together year round,
Speaker 1: while the American kids were still wet behind the years.
Speaker 1: What made this team special wasn't evident in January eighteenth.
Speaker 1: It was brewing beneath the surface. Players like Mike Eruzioni,
Speaker 1: the future captain, goalie Jim Craid, and young fenem Mark
Speaker 1: Johnson were being muled did by Brooks's iron will. The
Speaker 1: coach famously made the team skate brutal herbies end to
Speaker 1: end sprints after a lackluster exhibition performance, skating them to
Speaker 1: exhaustion to prove a point about effort and unity. This
Speaker 1: date represents the calm before the storm, the preparation before
Speaker 1: the miracle. In just over a month, this ragtag group
Speaker 1: of American college kids would defeat the mighty Soviets four
Speaker 1: to three in what ABC sportscaster Al Michaels would immoralize
Speaker 1: with his call, do you believe in miracles? Yes? The
Speaker 1: significance of Mid January nineteen eighty and Lake Placid was
Speaker 1: that it represented pure potential, the moment before everything changed
Speaker 1: for American hockey and Olympic sports forever. And that wraps
Speaker 1: it up. Join us tomorrow and be sure to hit
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Speaker 1: of sports history. This has been a Quiet Police Studio's production.
Speaker 1: For more, check out Quietly dot A. I thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. What