From “A Reminder of What We Can Be,” E.M. Swift’s historic article about the 1980 “Miracle on Ice”:
The members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team weren’t named Sportsmen of the Year because of the 60 minutes they played one Friday afternoon in February. The game with the Soviet Union meant nothing to the players politically. Even its impact was largely lost on them until much later, confined as they were to the Olympic Village in Lake Placid, listening to one dinky local radio station and reading no newspapers. “If people want to think that performance was for our country, that’s fine,” says Mark Pavelich, the small, quiet forward who set up Eruzione’s winning goal. “But the truth of the matter is, it was just a hockey game. There was enough to worry about without worrying about Afghanistan or winning it for the pride and glory of the United States. We wanted to win it for ourselves.”
I like this quote a lot. First, it offers pertinent context to the 1980 “Miracle on Ice.” Unlike the 1972 Summit Series, the North American players didn’t feel like they were the ones fighting out the Cold War. They were scared out of their minds, but only because everyone knew that the Russians couldn’t be beat. With previous victories over the Canadians and over a series of NHL teams, they had proven were the best in the world. Who cares about politics when you’re the underdog in that situation?
Second, it puts the game in perspective: it was just a game. And this is exactly what gives the Americans’ victory significance. All they wanted to do was play, and they went on to become national heroes.
Tags: 1980 Miracle, E.M. Swift, Miracle on Ice
