February 22, 2015, - 1:34 pm
“Do You Believe in Miracles?” 35 Yrs Ago, US Hockey Team Beat Soviets – Where’s the ISIS Hockey Team?
Thirty-five years ago, today, on February 22, 1980, the USA Olympic Hockey Team beat the Soviets in the Semi-finals of the Olympic Hockey competition at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and they went on to win the Gold Medal match against Finland. It was a true Cinderella story, as all of these guys on Team USA were amateurs (and none went on to major stardom in the NHL). They were a rag-tag, working-class bunch who slept on former prison cots and had little glamor and no luxury, unlike American Olympians today, who are coddled pros. And, yet, these working-class stiffs, with all of the odds against them, beat the Soviets, who were professionals supported full time from the cradle by the Communist government.
It was one of those events that marked the return of pride to America during the malaise days of the Jimmy Carter years, one of the first high points on the path to the election of Ronald Reagan and America’s turnaround economically, morally, in the foreign arena, and in many other ways. I remember the boys at my Jewish parochial school dressing up as Team USA for Purim, the Jewish holiday on which kids dress up in costumes. I remember my pride in the non-stop chants, “U-S-A! U-S-A!” And I could hear them in my mind, last week, while I was at a screening of “Red Army,” a documentary about the Soviet Hockey system back in those days. The scenes of the 1980 victory seemed like they were yesterday.
Sadly, they were not yesterday. They were 35 years ago today. As I said in 2010, when I marked the 30th anniversary of this tremendous American sports victory, there is no Al-Qaeda Olympic Hockey Team to beat. And, now, there is no ISIS team to whip. No Hezbollah Team, no Iranian Team. And so on. And, while just a few years later we permanently defeated the Soviet Union–to the point that it no longer exists (though some would beg to differ and cite Vladimir Putin), we won’t defeat the Islamic enemy, the way things are going. Right now, it is defeating us.
It is defeating the West on every front, via unfettered legal and illegal immigration, birthrate, political correctness, multi-culturalism, and every other way. We’ve been invaded from within, as we wasted thousands of American lives and limbs and trillions of dollars on wars we lost in Iraq (unless you consider handing it from a group of Sunni Muslims who hate us to Shi’ite Muslims who hate us a victory) and Afghanistan. And, now, we must fight ISIS which arose from Al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose origins could only be possible because of the void we created by taking out Saddam Hussein and insisting on Shi’ite-controlled “democracy” in its place (instead of a brutal Sunni pro-American, Shah-like dictator, which we should have installed and backed). No matter how many years we had U.S. troops there, that problem would have continued to fester.
And, then, back in 1980, even Jimmy Carter was willing to call out the enemy by name: Communism. The Soviet Union. Today’s Jimmy Carter, Barack Hussein Obama, is far worse than his peanut-farming alter ego. He won’t ever mention the enemy. He claims it’s not Islam. He claims it’s not Islamic. He won’t mention the words Islamic and terrorism in the same sentence. He won’t even use the fictional term, “Islamist,” used by many so-called “conservatives” who want to pretend that there is a separate religion and set of mosques called, “Islamism.” That there are “radical Islamists,” instead of acknowledging the truth: that Islam is radical, and that this phony term is a redundant fakery. (Those that use these terms, by the way, are as much in denial as Barack Obama and completely hypocritical when they insist on using these terms while, at the same time, criticizing Obama.)
In 1980, the pro-Soviet left in America was weak, far weaker than they are today. Today, they are in power and have even the Republicans cowering to the point that most of them are attacking Rudy Giuliani for daring question the love of this country by a President who is the biggest critic of this country and the biggest ass-kisser of our enemy. The American left yesterday was a fringe, even with Jimmy Carter in power. Today, the American left is in power like they never were before. And half of America (or more) is united with them in ass-kissing the enemy and aiding and abetting the enemies from within.
So, we will never ever have another victory like the 1980 Miracle on Ice. That’s what makes it so special, and yet so sad to remember that 35 years later, America today is no longer the America we had then, even under the miserable conditions of the Jimmy Carter Presidency. While I celebrate what happened in 1980, I also reminisce on the America that was and, sadly, won’t be again.
Even if there were an ISIS Hockey Team to beat or an Al-Qaeda or Hezbollah Hockey Team (remember, those two groups are just as dangerous and even more so to America), the current establishment of media, entertainment and pop culture, and government (including willing Republicans), America would not be allowed to cheer a victory over them. If we did, we’d be called “racist” (even though Islam is not a race, it is a cultish set of beliefs attracting many idiots and evil-doers of all races), and we’d be called “bigots” (even though it is not bigotry to be alarmed by a cult that wants to destroy you and beheads and burns people alive). And we’d be forced to have some “Muslim-Americans” (who are Muslim first and openly support jihad) on the hockey team–you know, just to show our diversity. And the team would be informed that it could not win and would have to throw the game–you know, lest we offend the Muslims around the world who wish to erase us from the face of the earth.
So, be proud of the 1980 US Olympic hockey victory over the Soviet Union. But don’t be too proud of what we’ve become since then.
In 1981, after the U.S. hostages were released from 444 days in captivity from Iran, they were shown a highlight film of what they missed. The highlight of the highlights was the US Olympic hockey victory over the Soviets.
If there were U.S. hostages like them today, they probably wouldn’t be released alive and in one piece. And if they were, what would be on the highlight reel? Would there be any highlights to speak of?
Hard to tell.
***
Here are some highlights of what I wrote five years ago on the 30th anniversary of this miraculous victory on ice, some of which I repeated above, but some of which is different:
Thirty years ago today, on February 22, 1980, the first major event in the Reagan Revolution happened. Despite Jimmy Carter’s “malaise days” speech and his admonition to Americans that they shouldn’t expect their kids to have a better future than they had, a group of working class kids, who slept on old prison cots at Lake Placid, beat the Soviet Union’s professional hockey team in the hockey semi-finals at the Olympic Winter Games. Al Michaels’ famous, “Do You Believe in Miracles? YES!” lives on, as do chants of “USA! USA! USA!” And ultimately, the team went on to win the Olympic Gold Medal against Finland in the finals. I was a kid then, and boys at my school dressed up as the U.S. Olympic Hockey team for the Jewish holiday of Purim (on which kids wear costumes, as on Halloween).
In January 1981, when Americans, held hostage in Iran at the time of the 1980 Miracle, returned home after 444 days in captivity from Islamic captors, they were shown a video of what they missed. Many of them said the highlight of that film was the scene of Americans beating the Soviets. But it wasn’t just that we beat them. It’s that our amateurs beat their professionals, who’d bean unbeaten for eons. Plus, it was the first major event in which Americans started to take pride in their country again, amid a horribly ineffective President, the hostages in Iran, double-digit inflation, a depressed auto industry under attack from cheap Japanese cars, and rising gas prices. . . .
The 1980 team, led by captain Mike Eruzione, were not a group of spoiled professionals playing spoiled professionals. That’s strictly what yesterday’s hockey game between the U.S. and Canada was. It had no meaning or significance, unlike the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” and the team coached by Herb Brooks to a David versus Goliath victory. In contrast, while some went on to play in the NHL after their Olympic victory, many on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team never made it big or had a multi-million (or even multi-thousand) dollar professional hockey contract. Instead, they were hungry, young, mostly working class kids who lived everyday lives after the fact.
As I wrote in my 2004 review of the movie, “Miracle” (which I recommend to anyone who wants to learn about the 1980 Miracle on Ice), the 1980 team
had spunk, sparkle, and an underdog hunger to win for the U.S. . . .
“Miracle” shows the grueling conditioning Brooks put the team through. It’s doubtful today’s soft pros could withstand a lick of it.
The 1980 team was tough and gritty. They had no product endorsements or part-time jobs by Home Depot and Staples. They were no billions in tax subsidies. 1980 Olympians slept in converted prisons on prison cots, and organizers nearly declared bankruptcy on a $168 million budget. There were no $28 million opening ceremonies or $2 million temporary Olympic cauldrons and sculptures.
But there was heavy American pride.
The U.S. players included guys, like goalie Jim Craig, whose laid-off father desperately needed him to forgo the Olympics for the money an NHL career would provide. They beat the Soviets when months earlier an NHL All-Star team could not. (Get your own custom hockey jerseys, just like members of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team.)
And the team included players like my friend, Mark Wells, who scored three goals as a member of the USA Hockey Team, but never made it big. As I’ve written on this site, he lives in the Detroit area where, for years after the Olympic victory, he slaved nights as a shift manager for Ram’s Horn 24-hour Restaurants. . . .
The 1980 win was a victory over Communist tyranny. And there’s no hockey match-up on the horizon between us and Islamic terrorist groups.
Do you believe in miracles? Yes. But the one that happened thirty years ago today isn’t likely to be repeated anytime soon . . . if ever. And that’s a tragedy, especially since we have Jimmy Carter’s re-run now occupying the White House.
Sports Illustrated columnist Joe Posnanski has a great “10 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know About the 1980 Miracle on Ice.”
Tags: 1980 Miracle on Ice, Al Michaels, Do you believe in Miracles?, Do you Believe in Miracles? Yes!, Herb Brooks, hockey, ISIS hockey team, Jim Craig, Mark Well, Mike Eruzione, Miracle on Ice, Team USA, USA Hockey Team
I agree with Rudy Guiliani – and I’m glad to see if he doubled down and is unrepentant in his criticism.
I felt so ticked off by what the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote, I stated that man who apologizes every which way for our enemies is no patriot and someone who can’t stand up for America isn’t its friend.
That’s Obama and sad to say the victory of our Olympic Ice Hockey Team is as good as its going to ever get. Not that we shouldn’t be proud of them. We should be.
But too many people in this country – such as those in our mass media – today will side with its enemies, in particular this President and won’t stand up for it.
NormanF on February 22, 2015 at 1:47 pm