February 22, 2006
Now Those Were Olympic Games
The date: February 22, 1980. The place: Lake Placid, New York. A motley crew of United States college kids and amateurs stops the Soviet Juggernaut in its tracks.
I remember watching the coverage with my parents. The ABC (or whoever it was) announcer was saying that they were going to delay broadcast of the game until prime time and would not announce the score beforehand, but you could see people acting like complete lunatics behind the guy and knew that something was up. I'm a bit fuzzy now, 26 years later, but I remember that we did a good deal of whooping and shouting ourselves while watching the game.
FWIW, Miracle, the movie about it, is a decent feel-good flick.
Posted by: Brian B at February 22, 2006 04:56 PMI haven't seen it, but if it's got Kurt Russell, I know it has to be good. Even if it's bad.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at February 22, 2006 05:01 PMdefinitely worth adding to the Netflix queue!
And a reasonably accurate telling of the tale to boot.
Posted by: caltechgirl at February 22, 2006 05:13 PMSomehow, the idea of Snake Pliskin taking out Ivan just seems right.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at February 22, 2006 05:15 PMSee the movie, it took me back to my junior year in high school, at the height of the Cold War, Jimmy Carter, and I would argue, an excellent example of Ronald Reagan's optimist view of the ordinary, yet extraordinary, Americans.
I remember taking a break from cleaning a chimney to watch the final period.
Only his bad movies are good.
Posted by: Zendo Deb at February 22, 2006 06:34 PMThose were the days... When we had something we were allowed to fight for and root for.
I remember that hockey game and how proud I feld that we had won.
I was ten years old at the time, and, growning up in California, had no idea what ice hockey even was. The entire family was glued to the television set. (I've been a hockey fan ever since.) Ah, those were the days.
Posted by: bobgirrl at February 23, 2006 03:10 PM
Image courtesy of the lovely and talented 