Friday is the 39-year anniversary of the greatest event in American sports history.
On this wonderful day back in 1980, a scrappy group of college hockey players from the USA defeated the Soviet Union in the greatest hockey game ever played.
The two teams took the ice during the winter Olympics in Lake Placid, and what happened next shocked the world forever.
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The young American squad led head coach Herb Brooks defeated the Soviet juggernaut 4-3. Mark Johnson, Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione and the rest of the American squad pulled off the unthinkable by beating the Soviets. (RELATED: Watch ‘Miracle On Ice’ Legend Mark Johnson’s Wisconsin Jersey Retirement Ceremony)
Pretty much nobody thought we had any chance. After all, the Russians had crushed in an exhibition game weeks earlier. There was no reason to believe that the Americans would somehow turn it around so quickly.
What the world saw that fateful night in Lake Placid is still celebrated to this day. Against all odds, the Americans didn’t yield an inch on the ice.
When the clock hit zero, the USA was on our way to the gold medal game against Finland. The impossible had happened, and the impact is felt just as strongly today.
Seriously, I question whether or not you love America if watching that game or watching “Miracle” doesn’t give you chills.
I’ve seen grown men cry as they watch the clock tick down, and they do it nearly 40 years later.
I wasn’t alive to watch it happen in 1980, but I probably watch “Miracle” at least once a month right now. I’m that addicted to the underdog story, and I’m that proud of the boys who laced up their skates that night.
It was another beautiful reminder that the United States of America is the greatest, and that communism sucks.
Go, USA, go!