Presented by BACON BOISE.
This Day In Sports…February 24, 1980:
There was one piece of business left, and it wasn’t easy. As the years passed, many came to assume it was the USSR that fell to the U.S. in the 1980 Winter Olympics gold medal game. But that contest was indeed played two days after one of the biggest moments in American sports history, the 4-3 upset of the Soviet Union in the semi-finals. The Boys of Winter put an exclamation point on the “Miracle on Ice” and defeated Finland 4-2 to give the United States the gold at Lake Placid.
Going into the third period, the Finns led the U.S. 2-1. After all the Americans had been through and had accomplished, it was down to this. In the locker room during the intermission, U.S. coach Herb Brooks famously barked at the team: “If you lose this game, you’ll take it to your (expletive) graves!” The U.S. responded with goals from Phil Verchota, Rob McClanahan and Mark Johnson in the final period to run away with it. Goalie Jim Craig stopped 21 of 23 shots from Finland, including all 10 in the third.
So which gold medal game was more historic for the United States—the victory over Finland in 1980, or the 2-1 overtime win that took down Canada Sunday in Milan to give the Americans their first gold in 46 years? It was certainly the nailbiter two days ago. The game in 1980 was actually the last one of the Olympic round robin, which is how the tournament was played at the time. An oft-forgotten fact: had Finland won the game, the Soviets actually would have captured the gold. In the end, the Finns didn’t even medal.
But the most historic single game? It will forever be the Miracle on Ice. The U.S. had been seeded seventh in 1980 and went to the tournament with a roster of mostly amateurs (only four players had ever made it as far as the minor leagues). The Americans were facing veteran skaters who were paid handsomely by the Soviet government and had won four straight Olympic gold medals. But the U.S., led by Brooks’ coaching job for the ages, skated off with their first gold since the other miracle win over the USSR in 1960.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
