Herb Brooks and His Miracle On Ice! Quiz

Answer:

Herb Brooks played ice hockey at his high school, and was a member of the team that won the 1955 Minnesota State Ice Hockey Championship. He made the 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey team, but was cut a week before the games began; that team went on to win a gold medal. The next ten years Brooks played for the U.S. National Team, and he did make the Olympic teams in 1964 and 1968.

After retiring as a player he was recruited as a coach and found success at the University of Minnesota, with his team winning NCAA championship titles in 1974, 1976, and 1979. In 1980 Brooks was chosen to coach the U.S. Olympic hockey team; he put nine of his 1979 team members on the roster.

But the status of U.S. teams at the Olympics was in question. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and, as early as January 1980, President Carter was already talking about the U.S. boycotting the Summer Games in Moscow (August 1980) to protest that invasion. The Winter Games, scheduled for February 1980 at Lake Placid, New York, continued as planned, but the growing political hostilities seemed to spill onto the hockey rink.

Heavily favored to win the gold medal, the Soviet hockey team had taken the gold medal at five of the six previous games, and had not lost an Olympic game since 1968! The team was made up of players who were quite experienced, and had played together for years.

On the other hand, the U.S. had the youngest team, which was made up of mostly amateur college players; only one of the players had been on the 1976 Olympic team. The U.S. team was given less than a 23% chance of even taking home a medal. It was predicted that they would finish in 7th place, while the Soviets were given a 77% chance to win gold.

Herb Brooks' team needed a miracle, and his players later said that the speech helped to give them one. Brooks was an extremely tough coach, but was greatly respected by his players. They found his words especially motivating when he said, "Great moments are born from great opportunities". And Brooks emphasized that the opportunity to make a great moment was "tonight"; the game with the Soviets was a once in a lifetime opportunity that was only available "tonight". By using the word "we" frequently, he was reminding the players that they were a team, and as a team they could be the "greatest hockey team in the world". So there wasn't just an appeal for the team to go out and do their best. There was also a focus on great urgency - that today would be their only chance. And - by using the politics of the time by mentioning the Soviets - it was about more than just a gold medal at a hockey game.

Here it must be mentioned that Olympic hockey was organized differently in 1980. Players from the NHL were not allowed to participate. In addition, teams were divided into two groups and teams scored points for their performance in each game they played. The top two teams in each group went on to round robin play. The medal places were determined by collected points in all games played, as well as the round robin ones. After the United States beat the USSR, they still had to play Finland for the gold; if they had lost to the USSR, they wouldn't have placed at all.

If you haven't heard Herb Brooks' speech, a good place to find it would be in the movie "Miracle" (2004), where Kurt Russell delivered an outstanding performance as Herb Brooks. You will note that I did cut off the last couple of lines. His players said that Brooks never cussed, but he did say something that wasn't exactly appropriate for this website.

Incidentally, many of the players said that his brief comments before and during the Finland game for the gold were even more compelling. He assured them in a very blunt way that if they lost the game, they would take their regret to the grave with them. At the conclusion of the games, the Soviet Union went on to take the silver medal, while Sweden took the bronze. Finland placed fourth and didn't medal.

Herb Brooks went on to coach the Olympic hockey team to a silver medal in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. He died the following year.

The United States did boycott the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980, and Moscow boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. And what about the Cold War? Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev did a lot to work together to reduce the tensions between their two countries. The Cold War officially ended in 1991 with the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union.