Brooks

Brooks - To me, Hockey has pretty much always been something that clogs up the space between the World Series and pitchers reporting for spring training. It's never really grabbed me. I'm from North Dakota, which, despite the presence of perennial power UND (whose team is perennially imported from out of state or Canada) and being coated in ice probably seven months a year, just isn't hockey country.

But Powerline quotes from a wonderful Wall Street Journal piece on the meaning of Herb Brooks' 1980 triumph in Lake Placid in the context of the Cold War:

"'The victory in Lake Placid in 1980 was an inspiring moment at a time when Americans needed it most. The game took place on February 22, two months after the Soviets' Christmas Day invasion of Afghanistan and just three months after Americans had been taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. With the U.S. setbacks in those proxy states, Cold War victory seemed more probable for Moscow.

'In hockey, the Soviets were the reigning world power and the college players Mr. Brooks coached weren't expected to have a chance against the older, more experienced Russian players, some of whom played for military teams. A week before the Games opened, the Soviets clobbered the home team 10-3 in an exhibition game at Madison Square Garden. The Americans were 'boys being sent on a man's errand,' a Canadian sports writer opined.

'And then the Yanks won, thanks to a fast-paced style of play developed by Mr. Brooks. Lake Placid and the rest of the country erupted in flag-waving, song-singing celebration. Jimmy Carter called with an invitation to the White House. The U.S. went on to defeat Finland for the gold medal.

'Politics has been the backdrop for some of the most thrilling moments in Olympic history, and 1980 wasn't the first time that the competition between freedom and totalitarianism had been played out in the Games. In Berlin in 1936, Jesse Owens did something no European had been able to do: show up Hitler. In Melbourne in 1956, a month after Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian uprising, the Hungarian team defeated the Russians in a bloody game of water polo.

'By the end of the 1980s, the Soviet empire had collapsed -- an event, we now know, was foreshadowed in the early weeks of that decade by Mr. Brooks's 'Miracle on Ice.''"

Pardon me, Powerguys, for quoting so liberally - but it's a great piece.

Posted by Mitch at August 13, 2003 12:26 PM