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25 years ago today -- "Do you believe in miracles?"
chanting of USA -- USA. It was that hockey team that first heard those words USA -- USA The Miracle on Ice was more than just an Olympic upset; to many Americans, it was an ideological victory in the Cold War as meaningful as the Berlin Airlift or the Apollo moon landing. The upset came at an auspicious time: President Jimmy Carter had just announced that the United States was going to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and Americans, faced with a major recession and the Iran hostage crisis, were in dire need of something to celebrate. After the game, President Carter called the players to congratulate them, and millions of Americans spent that Friday night in revelry over the triumph of "our boys" over the Russian pros. As ABC hockey announcers Al Michaels and Ken Dryden walked through Lake Placid one afternoon a quarter-century ago, they talked about the sliver-sized hope they had for the upcoming game at Olympic Center. No, not about the United States hockey team beating the mighty Soviet Union -- that would have been ridiculous. Maybe, they reasoned, the U.S. could keep it a game for two periods. It would be great if they could keep the score to, say, 3-1. That's all anyone could ask for. "Just give us a game that isn't a complete rout," Michaels said. Several hours later, the United States clung to a 4-3 lead. The Olympic Center was in a frenzy. Finally, as the puck skittered toward center ice and the last seconds ticked off, another thought -- a single word -- replaced "ridiculous" in Michaels' head. Michaels then translated that spontaneous thought, that word, into the single most famous phrase in sportscasting history, one he swears was unscripted: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" "I don't know where 'Yes!' came from," Michaels said last week. "I still don't know where 'Do you believe in miracles?' came from. It was a stroke of good fortune. . . . It provided a signature for what had taken place." Posted by: Sherry 2005-02-22 |
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