Much More than a Game

I’ve never been a big hockey fan. I’ve been to a few college and semi-pro games and of course enjoyed them in person, but it’s never been something to catch my eye and hold onto it when I’m flipping channels.

I’ve got my favorite teams, I suppose. Teams I took a liking to when I was a kid — the Boston Bruins. The New York Rangers. The Chicago Blackhawks. Even the Minnesota North Stars. I think the colors mattered. But honestly, I couldn’t tell you a thing about them right now (and yeah, I know the North Stars moved to Dallas). I might be able to name a current player — in the league, not specifically on one of those teams. But that could be a stretch.

And that’s a shame. I’ve skated before, and we used to fool around in the backyard when we had a tiny rink to play on. The skill needed to be able to do some of the things they do on the ice is obvious, and there’s no doubt these guys are incredible athletes. But it just hasn’t caught on with me. And you think it would, because my brothers love the game. And I kind of like soccer, and there are some minor similarities. Except hockey is so fast and the puck so small that it’s hard to follow on TV.

But I’ve got to admit — the greatest game in all of American sports history belongs to hockey. The 1980 winter Olympics match between the United States and the Soviet Union. A bunch of hardened veterans who seldom lost, gunning for their 5th straight gold medal, against a bunch of college kids. I’ve got no problems at all watching that game again, even knowing the result.

There was so much more going on than the game, and maybe it’s hard for anyone born after it happened (the Soviet Union went on to collapse just a dozen years later) to really put themselves there. I can think of no comparison that would help. The Soviet Union was a military powerhouse with nukes. They had no problem marching into whatever peripheral country and installing the government they wanted (kind of like what Russia is about to do with the Ukraine). And they had the means to field whole teams in any sport of incredible “amateur” athletes to compete and dominate. All while Americans could only send true amateurs.

So in 1980, when the Americans beat them , it was an accomplishment beyond belief. Al Michaels wasn’t kidding when he asked, “Do you believe in miracles?” It wasn’t just one team beating another. It wasn’t even just one rival beating another. It was a system of freedom standing up and beating a system of oppression. A system that allowed a group of college kids to play the game they loved this one time on the world stage against a system of rigid structure that favored putting the absolute best athletes in place over their entire careers, not giving them a choice to go where they wanted and do what they wished. It was a microcosm of what these nations stood for. And where 9 times out of 10 , the Soviets would have beaten the Americans (they’d trounced them in an exhibition not much earlier), this one time it showed that even here on the ice the possibilities were so much greater.

It was much more than a game.