By Chuck Lauer, Healthcare Policy Expert
Recently I had the privilege to play a round of golf at the hallowed Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, home of the Master's Golf Tournament, one of the four major championships on the PGA Tour. For an average golfer like me, being able to walk the same fairways graced by history’s greatest golfers is one of the most fulfilling experiences of a lifetime.
Soon I learned that not only was I getting to play Augusta, my foursome would include Mike Eruzione, who was the captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice,” one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
For those of you too young to remember, the upset transcended hockey and even sports. Our nation at the time was in the doldrums from ineffective leadership by a weak president and the fact that a number of our citizens had been taken prisoner by Iranian militants. Frankly, the nation's morale was at its lowest ebb and there didn't seem to be anything that could change things. But then came the 1980 Olympics, and one improbable victory.
So I was excited to see Mike Eruzione again. I had met him once before and had found him to be a wonderful individual. Mike scored the winning goal in the U.S.S.R.-U.S. game, held at Lake Placid in upstate New York. I get goose bumps every time I see the video of that game. In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the "Miracle on Ice" the Top Sports Moment of the 20th Century. Here was a group of college hockey players playing a group of outstanding veteran professional Soviet hockey players in a game that many felt would be a complete rout of the American team. As a matter of fact, about 10 days before the Miracle on Ice game the U.S.S.R. had routed the U.S. at Madison Square Garden in New York.
No other hockey game has ever been accorded the publicity and significance of the Miracle on Ice. I can still recall at the conclusion of the game, the famed sports announcer Al Michaels blurting out, "Do you believe in miracles?" Well, it was a miracle and it's something I personally will never forget.
So why would I go all the way back to 1980 and talk about a hockey game that was won by the Americans over the Soviet team? It's because of a recent news story that starts out thusly: “Finally, the mystery is solved. How could the Soviet Union lose to the over-matched USA team in the Miracle on Ice? And why did Victor Tikhonov pull the great VladislavTretiak?" (By way of clarity and so you understand the cast of characters, Victor Tikhonov was the coach of the Sovietteam and VladislavTretiak was its goalie.)
The story continues: “Fetisov — in the new documentary Red Army which is the subject of a feature in this week's Sports Illustrated — says then-CCCP coach Tikhonovwas beholden to the KGB and favored Moscow Dynamo players such as goalie Vladimir Myshkin over Red Army players. Dynamo represented the KGB. Fetisov and Tretiak played for CSKA Moscow, which represented the Red Army. Of course, Tikhonov famously and inexplicably – until now – pulled Tretiak in favor of Myshkin after one period of the 4-3 loss.”
There's more to the article but suffice it to say that what bothered me was the inference that the only reason the U.S. team was able to beat the U.S.S.R. team was because the coach of the Soviet team chose to use the wrong players in the game. The fact is that no matter who the players were they were still much more experienced professionals who lost to a U.S. team of college kids, who out hustled the Soviets. The Soviets took the Americans for granted and for anybody who has been around sports long enough knows what can happen when you simply show up and expect to win.
I hear the “Red Army” documentary, about the iron discipline and sacrifices many of Soviet hockey players had to endure, is excellent, and I am looking forward to seeing it. But to taint the great 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team victory with politics and favoritism is a stretch of the facts and defies reason. The fact is that our team won the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal by outplaying a bunch of professional hockey players who forgot that competitive excellence includes always taking your opponent seriously.
It’s a lesson to remember, whether in sports, business or even politics.