The Miracle on Ice

You are standing near the Herb Brooks Arena, the ice rink where the most famous moment in American sports history unfolded on the twenty second of February, nineteen eighty. The Soviet Union hockey team was the best in the world, a machine that had won gold at four straight Olympics and had crushed the American Olympic team in an exhibition less than two weeks earlier by a score of ten to three. The United States roster, by contrast, was made up of amateurs and college players, coached by a demanding man named Herb Brooks.

Almost no one gave them a chance. But that afternoon, before a packed and roaring hometown crowd, the young Americans hung on, and with the United States leading four to three in the final seconds, broadcaster Al Michaels delivered the line that became legend, do you believe in miracles, yes. The win did not clinch the gold medal, the Americans still had to beat Finland two days later, which they did.

But coming amid a tense stretch of the Cold War, the victory lifted an entire nation. Sports Illustrated later named it the top sports moment of the twentieth century. In two thousand five, this arena was renamed in honor of Herb Brooks, and it is still an active rink today.