Frank Thomas

Notable Sports Figures
1980 U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team
cott of the upcoming 1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow in protest of the Afghanistan invasion, the Soviet
government was determined to send a team to Lake
Placid to not only compete but win on American soil.
Expectations were low for the U.S. Hockey team
going into the 1980 winter games. Since 1960, American
presence on the world hockey stage had been dwindling.
To counter this trend, the U.S. turned to the gruff hardedged
coach from the University of Minnesota, Herb
Brooks. During the 1970’s, Brooks was the most successful
college hockey coach in the nation. He led the University
of Minnesota to three NCAA ice hockey
championships. Coach Brooks’ first responsibility was to
recruit a team that would be able to compete on the world
stage. In doing so he relied heavily on his successful Minnesota
squad. More than half his roster was comprised of
Minnesota players such as Mike Ramsey, Neal Broten,
and David Christian. In order to avoid the appearance of
favoritism, Brooks rounded out his team with players
from several mid-western schools such as Wisconsin,
Bowling Green, and the University of Minnesota at Duluth.
Other notable additions to the team were supplied by
long time Minnesota rival Boston University, namely
goaltender Jim Craig and team captain Mike Eruzione.
Divide and Defeat, Unite and Conquer
The next problem that befell Coach Brooks was how
to eliminate the regional rivalries amongst the team and
Chronology
1980 U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team
1979 Win Christmas exhibition tournament against the Soviets
1980 Coach Brooks brings in new try-outs in January in an attempt
to unite current team
1980 Lose 11-3 to the Red Army Team during an exhibition game
1980 Olympic games begin February 12
1980 Defeat the Soviets on February 22
1980 Win the Gold medal by defeating Finland February 24
2002 Reunite to light the Olympic Cauldron February 8
unite them into a single American squad. To accomplish
this Herb Brooks created an adversarial environment pitting
him against the team. He went so far as to bring in
new tryouts only weeks prior to the start of the
Olympics threatening to replace the current team. The
move forced his players to threaten to quit thus galvanizing
them into a solid, single unit. Although abrasive
and confrontational, the style worked well.
In preparation for Lake Placid, the U.S. team engaged
in several pre-Olympic matches against World
Class opponents in both Europe and North America. The
American squad performed extremely well posting a 42-
15-3 record. During a Christmas tournament in 1979,
held in Lake Placid, the U.S. defeated the Soviet National
B team to claim a gold medal. The success of the
Americans began to raise questions as to whether or not
the team had the potential to seriously compete for a
medal. Any bourgeoning hopes were soon to be dashed.
On February 9, 1980, just three days prior to the
opening ceremonies in Lake Placid, an exhibition game
was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City
between the streaking U.S. squad and the Soviet national
team. Given the deep freeze of the “Cold War,” further
aggravated by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
and boycott talks, the crowd was rather hostile towards
the visiting Russians. The men of the Red Army completely
dominated the youthful Americans. The final
score was eleven to three and left no doubt in the minds
of U.S. hockey fans as well as the rest of the world as to
just who would win gold in Lake Placid. The Americans
were left wondering how they could compete.
Let the Games Begin
Opening ceremonies for thirteenth Winter Olympic
Games were held February 12, 1980. In the ice hockey
competition there were twelve teams competing, organized
into two pools of six. The U.S. team was seeded
seventh and there were some who believed the Americans
would be able to compete for the Bronze. It was
widely believed the Soviet Union had all but claimed the
Gold and that Czechoslovakia and Sweden would be the
main contenders for the Silver.
During the first round of pool competition, the Soviet
hockey machine rolled to a perfect 5-0 record outscoring
1673