Recently I watched a documentary about the 1980 Olympic Men’s Hockey Team.  The story has been told plenty of times before, including some great one (Disney) to some awful ones, and even one showing from the point of view of the Russians. When the countdown for the final seconds is going, I still start tearing up, it is one of the great moments in U.S. sports and gave some energy to a country that needed it. 

Hopefully, this is not a spoiler for anyone as this should be something like “the Titanic sank,” most people have heard the story and ending. I do want to remind people of what was going on leading up to the games. 

  • 1973 saw the start of the Oil Embargo  
  • 1979 Was the Iranian Revolution  
  • There was an Oil Shortage  
  • Saw Long lines at gas stations  
  • Odd / Even days, based on License plates  
  • The US was in a Stagflation 
    • High Inflation 13-14%  
    • Weak Growth (wages/GDP) 
    • People felt poorer even if employed  
  • Prime interest Rates were in the high teens 
  • Mortgage Rates were 18-20%  
  • Unemployment sat at 7-8%  
  • Vietnam was looming over our heads 
  • Iranian Hostage crisis where 52 Americans were held captive  
  • We were at Peak Cold Ware with Russia  
  • USSR Invaded Afghanistan  
  • The US boycotts the Summer Olympics (in Russia) 

The US Hockey team in 1980 did something amazing in sports but did something more amazing to the US. It bonded us together, as we now had a common enemy that everyone seemed to get behind. And through college kids and Herb Brooks captured all the US. hearts. Hockey was a niche sport, it was not played in Texas, Alabama, Florida etc. The team was mostly made up of kids from Minnesota and Massachusetts. 

In my lifetime, that was one of a few events that brought the country together.  The rest of them were tragedies. September 11th was another. The country seemed different on the 12th than it did before. Watching that movie, the one thing going through my mind is how divided we are right now, how much trouble this country faces, but there is not one event or common enemy for us to get behind. Instead, we choose to fight each other and blame anyone but ourselves.  

This made me think, what common enemy will bring us back, what one event can get people united. It will be catastrophic, as we do not see the challenges we face as ones to unite us. The problems in this country do not have a single face to them; they are more complex. And instead of finding solutions, we chose to find anger and blame.  

These Olympics will not change anything, no matter what medals we bring home. The Hockey team could win gold, and we will have pride in their success. But it will not unite us or bring us back together. I hope we get there, and unfortunately, I do not have an answer. But I will watch this and other stories about our 1980 Miracle on Ice and will cry every time I hear the countdown of the clock and wait to hear Al Michaels famous call, “Do you believe in Miracles.” For once I hope so.  

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 This Blog is a labor of love and was originally going to be a book. With the advent of being able to publish yourself on the web, I chose this path. I will write many of these and not worry too much about grammar or spelling (I will try to come back later and fix it) but focus on content. I apologize in advance for my ADD as topics may flip. I hope one day to turn this into a book and or a podcast, but for now it will remain a blog.  AI is not used in this writing other than using the web to find information. Images without notes are created using an AI tool that allows me to reuse them. And as always spelunz iz opshunal.