If you're at least as old as me, you remember the moment. Team USA stunned the mighty Soviet Union 30 years ago today.
Today, my kids have a moment to remember, too. Team USA 5, Team Canada 3.
Yeah, it was that big. Too bad a lot of the country didn't see it. Thanks to the people that brought you the debacle known as The Tonight Show, NBC showed ice dancing -- whatever the hell that is -- and relegated the biggest win for an American team in Olympic competition in two generations to cable offspring MSNBC. The irony is the network put Bode Miller's gold-winning effort in skiing on tape-delay to show the Czech Republic - Russia hockey game live, then pushed the American hockey team to cable television for ice dancing.
Jeff Zucker, shame on you. How you have such a great job when so many Americans do not is unfathomable.
Even I didn't realize it had been 50 years since the stars and stripes had draped atop the maple leaf. Our inspired American boys, wearing replica sweaters from Team USA's 1960 Olympic championship team, struck a blow for our country in our rival's Vancouver backyard. Make no mistake, last night's win does not eclipse 1980's 'Miracle on Ice' in Lake Placid, New York, but it's close. The Canadians own hockey. It's their game, their tradition, their heritage. The Russians were our hated military rival and one of the most formidable hockey machines in the game's history, but Canada always was and always will be America's chief hockey rival.
It's just a game, but winning inspires pride. And Michigan hasn't felt this kind of pride in a long while.
There's a slim relevance to yesterday's win and that epic 1980 victory that lifted the spirits of an entire country. Today, our boys are the ones walking tall and standing proud, and a beleaguered state certainly feels a a little bit better about itself. Much like the country in 1980, Michigan is a shell of its former self. Unemployment remains beyond explanation, the brain-drain that is the mass exodus from Michigan continues and there hasn't been a lot to feel proud about in Michigan for a long time.
Last year the Detroit Red Wings heartbreakingly dropped Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals in their old, noisy barn and the Detroit Tigers lost the division on the last day of the season. The Pistons have been broken and snapped and the Lions are the worst team in pro football history.
I haven't lived there in almost a year but I can promise you, at the Senate Coney Island or Mason's Lounge in Livonia, the talk isn't about a failing economy, closing schools or military cutbacks at the old 70th Division headquarters on Schoolcraft Road. Native son Ryan Kesler's clinching goal into the empty net last night is the big news.
You can be assured Ryan Miller's stalwart performance between the pipes is being lauded by Michigan Wolverines all across the mitten. And while Miller represents the first family of Michigan State hockey, Spartans are surely singing the praises of Ann Arbor's Jack Johnson. The former Wolverine buzzed all night in a performance he prepped for wearing the maize n' blue in iconic Yost Ice Arena.
Finally, had Molson Canadian handed out three stars as they do in National Hockey League games, the game's No. 1 star might have been announced like this:
"From Dearborn, Michigan, representing the Detroit Red Wings, No. 28, defencemen Brian Rafalski!"
Two goals, an assist on the winner and an amazing poke check late in the third period that defined his defensive presence all night. Michigan might have claimed all three stars last night. A great state hat trick to remember one of America's greatest Olympic victories by, huh?
An amazing performance by a team few have mentioned in the same sentence with the word contender, much less favorite, for the Gold Medal. Stand proud, Michigan. From Maryland to Montana, New Hampshire to Nevada, your country thanks you.
Regards...
~T.C. Cameron would have been cheering in the arena press box last night. Awesome job, boys!
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