The post From the MHM Vault: Miracle on Ice Remembered appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

A moment that brought the country together in a positive way came with the Miracle on Ice when the United States men’s hockey team defied the odds to beat the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics. This Saturday, Feb. 22, marks the 40th anniversary of the game.

For team captain Mike Eruzione, it’s hard to believe it’s been that long.

“People felt a part of it,” said Eruzione on a conference call with the media on Feb. 13. “And it’s nice to know 40 years later that it’s not on the tip of people’s tongues, but it’s nice to know that people remember and share some great stories about what we did so long ago.”

In the game in Lake Placid, the United States tied the game 2-2 with one second left in the first period on a goal from Mark Johnson. The Soviets took a 3-2 lead through two periods before Johnson scored again in the third and Eruzione scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal with 10 minutes left in regulation for the 4-3 lead and eventual victory.

When the puck was at center ice with less than 10 seconds to go in the game, there would be no final scoring rush for the Soviets. Broadcaster Al Michaels came up with one word in his head: “Miraculous.”

“That’s just the word that popped in,” Michaels said. “And it got morphed into a question and quick answer, and away we went.

“This was a gigantic, gigantic upset.”

As the clock ticked down to zero and the American players started to celebrate, Michaels offered up one of the most famous lines in sports: “Do you believe in miracles?”

Michaels, who’s gone on to a lengthy sports broadcasting career, said he gets asked “a hundred thousand times” if he gets tired of talking about this game. His answer is no.

“Because people love to talk about it,” Michaels said. “It’s a great event, and there were so many fantastic stories that have come out of it.”

Al Michaels at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
(ABC/Steve Fenn)

When the United States beat Finland 4-2 to actually win the gold medal (“I still think to this day people think we only played one game, that in fact, the only game we played was against the Soviets,” Eruzione said.) Michaels offered up this call: “This impossible dream comes true.” Eruzione said he thought that was Michaels’ best call, which, perhaps like the Finland game, gets lost in this whole thing.

“You know, I never thought it was a miracle,” Eruzione said of the call to end the game against the Soviet Union. “But it was a catchy phrase, and it sounded right.

“Everybody gets caught up in ‘Do you believe in miracles?’ Yes, but I thought ‘this impossible dream comes true’ was even greater.”

With the anniversary year now hitting the 40 mark, plenty of people today either weren’t born yet to witness the moment, or they were too young to remember. But that doesn’t mean the younger generations are oblivious to the Miracle. That’s especially true in the state of hockey with plenty of Minnesotans (and many Golden Gophers) on the U.S. roster. That included Neal Broten, Dave Christian, Rob McClanahan and Bill Baker.

Eruzione still gets a ton of letters in the mail, and many start out mentioning they weren’t born in 1980, but they saw the 2004 Disney movie “Miracle” or had a family member tell them about the big game.

“So, I think the moment still stands to young boys and young girls and young men and young women that look at what our team did, and maybe they can do that same thing,” Eruzione said.

There’s another aspect of significance to the 1980 Olympic team in Eruzione’s eyes. It made people finally look at American hockey players and college players as a talented group of people, he said. Before that Olympics, Americans didn’t have as much opportunity in the NHL. Players could maybe play junior hockey but not the NHL, Eruzione said.

“I’ve said this before, I think in 1980 it might have opened the door for Americans,” Eruzione said. “Today’s players have clearly knocked the door down.”

Just take a look at the raw numbers, and Eruzione has a point. According to QuantHockey.com, the 1979-80 NHL season, 83.7% percent of NHL players were from Canada with only 11% (72 players) coming from the United States. Those included Warroad’s Christian, Richfield’s Steve Christoff, Johnson, McClanahan and former Wild assistant coach Mike Ramsey, all on the 1980 Olympic team.

Mike Eruzione

“We weren’t a goofy bunch of guys that got together, and Herb used to call us the lunch pail hardhat group of guys, but we had some talent,” Eruzione said. “We had some kills.”

That percentage slowly increased throughout the next decade and continued to grow, jumping to 16.6% (120 U.S. players) in 1989-90. This season, there are 242 U.S.-born players making up 25.6% percent of the NHL.

But prior to the 1980 Olympics, only 49 U.S.-born players were in the NHL in 1978-79, including Bill Butters of the Minnesota North Stars. In 1969-70 another North Star, Duluth’s Tommy Williams, was one of six U.S. players in the league. A decade before that in 1959-60, only two players from the United States to 150 from Canada were in the NHL.

Michaels has seen the growth of hockey now, too. He has a 13-year-old grandson who plays in a traveling league in Southern California. He played in a tournament in Lake Placid last fall, winning a gold medal.

“I mean, this is where hockey has now come, to the point where in Southern California these kids are playing around the clock,” Michaels said.

Having such a famous call in sports, Michaels will also remember that special moment in 1980 as one that galvanized the country, something that brought people together.

“This brought the country together in a way that I’ve never seen,” Michaels said. “This was such a great event and such a happy event and such a thrilling event, and for it to happen in the sport of hockey, which was Canada’s sport and had pretty much become the Soviet Union’s sport, and down the pecking order is the United States, but this hockey game was able to galvanize the country.”

The post 40 Years Later, Miracle on Ice Impact Endures appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Maybe you weren’t born yet, but you’ve probably seen enough videos and movies, and heard the breathtaking stories recounting of Team USA’s thrilling 4-3 upset over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey tournament, that you can convince yourself you were there, watching!

We all have ways to celebrate things of historic proportions, and this weekend gives all hockey fans in Minnesota the opportunity to pay tribute to the most spectacular event in sports history. Whether you’re in Saint Paul, or Duluth, or in a bookstore, you can reflect on the 40th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice.”  Team USA, made up mostly of Minnesota college standouts, came from behind three times to upset the powerful Soviet Union 4-3, and went on to beat Finland 4-2 two days later to capture the 1980 Olympic gold at Lake Placid, N.Y.

This Saturday, February 22, there is a free event called “Remember the Day,” focused on the Team USA victory, and choreographed by David Brooks, Herbie’s brother. Dave has created an amazing day of activity. Participants will gather before 1 p.m. right at the Herb Brooks statue near the east entrance of Xcel Center.

“We’ve got a parade with 50 groups in it, and John Mayasich and [Wild owner] Craig Leopold are grand marshalls,” said Dave Brooks. “We’ve got 27 former North Stars and Fighting Saints and other NHL players, and we’ve got 2,000 Peewees, Bantams and Midgets separated onto 12 different teams — each one wearing uniforms the colors of one of the 1980 Olympic teams.

“They’re all in a parade that goes from Herbie’s statue, through Saint Paul, to CHS field, where the St. Paul Saints baseball team plays. When we get to the field, the players will find that we’ve installed a hockey rink on the field, and we’re going to have a tournament, with all 12 teams playing a 30-minute game. It’s all for fun, and it will lead up to the U.S. team playing the Russians in the finale.”

Afterward, the youth hockey players will mingle with former Olympians and ex-pro hockey players on the stadium’s top level, in a suite, become honored guests themselves at a party at the ballpark.

“In the parade, we’re going to be tossing foam pucks to the crowd, and we’ve got 5,000 replica gold medals to give out,” Brooks said. “At the ballpark, we’ve got the suite all set up for a party for the kids and adults. We’re going to have an Olympic opening ceremonies with a torch carrier coming down a slide, and we’ve go a singer to perform the U.S. and Russian national anthems. It should all be over by about 3 p.m., and then we’re going to have the celebrities and former players signing autographs up in the suite.”

It sounds like a fantastic day, and best of all, it’s all free to the public. Dave Brooks, who spends his winter alternating between his new part-time home in Florida and running various business ventures in Saint Paul, put the whole thing together, and it sounds like the perfect tribute for the 1980 Team USA. As usual, Dave Brooks will be in the background as much as he can — the perfect venue for the guy who refers to himself as “HLB” — Herbie’s Little Brother.

I was in Lake Placid, covering the Olympic hockey tournament in as much depth as I could muster for the Minneapolis Tribune, and I’ve already celebrated the event, and the memory of the event, with a new book, “Miracle in Lake Placid,” published by Skyhorse Publishing of New York, a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster. The book is just out, and I’ve done a few signings, as well as being the subject of two or three national satellite radio interviews. I’ll be able to discuss and sign books at both “Herbie’s,” the restaurant and lounge adjacent to Herbie’s statue, and at the ballpark.

Afterwards, I can hustle back to Duluth for the Saturday night Class 7A semifinals at AMSOIL Arena, where powerful Hermantown will face Eveleth-Gilbert and defending champion Greenway of Coleraine will take on the best Duluth Denfeld team in two decades. When Sunday rolls around, there is more.

My book and I will be a focal point for The Bookstore at Fitger’s “Author Talk” on Sunday, from 1-3 p.m. in the Spirit of the North Theater, up on the third floor of Fitger’s. The bookstore conducts such events every once in a while, when an author of a recent book is either local or available, and I’m working on doing my best to make it a memorable event.

We’ll have exclusive and previously unseen photos from those 1980 games, to provide a fitting backdrop. Anybody with an interest in hockey, or in reminiscing about the 1980 Olympics, can attend, free, for a free-ranging discussion of the inside happenings that led up to that incredible two-week tournament. It produced the most astounding gold medal triumph in Olympic history, and it will be fun. I’ll sign books for as many as we can sell as well.

After that, of course, we can hustle down to AMSOIL Arena where UMD and Wisconsin will tangle in the final game of the regular WCHA Women’s season. UMD needs to stay ahead of Ohio State for third place and a better playoff position, and Wisconsin needs to win to stay ahead of Minnesota for the league championship — for which the winner gets a bye in the quarterfinals.

Not to be overlooked, Mark Johnson, the top scorer on Team USA in then 1980 Olympics, and who scored two goals in that 4-3 stunner over the USSR, just happens to be the coach of the Wisconsin women’s team.

But as a warm-up, think up some questions about the 1980 US team, or about the movie, Miracle, and stop on down to Fitger’s.

The post A Parade of Memories appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Absence of NHL might return purity to Olympic hockey   

Hockey will still be the primary attraction at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, but it will be out of curiosity more than rampant nationalistic fervor. A whole generation of new hockey fans will be amazed to see the Olympic hockey tournament. completely devoid of National Hockey League superstars.

   To that I say “Good riddance.”

   That’s not because I dislike the NHL, or the presence of so many high-skilled Europeans playing in the NHL. I love hockey at all levels, and the NHL represents its own pinnacle. But while it was great to see the NHL stars representing their countries, I got to experience two Winter Olympic hockey tournaments, one each way, and I realize that international hockey doesn’t need the dictatorial influence of the NHL, which considers the terms “participation” and “control” as synonymous.

   Since 1998, the NHL has closed up shop and allowed its players to return to their national teams, including the U.S., Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Latvia, and any other countries that produce players of NHL quality. The changeover, heralded by most as a true world tournament of the world’s best players, makes this year an abrupt change back. Almost none of the players — even on the U.S. and Canada — will be  close to the NHL household names of the last 20 years.

Pavel Datsyuk (Photo by Jonny Watkins)

   Two notable exceptions make my choice easy for the gold medal: Russia. Or the independent athletes representing Russia, whichever is determined to be valid. Pavel Datsyuk, who was among the best players in the NHL for the past decade, retired from the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL and took his family home to Russia. He is playing in the KHL, the Russian Kontinental Hockey League, which is clearly the second best pro league to the NHL, and Datsyuk is cavorting around like a 20-year-old, making magnificent plays and scoring sensational goals.

  In a roster listing of all the members of all the nations, Datsyuk’s name leaps off the page as the best individual player in the Olympics, even as he moves closer to his 40th birthday. Great as he is, Datsyuk’s individual skills are better suited to making his linemates and teammates better. That brings us to Ilya Kovalchuk, a mere pup of 34, and Datsyuk’s teammate on the St. Petersburg KHL team. Presumably they will play together on the Russian team, and alone, they make Russia a prohibitive favorite.

  The biggest name on Team USA might be Brian Gionta, former Boston College star who played for New Jersey, Montreal, and Buffalo, choosing to not re-sign with the Sabres after they acquired Jason Pominville from the Wild, in favor of being captain of Team USA. Former St. Cloud State scoring star Garrett Roe, ex-Gopher Ryan Stoa, both playing in Europe, and current WCHA players Troy Terry of Denver and defenseman Will Borgen of St. Cloud State also were named to the roster by coach Tony Granato.

St. Cloud State defenseman, and current Olympian, Will Borgen. (St. Cloud State Athletics)

  My recommendation would have been to call together representatives from all the college leagues and, just after the first of the year, select a college all-star team to go to the Olympics as Team USA. They would be youthful, exuberant, exciting, highly skilled, and if lacking pro experience, they would have been a huge attraction to the television moguls who are still looking for another miracle.

  Canada’s most recognizable names might be Mason Raymond, who starred at UMD and had some strong years with Vancouver in the NHL, before signing to play in Bern, Switzerland, and Chay Genoway, a four-year puck-rushing defenseman and superstar at North Dakota. He was signed by the Minnesota Wild, but got only one game with the parent club, and signed to play for Lada in the KHL.

  Very good players, but a considerable distance from Pavel Datsyuk.

  To me, the best part of the change to allow NHL players was to level the rink, to coin a phrase, for all countries, compared to the days when Russian and other European players who stayed home to play in their own leagues, where they might have been paid, but they also held jobs or were in the military to remain “amateurs” in the eyes of the Olympics, against the true amateurs from the U.S. and Canada.

  And perhaps the worst change in the tournament structure is because of the overwhelming influence of network television money — the only thing more dominant than the NHL. After Herb Brooks led Team USA to its incredible 1980 gold medal, the TV networks who were caught by surprise gathered all its forces for the 1984 Winter Olympics, anticipating another miracle. When the U.S. fell short of unfair expectations, the networks were left with huge plots of time and no Team USA. So they enforced a change to something that U.S. viewers could more easily understand.

  Instead of the traditional round-robin preliminary play that led to the top two teams coming together in an extension of that round-robin, which is why top-seeded Soviets and Sweden were scheduled in the final game, so the U.S. had to play the Soviets in the next-to-last round, then face Finland on the final day. Viewers who recall that might remember that the U.S. networks taped the game and played it back in prime time, while Canada television simply adjusted to show the gold-medal game live, in the afternoon.

  Apparently, U.S. viewers aren’t considered bright enough to figure out the unique and compelling round-robin structure, and must have an NCAA-basketball-like bracket of quarterfinals, semifinals and final. That, presumably, will never change back.

  After the NHL let its players loose to play in 1998 at Nagano, Japan, the next turn was 2002 in Salt Lake City, and I had the opportunity to lead one of the dozen separate staffs for the Olympic Committee, with our responsibility the intra-net computer reporting on hockey for all the on-site media types who couldn’t cover all the simultaneous events. Immediately after games, we sent a result piece, press conference story, and various pertinent sidebar features. It was fun and gratifying to watch up close and from the inside, particularly because Herb Brooks coached Team USA.

   We also produced off-game-day features, and I wrote one about how unfair it was of the NHL to hold all its players back until the day before the games actually started. Some of the lesser countries, including Latvia, had its hopes pinned to only a couple of standout players, and because the NHL wouldn’t release them, their plane was landing as Latvia was being eliminated in a preliminary round game. I wrote about it.

   Next thing I knew, a quite-abrasive fellow from the NHL office was present, and assumed control over what I was controlling, editing and even delaying the deadlline stories we produced, to assure any information going to the world’s media would be positive PR for the NHL, rather than incisive facts we accumulated. When I had a long discussion about the situation with the Olympic Committee’s very astute media director, he hesitantly explained to me that he was powerless to do anything to counter the NHL’s control.

  Of course, the NHL was just as eager for Canada to win as the U.S., and when Canada beat the U.S. team in the gold medal final, any observer of the media enclosure would have been certain the Games were being held in a Canadian city as in the U.S.  Another strong NHL influence was to get the Olympic tournament played on NHL size rinks, rather than the traditional 200×100 international ice sheets, which allow much more playmaking and skating and much less forced congestion.

  The more recent games are in harsh contrast to the purity of coverage in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980, when I had the thrill of covering all the hockey in the most spectacular Winter Olympics hockey tournament ever. That, also, was a Herb Brooks production, only at that time the official pros of the NHL were not allowed, and only the European pros who were employed outside their hockey endeavors were allowed. That meant all the players from the Soviet Union, Sweden, Finland, the Czechs, Germany and others were essentially pros, while Brooks conquered all with his college-based team that included a dozen Minnesotans and seven from his 1979 University of Minnesota NCAA champions.

   That truly was a “Miracle on Ice,” and covering it was extra special because nobody thought the U.S. had a chance, and almost none of the other media people knew anything about the U.S. players, who had trained for the previous year based in Met Center in Bloomington.

  My favorite recollections are from watching all the games I could, marveling at the skill level of the Soviets and the Swedish and Finnish teams, because our apartment was a last-moment deal at a home across the street from the high school, which was the Olympic Media Center, and the adjacent arena, where all the games were.

  My other favorite moment was when Brooks walked off from the interview room the day after the U.S. had stunned powerful Sweden with a 2-2 tie in the last minute. Brooks had confided in me that he didn’t want to bring two players to post-game media sessions, but figured he had to, right up until the Soviets said they would not. That allowed Brooks, still striving for East-West unity, to leave his players in their dressing room while he met the media. New York columnist Mike Lupica ripped him for being so egotistical he would not allow any of his players to be interviewed — which was far easier than to go out into the cold night air and interview whichever players he wanted to, if he only knew them. Brooks declared that if the columnist he’d never met thought he was coming alone because of his ego, from then on the media could talk to his assistant, Craig Patrick, because Brooks wouldn’t be coming to any more interview sessions.

   I told Brooks he shouldn’t give up the world stage, and he told me he had arranged with the arena manager to hide out in his office after games, in an area the media could not get to, and that I could meet him in that office after every game. That meant I got exclusive interviews with Herb Brooks after every U.S. game, and still have time to race outside and talk to every U.S. player as they departed after showering and dressing.

   It remains a highlight of my career, and maybe one of the best parts of it was that any reporter could use instincts and personal initiative to cover the players and the Games as best they could. A far cry from what was to transpire in the six Winter Olympics tournaments since then.

Note to readers: This article will be in the soon-to-be-published February Winter Special Edition of Minnesota Hockey Magazine that features Hockey Day Minnesota 2018 and St. Cloud hockey.  It will be available in print at store newsstands across Minnesota including Target and Walmart.  Digital issue will be available on the PressPad mobile app platform for Minnesota Hockey Magazine via Apple Store and Amazon/Kindle.  If you want to get it free, subscribe to our e-Edition and it will be sent directly to your email box.  Thanks.  MHM Staff

The post Amateur Hour appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Forever-linked Johnson, Harrington to go head-to-head from the bench

They have trained together, played together on the most inspirational gold medal team in U.S. Olympic history and beat the USSR hockey juggernaut in the “Miracle on Ice.”

They have signed countless autographs while sitting by one another at memorabilia shows and stood next to one another while their teammates lit the Olympic torch. They have heard thousands of people go to the way-back machine and tell them where they were that February weekend in Lake Placid, N.Y. in 1980.

But they have never coached against one another – until this weekend in Mankato, Minn. when Mark Johnson leads the unbeaten University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team against first-year coach John Harrington and his über-young Minnesota State Mavericks.

“It will be awkward to see him on the other bench,” Johnson said. “The only time I ever coached against him was at fantasy camp at Lake Placid last March. My team won the gold medal.  John’s didn’t do so well.”

Johnson chuckled. He knows what a competitor Harrington is.  Sure enough, Harrington had a response for Johnson.

“I needed to fire my general manager who picked the fantasy team. Neal (Broten) was my GM and we had a poor draft,” Harrington said.

When it was suggested that Harrington has a tough time losing – at hockey or golf, or trivial pursuit, for that matter – the man known as “Bah” interrupted. “Mark is as competitive as I am. He just does it with a different demeanor than me.”

The friends and ex-teammates will come at this weekend’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association series with different perspectives. Johnson’s Badgers, an NCAA Frozen Four finalist last year, are unbeaten in eight games this season, have outscored opponents 42-2 and have registered a program-record (and WCHA record-tying) six-straight shutouts in league games.

Minnesota State head coach John Harrington (right). (WCHA.com photo)

Harrington’s Mavericks have yet to win a WCHA game and are 2-7-1 overall. The Mavs dropped a pair of games last weekend at Ohio State while skating 17 freshmen and sophomores. “We have two seniors and one hurt her ankle and the other had a concussion,” said Harrington. “We have a lot of growing pains, but our team is getting more accustomed to the pace of the league and getting better each week. But here comes Wisconsin who hasn’t allowed a goal to anyone and we are averaging 1.1 goals a game.

“I just hope Mark takes it easy on us,” Harrington said. The tone in his voice said Harrington’s team won’t roll over for the Big Red.

Harrington and Johnson have come a long way since being fresh-faced kids who stood on the podium at Lake Placid 35 years ago with gold medals around their necks, while the national anthem played and the country’s sports fans became hockey fans filled with patriotic frenzy.

They were “Bah” and “Magic” then. Harrington was a member of the Conehead Line with Mark Pavelich and Buzz Schneider, while Johnson earned the nickname Magic for his play as the Olympic team’s leading scorer. Now they are they are called grandpa around their families. Both are 58 years old, but still are in great shape physically – probably below the weight they played at in Lake Placid. Harrington works out religiously and Johnson ran his seventh Ironman Triathlon with his son Patrick over Labor Day weekend.

Both are hockey guys, lifers in a sport they love. They aren’t living in the past as characters in the movie “Miracle.” They have forged careers in the sport they love.

Before they became teammates on Herb Brooks’ 1980 Olympic team, Harrington and Johnson played against each other in the WCHA. Johnson played for his dad, the iconic Badger Bob Johnson, at Wisconsin, scoring 40 goals as a freshman in his hometown of Madison, Wis. and winning a NCAA title in 1977. Mark was an All-American who scored 125 goals and had 256 points in three seasons at UW.  Harrington was an overachieving, walk-on from Virginia, Minn. who played at Minnesota Duluth and became a force in the WCHA while playing on a line with fellow Iron Ranger and future Olympian Pavelich.

Following their collegiate careers, Johnson was the leading scorer on the U.S. Olympic team with 11 points, including two goals against the Russians, and Harrington was credited with an assist on Mike Eruzione’s go-ahead, game-winning goal against the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice” semifinal win. Harrington also played on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team, while Johnson went on to an 11-year career in the National Hockey League, including a 1983-84 season with Hartford when he was the Whalers’ leading scorer with 87 points and tied an NHL All-Star Game record with three assists.

Johnson and Harrington are the only two members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team to be actively coaching, after Mike Ramsey left the Minnesota Wild’s NHL organization two years ago. Both proudly consider themselves career coaches. Harrington has won titles as a Division III coach, a European pro coach; and, he won a pool B title as Team Slovenia’s head coach at the world championships. Johnson has 368 career victories in 13 seasons at Wisconsin, fourth best all-time in women’s collegiate hockey and 18 wins away from tying former Minnesota Duluth coach Shannon Miller for third place.

“All kidding aside, this will be exciting, coaching against Mark,” said Harrington. “He is one of the great coaches in women’s hockey. I have watched his games in the past as a fan but now, when I study his team on video more closely, I am impressed at how well they do the little things. They have a lot of talented players, but they are just a well-coached team.”

After Johnson’s playing days ended in 1993, he returned to Madison and started at the bottom of the coaching rung. Johnson was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Madison Memorial High School. The next year he coached at Verona High School and in 1995 took a pro job in the Colonial Hockey League with the Madison Monsters, where he coached current North Dakota coach Brian Idalski.

In 1996, the legendary Jeff Sauer hired Johnson to be an assistant coach with Wisconsin’s men’s team, a position he held until 2002 when Sauer retired. There are many folks in Madison today that still wish Johnson succeeded Sauer, but UW athletic director Pat Richter chose to hire Mike Eaves, a former teammate of Mark’s. Johnson then applied to be coach of the UW women’s program, got hired and has experienced great success.

With Johnson on the bench the last 12 years, the Badgers have won four NCAA titles, five WCHA playoff titles and four WCHA regular season crowns while producing four Patty Kazmaier Award winners.

The success has not gone unnoticed. Johnson was named coach of the U.S. Olympic team in 2010 and the American women collected the silver medal, losing 2-0 to Canada in Vancouver, B.C. He has become the face of women’s hockey to many people in North America, but Mark is not the outgoing salesman of the game that “Badger Bob” was. He is more a teacher, quietly explaining the game to anyone who will listen.

You have to ask both Johnson and Harrington if you want to talk about what happened in the Olympics in 1980. Harrington said his new team has yet to ask to see his gold medal. Aside from signing DVDs from the movie “Miracle” or politely talking with fans who bring up Lake Placid in 1980 at the rink, they are unlikely to talk about the past. Harrington sold his Olympic jersey and other gear last year to help finance his daughter in nursing school. They still do the occasional autograph show to sign memorabilia and coached together at the 1980 team fantasy reunion camp last winter. But both guys are very much coaches now, concerned with the present and not living in the past.

Johnson, whose daughter Mikayla is a winger on his team, said “he was very pleased” with his third-ranked team’s two shutout wins over No. 6 Bemidji last week. “Bemidji has a good team. They can limit your chances, have a good goalie and some seniors that can score. When we got (Sarah) Nurse back (from missing two games with an illness) we had a complete team and a good effort.”

Now it’s a road trip to face his old friend and the Mavericks.

Wisconsin head coach Mark Johnson. (WCHA.com photo)

“I think it will be fun,” said Johnson.  “Of all the players on the (1980 U.S. Olympic) team, you are closer to some more than others and Bah is one of those I have always been friends with. We have kept in contact over the years. When he was coaching at St. John’s (in Collegeville, Minn.), we’d talk a lot and we have kept in contact regularly.”

Harrington was an assistant coach at Denver and St. Cloud State (men’s team) before becoming the head coach at St. John’s from 1993-2008, where he led the Johnnies to a 241-142-31 record, five MIAC regular-season titles, five NCAA Division III tournament appearances and four MIAC playoff titles. He coached pro players in Switzerland and Austria and coached the Slovenian national team before taking a scouting job with the Colorado Avalanche. During his tenure with the Avs, Harrington helped out as a volunteer assistant with St. Cloud State’s women’s team and enjoyed the experience.

When the Minnesota State job opened up, Harrington applied for the job, conferred with his old buddy Mike Hastings, the Minnesota State men’s coach, and then called Johnson.

“We’ve had other talks about coaching over the years, but last spring at fantasy camp in Lake Placid, I talked to him about the women’s game and how he enjoyed it and the transition he made from coaching the men (as an assistant) at Wisconsin to becoming the women’s coach,” said Harrington.

“We just talked about the women’s game, in general, and about the league,” recalled Johnson. “I am glad it all worked out for him. He is a very knowledgeable coach. I am sure he is finding his way around the league right now, but he has had a lot of success over the years and I am sure he will there.”

This weekend’s games will be the second women’s series held at the renovated Verizon Wireless Center after years at old, rickety All Seasons Arena, and it will be the first series overhead with a large jumbotron scoreboard overhead.

“It is awesome,’’ said Harrington. “It is a good-looking arena now. Everyone who has seen the place is very impressed.”

“The move to the big rink will give him a fresh start. It was a good time for John to go in there,” Johnson said. “Obviously moving downtown and them renovating their facility downtown and bringing the women’s program back to that facility is a step that’s going to be really positive for that group to start over.”

In future years, there may be bragging rights at stake when Harrington and Johnson go head-to-head. This weekend, it may be more of a reunion, a time to catch up with an old friend who is starting a rebuilding project.

“John has a great track record with a lot of different programs,” said Johnson. “It will be his first time with the women’s side, but I think he’ll do a good job and have an opportunity to put women’s hockey on a different level in his city.”

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True inspiration is a timeless thing, a very human event.  Technology does not inspire the human soul, though the human soul can — and does — inspire the creation of technology.  This is not a story about technology, but it is a story about timeless inspiration, achieved before the dawn of the “Information Age”.

This is a tale of the inspiration of the human soul, forged by the human soul of one visionary man, who, in turn, inspired the souls of 20 young men who, in turn, inspired the souls of an entire nation (at a time when such inspiration was desperately needed) and continues to inspire us 35 years later (and counting).

Sherman, set the way back machine to 1979, if you please.  Thank you.

1979, the PC is still 2 years away from its invention and far removed from its ubiquity.  In fact, as I write this (the old fashioned way, using pen and paper), the PC, as we knew it, has largely gone the way of the Dodo or the dinosaur marching toward extinction giving way to the now ubiquitous smart phone, by and large more powerful than the PC and fitting easily in the palm of our hand.

It is not the technology that has made the smart phone more powerful than the PC (or the room-sized mainframe computers of 1979), it is the humanity of the smart phone, via its ability to connect people.  Human connection is the power, and it existed long before the technological tools we enjoy and employ today.  Connection. Teamwork. Team. An inspiration that created a “miracle” that inspired because its product was far greater than the mere sum of its individual parts.

The “Miraculous Inspiration” was, and is, the ability to achieve. Not by eradicating individuals in order to form a group entity free of individualism, but by empowering a group of individuals to choose to form a community (a team) by employing their individual talents and inner drive (pronounced “passion”) to set their egos aside in the pursuit of a team goal, having no idea how inspirational it would be for decades to come (if not time immemorial).

In 1979, Herb Brooks (the chief architect of this “Miraculous Inspiration”), without the technology tools of today — PCs, smart phones, and the internet  — spent countless hours researching (the old fashioned way) the personnel he needed to create this community, this team, we look back on in deserving awe.  Coach Brooks probably studied at least 100 players (observing them in person, watching hours of film (yes, film), interviewing their coaches, and so on in order to select the 20 individuals he would be able to inspired to create his “miracle.”

As coach Brooks himself said, he wasn’t looking for “the best” players, he was seeking out “the right ones.”  He knew that he needed true individuals, people secure enough in themselves to be able to “check their egos at the door” and aspire to an ideal greater than themselves … to allow them to be inspired.  The sheer passion, dedication, vision, and inspiration coach Brooks displayed in the research end alone should be an inspiration to us all and not just as hockey fans, players, coaches, and those who champion the sport of hockey.

Coach Brooks then relentlessly pursued this goal (pun fully intended), unwavering in the courage of his convictions, and thereby inspired the USOC to back him (even though there were doubters among the committee members). Most importantly, he inspired 20 young men to accept his challenge, commit to his vision, embrace it as their own and overcome “impossible odds” to construct what we now know as the “Miracle on Ice.”

Those 20 young men — 19 of whom are still with us (minus only the one who wore #20. We miss you, Bob) — were so inspired that they not only shed their egos (not their individuality) at the locker room door. They committed to a practice and conditioning regimen that was virtually, if not totally (outside of the then Soviet Team), unheard of at that time.

From speaking with my (sadly) departed friend, Bob Suter, who lived this, “grueling” is an epic understatement.  Bob and I spoke of his experience on a few rare occasions, as he was incredibly humble and shied away from talking about “the miracle.”  Still, I cannot claim to truly understand the experience as I did not endure it myself.

Talk about commitment and work ethic!!  Those men (coaches, players, support personnel) chose to be inspired by a man who had a vision, a passionate commitment to that vision and, to the best of my knowledge, had no mission in mind to be an inspiration or possess such an inflated ego as to set out to make history.

As I understand it, coach Brooks was more or less awed by the fact that his vision and his boys had such an effect on our entire nation.  To him, it was “a hockey game” (speaking specifically with regard to the legendary Olympic bout with the seemingly inhuman Soviet squad).  It seems those 20 remarkable young men not only shared their coach’s inspiration, they also shared his awe in realizing what an inspiration they had become to their country; that is inspiring, in and of itself.

The aptly dubbed “Miracle on Ice” was ultimately achieved in Lake Placid, New York in February of 1980.  I had just turned 9 years old in late December of 1979.  I grew up in the far west suburbs of Chicago at a time when the Chicago Blackhawks touted the names of Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito, Keith Magnuson, and Stan Mikita on their roster.

As a kid, I did not understand hockey and, as a result, I really had no interest in the game (for which I kick myself in retrospect). Along came the Winter Olympics of 1980 and the infamous “Miracle on Ice.”  At that point in time, I had no idea of who coach Brooks, Bob Suter, Jim Craig and that marvelous group of men that team were, much less what they were all about. Or how they came together, how they forged themselves into the inspirational legend they are and how their example and achievements would inspire me to this very day (along with many of you who are reading this story).

Regardless of my youthful ignorance, and my lack of interest and lack of understanding of hockey (at that point in time), I knew there was something very special about them.  It was when I heard Al Michaels shout his immortal exclamation, “Do you believe in miracles?!?” that I began to take an interest in hockey.  The seeds of MY inspiration had been sewn.

Since that time, my interest in hockey has grown into a love for hockey and that love has developed into an absolute passion for the sport.  I know of no other sport that is so foundationally based, and built, on honor and passion.  To me, hockey is the consummate team sport.  Players that play for their individual stats fade away as quickly as the burst onto the scene and players that place their team first succeed long term and often achieve individual recognition as a result (see Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as shining examples).

What Coach Brooks, Craig Patrick, their staff and those 20 remarkable young men accomplished, against all odds, was nothing short of inspirational and it continues to inspire decades later, to this very day (and beyond).  Their achievement serves as a beacon to all of us, lighting for us the path to what we can accomplish through belief, commitment, hard work, and the courage to persevere as both individuals and members of a community/team.  I doubt any of those that “authored” the “Miracle On Ice” set out to inspire anyone, but inspire they did and still do over 35 years later.

The “Miracle on Ice” has been inspirational far beyond the game of hockey (and the creation of my passion for hockey individually).  The principles and lessons learned from coach Brooks’ vision, to the tireless work he invested in building his team, to the way he inspired his team, to the team’s hard work and dedication (on and off the ice), to their commitment to each other and the vision of their coach, right down to the invaluable support and sacrifices of the families of those same players and coaches (for all of the years it took to build them into the people they were, and are, on and off the ice), all of those lessons and principles can be applied to our everyday lives as individuals, members of communities (businesses, neighborhoods, social groups, teams, and families), and brothers and sisters of humanity.

The “Miracle on Ice” serves as an inspiration to me each and every day, in good times and challenging times alike.  In good times, I am reminded that there is always more I can do to contribute to my team, whatever that team may be.  In challenging times, I am inspired to keep going and never give up (kind of like the “killers” the boys endured after that pre-Olympic game in Norway).

Sometimes life’s conditioning drills don’t make sense and don’t seem even remotely fair at the time. However, they prepare us for the big game, making us capable of going the distance and having something left in the tank when that third period stares us down across the dot.

If those boys from 1980 could endure the gauntlet they ran to even prepare for that miraculous run for that “unattainable” gold medal, endure the ridicule they received from those that thought they had a hockey rink’s chance in Hades of doing anything more than being fodder and an embarrassment to the nation, and then work that miracle, how can I, how can any of us, ever give up, no matter what we face off against?

That is the essence of “Miraculous Inspiration.” Thanks to all of you who set this example for all of us … shot taken and goal scored.

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