Happy Anniversary, 1980 U.S. hockey team

My favorite quote from the SI story came from Eruzione: "We may be young, but we're immature."

And while I really enjoyed Miracle, my only complaint was that it's a Disney flick, and as such, Russell couldn't use the salty language that Brooks did. Or at least that I think he did.

 

He played junior A for the Brampton Capitals for a couple of seasons. Never saw him play but the Caps' GM told me that Kurt and Goldie would come by once in a while to watch.

 

He played junior b in the Vancouver area, I believe it was Richmond Sockeyes.

 

This looks to be him:

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=77486

http://opjhlleague.stats.pointstreak.com/playerpage.html?playerid=661551&seasonid=871

He also spent some time in college in the US.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/player.php?pid=14440&gender=m

 

He did.

 

I was 8 during the 1980 Olympics, and I have memory of sporting events that preceded it, but I have no memory at all of any of the 1980 hockey run. My family regularly watched the Olympics too, so its not as if we would have ignored it. Weird.

 

Same birthday as yours truly. A few years later, mind you.

 

It's Ryan, not Miller.

And Gare Joyce aka FoF wrote a much better article on him a few years back

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3782270

 

May as well pull out one of my favorite codas ever from E.M Swift's wonderful Sportsmen of the Year story, 'A Reminder of What We Can Be' (12-22-1980).

"It is over now. Unlike other clubs, Olympic teams self-destruct into 20 different directions and careers afterward, at least in this country. There is never a next year for them. They write their story once. Sportsmen of the Year."

 

I live and continue to live 30 miles from Placid. Watched the game on Canadian TV at my parent's. Seems like it was around dinner time. Had earlier gone to a game featuring Finland vs who knows.

Since I'm an old-timer, my first visit to an arena in Placid was to what was renamed the 1932 Arena when I saw the Globetrotters there in 1965.

Need anything up my way, just let me know.

 

Watching the footage of the game this weekend, I was struck by how well they cast Jim Craig. That guy who played him (who I believe was one of Rachel's love interests on Friends at one point) was a dead ringer for a young Craig.

 

Eddie Cahill - one of two actors with actual professional acting experience cast for the movie (Nathan West, who played Rob McClanahan, was the other). Bill Ranford was in net for most of the long and medium shots that required netminding experience.