The sports event that had the biggest impact on my life was the "Miracle on Ice" triumph of a ragtag group of American college hockey players who _ somehow, some way _ defeated the mighty Soviet Union juggernaut of perpetual champions at the 1980 Winter Olympics. I have never reacted as viscerally to a sporting event or a cultural event as I did on that momentous night on Feb. 22, 1980.
At the time, I was a 17-year-old high school senior who was as impressionable as could be. I was preoccupied by the possibility that my country would soon go to war with Iran because that nation had kidnapped American diplomats and workers from the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Truthfully, my simplistic high school brain told me that I was ready and willing to fight Iran in order to avenge the capture of Americans by a hostile nation that thumbed its nose at us and chanted, "Death to America."
Such chants were broadcast into our living rooms every day by then powerful national networks. They became derisive jeers from Iran after a U.S.-sanctioned attempt to rescue the American hostages failed miserably. With Watergate, the resignation of President Richard Nixon and the disaster of the Vietnam War still ringing in our ears, the winter of 1979-80 was a tough time for the American spirit.
That hockey win, a 4-3 triumph before a home crowd at Lake Placid, N.Y., made us all feel better. It created the feeling in our minds that, "Hey, we're still tough. We're still great." That feeling was an illusion, of course. If our American boys had played the Soviets again in that tournament, it's a safe bet they would have wiped the ice with us as they had in New York only days before the 1980 games.
The "Miracle on Ice" players, and their late coach Herb Brooks, became crossover celebrities like few sports figures do anymore. They were everywhere, from Main Street America to Madison Avenue to Hollywood.
For years, I would only have to think about their victory to get choked up all over again. Less than five months after the "Miracle on Ice," President Jimmy Carter signed Proclamation 4771 _ which started registration for military service for young men born after January 1, 1960. I was born in November of 1962 and when I got my notice, I went down to the local post office and registered immediately.
My inspiration was the "Miracle on Ice" team. They had filled me full of jingoistic passion that I was willing _ I thought _ to lay my life on the line for my country. I didn't realize it then, but the "Miracle on Ice" was a shining example of how sports can serve as narcotic, filling us full of delusions that don't hold up when the high has passed.
