Do You Believe In Miracles!

Today is the 30th Anniversary of the greatest sporting event in American history, the 1980 USA Hockey Team beating the Soviet Union 4-3 in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.  I remember it like it was yesterday.  There are many reasons why it is so memorable, a bunch of College Kids beating the best pros in the world.  It was the height of the Cold War.  It was a sport no one really paid much attention too outside of the Major NHL cities and Canadians, which come to think of it is just like today. 

ABC thought so little of the game they showed it tape delayed and for the kids reading, no there were no extra cable channels, hell there was no cable or dish for that matter. (Yes it was the dark ages.  We even had to get up to turn the channel! No this was not the great depression.)  There were lots of tape delayed events back in those days, which come to think of it 30 years later is similar to what NBC is doing now!

I mean Bode Miller was not shown live during the day yesterday,         instead Russia and the Czech Republic hockey was on NBC, which I did not mind. Yet the United States and Canada were kicked MSNBC and plenty of tape delayed action was shown on NBC in Prime Time including Miller's gold and of course Live Ice Dancing. What the hell were those Russians wearing! They made Johnny Weir (rhymes with Queer) seem conservative.  Maybe the Native Americans can hate on the Ice Dancers instead of the Redskins for a little while.

Back to why Team USA's win was so memorable especially for those of us growing up in Washington DC. There was a news anchor on the local ABC Channel 7 named Renee Poussaint.  Anyway, as I said the game was shown tape delayed, so between peroids (game tied 3-3 after 2) they had local news teases and Renee blurts out something like U-S-A beats Soviets at 11pm!  

The producer let her have it and she was very embarrassed.  Sports guy, Tim Brandt (style), helped Renee by saying it was still very exciting to watch even knowing the result.  She felt horrible and really never lived the moment down.  No one could ever bring her name up without telling that story, but everyone in DC  remembers Renee when they remember "Miracle On Ice."  Hell she's a legend for it, kind of  like the Mike Eruzione of local news anchors making a career off of one moment.