"Do you believe in miracles?"

"...YES!"
February 22nd, 1980 will forever live as a day to be celebrated. 20 years ago today, a small miracle took place in a hockey arena in Lake Placid, New York.

USA defeats USSR!

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! The chant never sounded sweeter. A bunch of college boys, mostly from Minnesota and Boston, defeat the Evil Empire at their own game...Hockey.

I will always remember a family vacation to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Evelyth, Minnesota where a worn out VHS tape relived the miracle over and over again. At the time I didn't grasp why that particular game meant so much. In fact, I don't think I ever really got it until Disney's "Miracle" was released in theaters. Sure I knew how good the Soviet Union was and that we didn't have a snow balls chance in...well...you know, of defeating the giant. But we won. That's great!

But what's the big deal? Right?

What I didn't realize, was what was happening in the world that same time.

• Long lines at gas stations as well as gas shortages
  
• Iranian militants seize US embassy in Teheran and hold US hostages for over a year
• The Soviet Union ivades Afghanistan
• Our overall economy was horrible
• An overheated reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania threatens to melt down
• The accidental release of anthrax spores at a Soviet bioweapons facility in Sverdlovsk kills several hundred

Everyone's moral was down. USA was attacked. Not only phyiscally but emotionally. 1979 was not a fun year.

USA versus USSR was more than a hockey game. It was us versus them. Good guys versus bad guys. It had been a hard year and when the game clock ticked down to zero, we had something to cheer about again. We had seen a miracle.

—b