January 9, 2018 By Chris Varney
This past weekend, I re-watched the movie Miracle on one of the cable movie channels. Miracle is the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and their upset over the Soviet Union on their way to winning a gold medal. The movie is more centered on Herb Brooks, the U.S. Coach who molded a young group of upstart hockey players into one of the greatest sports stories that this country has ever seen. The movie is especially poignant for me for several reasons.
Number one, it is one of the very first sports memories that I have. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching the US team play the evil Soviet team. To many people that year, it was more than just a hockey game. It was a battle between the world’s biggest powers at the height of the Cold War. The USSR had invaded Afghanistan. The hostages had been taken by Iran. More people at home were sitting in car lines just to get their gasoline. Its amusing to me that people say we live in uncertain times today when life was more chaotic back in the late seventies than it is today. Whatever was going on in the political world, the USA vs. Soviet game was a chance to strike back at those at those “Commie bastards” as it said in the movie.
Number two, the movie reminded me of just how much we like the underdog in sports. When there is two teams playing in any big game — whether the Super Bowl, the World Series or whatever — and you do not have any vested interest in any of those teams, chances are you are going to root for the underdog. In the World Series this year, you probably were rooting for the Houston Astros — unless you are a Dodgers fan. In the last Super Bowl, you were probably rooting for the Atlanta Falcons. In the 1980 Olympics, it was the Soviet Union hockey team that was like the New England Patriots — heavy favorites and easy to root against.
Finally, Miracle is a reference to the greatest sports broadcasting moment of all time. Al Michaels broadcast the game for ABC and his call in the final few seconds hit the tone of the moment more clearly than anybody could have. “Do you believe in miracles?” he bellowed as the US completed a 4-3 win over the Evil Empire. Every broadcaster dreams of broadcasting a game like that and making a call like that. It is something that keeps me going — you never know when you might see something special in a sporting event and have a chance to make a call like Al Michaels on that fateful day in Lake Placid.
To me, the U.S. upset of the Soviet Union is the greatest sports moment of all time. Al Michaels call is the greatest broadcast of all time. And watching the movie Miracle this weekend brought it all back to me. It reminded me how much I love sports and broadcasting it.
If you haven’t watched Miracle, its a must see.