As he watched the old video on the screen in front of him, Mike Eruzione was unusually quiet.
There he was on the screen wearing an oversized cowboy hat in Lake Placid, New York, 46 years ago, talking to a TV reporter about beating the Russians, in the most famous hockey game and most memorable upset in sports history.
Eruzione, now 71 years old, the face of Team USA’s gold medal-winning hockey team in 1980 and an ambassador for American hockey. He’s good at it. He’s a comfortable story teller and a gifted talker. Quiet is an unusual state for him.
But as he watched, for a second, he appeared to be transported back to that moment as he watched.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said eventually.
What makes the “Miracle: The Boys of ’80” documentary more than “pretty cool” is those quiet moments.
Directors Max Gershberg and Jake Rogal gathered the living members of Team USA’s 1980 gold medal winning hockey team in Lake Placid where they were interviewed for the film that debuted on Netflix last week in time to coincide with the Winter Olympics.
In addition to harvesting their memories, the directors filmed the men, most of whom are now in their late 60s and early 70s, watching the footage that was featured in the documentary.
Under gray hair, white hair or no hair, their faces lit up. They’ve spent their lives retelling the big stories from that Olympics and those stories hold a prominent place in this film.
But it also gets a lot mileage out of old B-roll, TV interviews and pictures that captured the era as well as the event.
It’s hard to tell a new version of this story. It’s been effectively written about in multiple books and two scripted movies. But the combination of rarely seen footage and the evolving perspective of both the players, and smart techniques by the creators made it feel enjoyably fresh.
Here are some of the highlights:
∗ Eruzione was hardly alone finding magic in old footage. Al Michaels, whose line “Do you believe in miracles?” has branded the moment for five decades, was similarly entranced watching his curly-haired self on the pregame.
Jack O’Callahan, whose Boston accent and wiseguy demeanor reflected his Charlestown roots, was emotional seeing his younger self tell an interviewer that he wouldn’t have traded being on that team for a million dollars.”
“Wow. I’ve never seen that,” said O’Callahan, now 68. “I was going to start crying. … That was my life long dream. I so wanted to do that.”
∗ Danny Brooks and Kelly Paradise, Herb Brooks’ children, were great additions to the project. They provided memories from behind Brooks’ carefully constructed curtain. Danny Brooks talked about how his father snuck into a Russian practice once to watch and steal drills.
Paradise pulled out a box of Herb Brooks’ old notes including an index card with his famous speech from before the Russia game. She held it up to the camera, revealing in her father’s handwriting:
“You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”
∗ The players still bust each other chops, seemingly falling into old rhythms. Bill Baker still hears that his shot was unusually good for him in reference to his game-tying goal against Sweden in the opener.
∗ Eruzione, who scored the game-winning goal against the Russians, then called Baker’s goal the biggest in the Olympics.
∗ The doc reveales real faces to the legendary names from this team. For younger generations of fans, the actors in the Disney movie “Miracle,” have provided good approximations, but not quite accurate images of the people on and around that team.
∗ The filmmakers got access to quite a bit of audio from Herb Brooks, who died in 2003, including some from him coaching on the bench. The project would have felt incomplete without it.
∗ In previous tellings of this story, Ralph Cox has come across as a sympathetic figure as the last player cut from the roster. But in his interviews for this documentary, Cox’s kindness and perspective are noteworthy. Recognizing that Brooks was the last player cut from the 1960 US Olympic team, Cox shows far more empathy toward Brooks for having to make the cut than resentment for being the one cut.
“This was something he did not want to do. It was hanging on him,” Cox said.
∗ Jim Craig’s story has always been one of the more memorably enduring ones from that team. His mother died of cancer not long before he was named to the roster. He was emotional, not only talking about her, but about his grieving father.
He choked up watching footage of his father being interviewed in 1980.
“He was sad man who lost his best friend,” Craig said. “The biggest joy that the Olympics brought me is that it made my father reborn.”
He later added.
“Seeing how happy he was, knowing how sad he was,” he said. “That’s the gold medal.”
∗ Backup goalie Steve Janaszak didn’t see a minute of action in Lake Placid, but he met his wife in the Olympic village.
“She is the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life,” he said. “Even though I didn’t play, (I’m) the luckiest guy of those 20 guys. No doubt. Hands down.”
∗ The funniest moment came from an unnamed firefighter. There was a firehouse across the street from the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. After the upset the crew hung a sign outside their quarters facing the embassy. It read “USA 4, USSR 3”
“The only reason we put it up is we realize sometimes it’s hard to get out of town scores,” he said, smiling at his own sarcasm. “So it’s actually a public service.”
∗ The filmmakers effectively presented the historical context and everything going on both internationally and stateside geopolitically that raised the stakes and eventual impact of the game.
“People were looking for something to feel good about. It happened to be us,” Eruzione said. “We could use a 1980 now.”
After being snubbed by the Hall of Fame, Bill Belichick had been almost universally praised for his coaching greatness by people throughout football including Robert Kraft.
For a week, nobody was talking about his Carolina failure or his tabloid personal life. They should have ridden that narrative for as long as possible.
And then Jordon Hudson showed up at the Carolina-Duke basketball game with Belichick wearing an Orchids of Asia T-shirt. She may have been trying to embarrass Kraft, but instead reminded the world how unlikable and petty she and Belichick have become.
Taking out the Team USA jerseys allows me to rank on aesthetic value alone.
11 — France — How is it the two countries known for fashion have the two worst jerseys.
10 — Italy – Yuckisimo
9 — Latvia – (maroon) Would be higher without the word. Either have a logo or a word. Not both.
4 — Canada (white) – The red sweaters with the black leaf are trying too hard. The whites with the red leaf are classic.
Sports clues from actual editions of America’s favorite quiz show. As always, mind the date
2 firsts for the 1904 Olympics in this city: the first time the U.S. hosted & the first time gold medals were awarded
1994 — After a heated game in the heart of the UMass-Temple rivalry, Owls coach John Chaney entered John Calipari’s press conference and after shouting at him, attempted to charge at the Minuteman coach.
What is St. Louis?
