Joe Makowiec wrote:

> In 1980 ABC, presaging the 'plausibly live' of recent Olympics, actually
> showed most of the game in prime time, even though it was played in the
> afternoon.  A group of friends had gathered that afternoon, popped a few
> beers and listened to the game live on the radio, so we knew the score and
> more or less what had happened when.
>
> Then on comes the TV broadcast.  There's Jim MacKay, sitting in the
> broadcast booth with a live street scene in Lake Placid behind him.  There
> are the happy fans, waving flags and screaming "We Won!  We
> Won!!!!!  USA!  USA!"  And there sits MacKay, oblivious to what's going on
> behind him saying, "And later, we'll show you the USA - Soviet Union
> hockey
> game."  Like we couldn't tell...

Joe thanks for clearing up a confused memory of mine of having known the
score before seeing the game.  I heard the score from my inlaws (not hockey
fans in particular) on my way home from work that night.  I just couldn't
believe it at first but then heard it confirmed on the news.  Watching ABC's
presentation a little later was still thrilling, and the last ten minutes of
that game were a pure agony....

My fingernails still haven't grown back.

Craig Knowles
UNH '71