Every February 22 I think about the USA win over the USSR.  I was lucky enough to be in Lake Placid that day but not lucky enough to see the game.  I have been a big Olympic fan for years and when the games were in Lake Placid I was lucky enough to get tickets to go to an event.  It was a hockey game (of course) but it ended up being the game before the USA game.  My mother and I took the special late-night train from Utica to Lake Placid arriving at 6 AM or so.  We spent the day touring the venues, watching ski jumping and a hockey game. (I also remember seeing Ken Dryden walk by us on the street.)  As we left the arena the crowd outside was all ready pretty loud and were chanting "USA, USA!!!"  All day I had heard people trying to buy tickets and prices were out of this world.  We had to get on the train to return to home.  I had borrowed my brother's small transistor radio so I could try and listen to the game.  Reception was terrible was the train traveled through upstat!
 e NY.   It was very hard to hear and I only got bits and pieces of the game.  Everyone on the train was trying to sleep since we had been up since the day before.  All of a sudden I heard the end of the game.  I heard that we won.  I just about leaped out of my skin and I told my mother.  I wanted to yell it to everyone but I was afraid that I might have heard wrong through the static.  Within a few minutes a cheer went up as a group of people came through the car, heading the bar car, spreading the news.  It was a great day.  It was years before I saw the game.  The first time I saw it I was nervous even knowing the outcome.  I watched some of the game last night (and earlier in the week) and enjoy reliving the day.

If only St. Lawrence had won the national championship in their game at Lake Placid.  That is the only way I could top my memories of Lake Placid and the hockey arena.

Sara
SLU '77
Let's go SAINTS!!!


> Just finished watching the replay of US vs USSR from 1980. I never saw
> the game televised live (it wasn't televised live in this area) but I
> remember seeing numerous replays and highlights after the fact. I was
> a big hockey fan even back then and I remember that I was working at
> bingo that Friday night at my volunteer Fire Company.  Whenever I had
> a minute,
> I ran into the kitchen to listen to the latest update on the radio.
> When the final was announced, I screamed so loud, they stopped bingo
> and the EMT's came running into the kitchen thinking that I must be
> dying.
>
> It just seems like it was such an innocent time. In restrospect, of
> course, that wasn't true. The Soviets were invading Afghanistan, the
> Iranians had kidnapped Americans.  It was anything but innocent. But
> the American team was made up of amateurs and the Soviets were
> experienced professionals.  And the unthinkable had happened, just
> when America needed it the most.
>
> It's truly amazing how it brings a lump to my throat and makes my
> heart pound again after all those years.
> Tell the truth: how many people watched the game and still cheered
> when the US team scored