40 Years Later: Reliving the Miracle on Ice with Team USA Captain Mike Eruzione

(Photo credit: Mike Segar/Reuters)

It has gone down as arguably the greatest moment in sports history.

What pitted a team of college kids who, for all intents and purposes, were still getting to know each other against inarguably the greatest hockey team in the world made for a snooze-fest on paper. Of course, nothing in sports is won on paper.

In another chapter in the ongoing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, this game meant the world to Americans everywhere, even if they knew nothing about hockey.

For one man, in particular, though, his role in said game would forever change his life.

Hailing from the little town of Winthrop, Massachusetts, Mike Eruzione never imagined in a million years that he would ever represent his native country at the Olympics. Here he was, though, on a cold February afternoon in the right place at the right time, cementing his legacy as an American hero.

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, I had the honour of speaking with Mike Eruzione, who spoke with me about his experience in Lake Placid as well his impact on hockey to this day.

Playing for a Legend

Having represented the United States at the World Hockey Championships in 1975 and 1976, Eruzione may have thought that would have been as good as it got as far as representing his country went. A couple of years later, though, with two seasons of playing in the International Hockey League under his belt, Eruzione got a call to tryout for the 1980 men’s Olympic hockey team, coached by an old college rival in the legendary Herb Brooks.

“My first impression was that he was pretty intense,” Eruzione said of Brooks. “I had known a little about Herb because when I was at Boston University. We played against [the Brooks-led] University of Minnesota a couple of times, so I kind of knew his M.O., so to speak.”

Eruzione’s memories of Brooks as a competitor dated back to his college days when BU and Minnesota battled it out. To say that Eruzione’s first impressions of Brooks’s coaching style were inauspicious, though, would be putting it mildly.

“When I was a junior at Boston University [in 1976], we played Minnesota in the first round of the Final [now Frozen] Four. Three minutes into the game, we had a bench-clearing brawl. It was nasty. The police came onto the ice,” Eruzione, a former BU co-captain, remembered.

“We, Boston University, always accused Herb Brooks of starting that fight and after playing for Herb, I’m convinced he started that fight,” Eruzione said, laughing. “He found a way to motivate his team and that was how they were going to do it. I think, physically, they thought they were just going to beat us. As it turned out, we lost our leading scorer and then lost the game. Then, two years later at the Olympic Festival, Team Minnesota and Team Massachusetts in the warmup had a bench-clearing brawl.”

If there was any sort of grudge held towards Brooks, though, the future Team USA captain was quick to drop it once the Olympic tryouts had begun. After all, he knew exactly what Herb Brooks brought to the table.

“He was brilliant as a hockey coach,” Eruzione emphasized. “He was way ahead of his time as far as the way our team was playing in 1980. It’s almost like watching the NHL today, 40 years later, doing what they’re doing now.

“I had tremendous respect and got along with him but– the analogy I always use is that he’s like your dad. You know you love your dad but sometimes you hate your dad because he makes you do things you don’t want to. That was Herb.”

As for the rivalry between BU and Minnesota went, players from both sides came to realize that there was something more important at stake than settling old scores.

“Once our team was put together, [the rivalry] never existed,” a matter-of-fact Eruzione added. “It was talked about and laughed about, but one of the things about hockey players is that, from a young age, you realize how important your teammates are and we as a team realized that we weren’t playing for Minnesota or Boston. We were playing for the United States and it was very easy for us to get together and be a team right away.”

In addition to Mike Eruzione, I also had the honour of speaking with the actor who portrayed him in 2004’s Miracle. Patrick O’Brien Demsey began by telling me about the time he met Herb Brooks.

“Meeting Herb Brooks is something I will never forget,” a nostalgic Demsey shared. “We all wore cages on our helmets so we wouldn’t get hit in the face and with our training, it would have caused a major delay if someone got hit in the face or stitches. We had the cages and these white jerseys that had no distinctive marks whatsoever. So, our director, Gavin [O’Connor], said, ‘Okay guys, Coach Brooks is going to be here today,’ and all of a sudden, there’s now a little bit of tension but excitement, too. So, during practice, we’re called over to the bench and we take a knee and we see him standing there behind the bench. So, Gavin goes, ‘Guys, this is Coach Brooks. Coach, this is our team,’ and Herb says, ‘How are you guys doing?’ Then, everybody was a little quiet, so I say we’re a little bit rusty. So, he looks at me and says, ‘You must be Eruzione because he was always a little bit rusty,’ and everybody just died laughing and we continued to chat with him. But after, we continued to chat with him and I went up to him and said, ‘I’m Paddy. I just wanted to introduce myself,’ and he shook my hand and said, ‘I know who you are, Pat,’ and I was just, like, ‘Ohhh man!’ So, it was a really, really great moment for me and something that I will never forget.”

I Play for the United States of America

One particular scene in Miracle showed the American players doing “Herbies”, a grueling exercise which consisted of Brooks’ players skating back and forth between lines on the ice.

A related scene in Miracle immediately followed a lackluster tie against a weaker Norweigan national team. After a long, painful session, and in one of the movie’s most iconic moments, an exhausted Demsey, as Eruzione, exclaimed that he played for the United States of America.

“The beauty about the director, Gavin O’Connor, is that he picked the right people and he said to me, ‘You don’t need to do anything other than what you do. If you bring yourself to this, we have everything we need in Mike Eruzione.’” Demsey reflected. “I definitely wasn’t a talented enough actor to recreate what Mike did, so I loved that they selected me and say, ‘You’re exactly what we need.’”

The man Demsey portrayed, however, didn’t remember the iconic scene the same way.

“Well, don’t you love Hollywood,” Eruzione said, chuckling. “I did not say, ‘Mike Eruzione, United States of America.’ It would not have taken me an hour and 15 minutes to figure that out.”

The captain continued.

“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and say, ‘That was amazing that you said that,’ and sometimes I even tell people that I said it because they want to believe I said that, so I go along with it.

“We did skate but not like they did in the movie. We got through the game and started skating off the ice but only 16 players were dressed that night. There were 26 players on the team but most of the time, we only had 15, 16 players because Herb wanted three lines and a lot of conditioning while we were playing. Having said that, 16 guys played in the game, Buzzy Schneider got thrown out for fighting, so 15 of us were left on the ice and when the game ended, Herb blew the whistle and we proceeded to do what we called the ‘Herbies’ and we didn’t do them everybody at once. We did them in waves of five. So, we did three units of five — or six if you add the goalies into the equation — and we’d do them for 15 minutes and then we’d skate around and stretch. Then, we thought we were done but they’d blow the whistle and we’d do them again. Then, they shut the lights off in the building and we did them for the last 15 minutes in the dark with the emergency lights on. At one point, Mark Johnson smashed his stick against the glass and Herb said, ‘If I hear another goddamned stick smash against the glass, you’ll skate until you die!’”

As difficult as this ordeal was, though, Eruzione was quick to admit that a valuable lesson came from it.

“For us as a team, it was a great message that if you don’t respect your opponents and play hard, you’re not going to be successful,” Eruizione emphasized. “And we never made that mistake again.”

Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks

As for the man who portrayed Brooks, Patrick O’Brien Demsey had nothing but great things to say.

“Kurt Russell was an incredible professional,” Demsey stressed. “And for someone, for my first project, to be able to watch him and see how he handled himself in a professional environment, how he came to work over-prepared every day, ready to go. He was willing to do what Gavin wanted to do to fulfill his vision. There are actors who are just too worried about themselves or how they look and they’ll fight back against the director. Kurt totally gave it over to Gavin’s vision as we all did.”

Demsey continued.

“[Kurt] saw that we could differentiate between us hanging out and when the cameras are rolling and he got that. He knew what was going on. Then, at that point, he was able to goof around with us and interact with us a lot more. So, to watch Kurt was amazing. A great lesson as to how you should behave as a professional actor, so that was really cool.”

Demsey, though, would have been remiss had he not mentioned one of his most favourite quotes from Russell.

“On the first night of filming, we’re shooting a scene outside of a bus, sort of confronting the coach about bringing in another guy that’s playing: the ‘We’re a family’ scene,” Demsey began. “So, that’s our first night ever shooting a movie. So, we shot it when the sun went down and we’re out all night long. So, he comes up, and we’re freezing our asses off in the Canadian Rockies in a town — I think it was Rossland, British Columbia — and it’s probably 4:30am and he says, ‘Well, boys, Hollywood ain’t all cocaine and sunglasses now, is it?’”

Demsey and this writer couldn’t help but share a big laugh.

David vs. Goliath

While the United States’s historic — not to mention miraculous — win against the Soviet Union has forever gone down in the annals of history, the same cannot be said for when these same teams met 13 days earlier. New York’s Madison Square Garden was the scene and the end result was far from miraculous and far from historic. It was, to be frank, expected.

“The first time we played them, we basically just stood around and watched,” Eruzione said of his club’s pre-Olympic tilt against the Soviets. But the American captain noted that his team wasn’t in awe the entire night.

“I think it was 6-0 at one point but after that, we played pretty well once we got our feet under us,” continued Eruzione. “We realized that we’ve got to start playing this game or else we’d be even more crushed. We did lose 10-3 but if we had stopped playing, it could’ve been worse.”

In order to dethrone the greatest hockey team in the world — a team that had recently dominated the NHL All-Stars by a 6-0 count — the Americans needed to play a full 60 minutes while, in the same breath, be the better-conditioned team in the third period, where the Soviets were known to especially dominate.

“The second time we played them, we were a totally different team,” stressed Eruzione. “Our mindset was totally different, our confidence was a lot higher, we weren’t intimidated by them, we weren’t in awe of them. The first time we played them, it was the last game right before the Olympics. I think a lot of guys had one foot on the ice in Madison Square Garden and one foot on the ice in Lake Placid. We just couldn’t wait for this thing to end, to get there to start the Olympic games because when we got [to Lake Placid], we weren’t even thinking about the Soviets. They were in the other division. We had to think about Sweden, Czechoslovakia and West Germany: three countries that were supposed to beat us. So, when we played the Soviets the second time, it was a totally different atmosphere and mindset.

There was no pressure because we weren’t supposed to win. So, we were just having fun with it.”

Following the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Sweden were the next best teams entering Lake Placid. Team USA had the unenviable task of playing both countries in their opening two games. Yet, what looked like a quick exit for the host nation turned promising for the Americans, needing a last-minute goal to tie Sweden before routing the Czechs by a 7-3 score. Team USA would go on to finish their schedule, entering the semi-final against the Soviets, undefeated.

The Goal

While he was the captain of this historic team, it is hard to imagine how Team USA would have capped off their upset of the Soviet Union without the contributions of Mike Eruzione. Of course, from Mark Johnson and Buzz Schneider to Dave Silk and Eric Strobel, the Americans had enough formidable scoring threats to know that they didn’t need to rely on just one player to light the lamp.

Yet, while his goal has made him famous beyond his own expectations, Mike Eruzione was humble in his reaction to the goal that would ultimately slay the giants.

“You know, it’s the play that happens in a hockey game,” remembers Eruzione. “I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and do the right thing with it.”

Eruzione didn’t continue, though, without giving credit to his teammates, especially the aforementioned Mark Johnson.

“We had a lot of plays made during the game. If Mark Johnson didn’t score in the last second of the first, who knows what would’ve happened? If Mark Johnson didn’t score again [to tie the game in the third], who knows what would’ve happened? I was able to put myself in a position where I was able to help the team out and it went in.”

Being the best hockey team in the world entering Lake Placid, the Soviet Union also had the best goaltender in the world in Vladislav Tretiak. Yet, after allowing two goals against the United States in the semi-final, Tretiak got pulled, making way for backup Vladimir Myshkin. The world’s best goaltender would be a spectator for the remainder of the game.

“You know, it’s funny. I scored a goal against Tretiak in the 10-3 game and it was almost the exact same scenario, the exact same spot and it almost went in in the exact same spot, “a reminiscent Eruzione noted. “It was almost deja vu for me: I had the puck in the same spot. The puck came to me, I had the defenseman in front of me and I used him as a screen. When it left my stick, I thought it was in. The only thing I was worried about was that I pulled [the shot] a little because I was going across my body from left to right. But, I got enough of it and saw it go in and my thought was, “We have the lead,” but it wasn’t until the end of the game when I looked up at the clock with one second I thought, ‘Wow, I got the winning goal,’ so that was nice.”

As for fans of Miracle, they may have been impressed with the accuracy of Eruzione’s memorable goal. But reenacting the moment was not as quick and easy as some may think.

“I get home in July [2003] but I get a call at the end of November saying that we need to do some reshoots,” Demsey told me. “So, they send me to Vancouver around the first week of December or so to do some reshoots and they said, ‘We need to reshoot the game-winning goal.’ So, I was getting ready to go to Hollywood and I had lost about 25 pounds. I was in great shape, ready for the premiere, I was ready to be a movie star. So, they tell me, ‘We need to reshoot the close-up of you scoring the goal,’ and I said, ‘Guys, I’ve lost over 20 pounds,’ because Eruzione needed to be a little heavy. Now, granted, I didn’t need to put on that much weight, but I didn’t need to look like an Olympic athlete, know what I mean? So, they said it was fine, that it was just going to be a close-up, but also, my hair is shorter. So, I go up there and we reshoot the scene and if you look at [the game-winning goal scene in] the movie, it looks like there are thousands of people because on the days we shot the wide stuff, we had 5,000 people. But, the actual close-up we see during the shot was shot six months after the movie wrapped. I had a wig on and if you look at the close-up, it’s maybe a second, a second-and-a-half, you’d probably be able to see [the wig] but aside from that, you’d never know.”

As for Eruzione, he remained humble, giving credit to his teammates.

“Again, though, if the other players didn’t do what they did, we wouldn’t have been in that position anyway.”

In the Years Since Lake Placid

Two days after their upset of the Soviet Union, Team USA completed the miracle, defeating Finland — no slouches themselves — to win the gold medal.

In the years and decades since 1980, the entire team has received so many accolades, but especially Eruzione himself, who has heard countless stories of what Team USA’s victory meant to others.

“Oh God, there are so many of them,” a glowing Eruzione said. “I’ve written a book that’s [now available]. It’s about my life and it’s called ‘The Making of a Miracle’. It’s the story of Mike Eruzione and how I got to the Olympics and how I got to Boston University.

“I’ve heard so many stories from so many people and what [the victory] meant to them from a hockey standpoint, from a political standpoint. I’ve had people come up to me crying, with tears in their eyes telling me that that was the last moment they watched with their mother or father, their aunt or uncle or grandmother or grandfather, or the whole family sitting behind the TV watching the game. So, the game meant a lot to a lot of people.”

Eruzione continued.

“For us, it was a hockey game but for others, it was rallying around a country and giving pride back to a nation that, at the time, was searching for something to feel good about — some of it’s what we’re dealing with now with everyone at arms, arguing and fighting. In our case, in 1980, we thought who was going to be president, we had the hostages [in Iran], the turn of the Cold War; we had so many things politically that we needed something good to happen, and it happened to be us. Those stories come all the time. The letters I get in the mail now from young kids telling me, ‘I wasn’t born in 1980 but my grandfather (or grandmother) told me about it. Will you send me an autographed picture?’ It’s a story that will– it’s not on the tip of people’s tongues but when you talk about sporting events or great sports moments, our story still comes to the forefront.”

For those readers who may be interested in Eruzione’s new book (pictured right), this writer highly recommends it.

Whether you are a hockey fan or not, ‘The Making of a Miracle’ is a wonderful story about Mike Eruzione’s life, including his pre- and post-hockey days while serving as an important reminder that you don’t need the most talent but rather an unquestionable work ethic to succeed.

His contributions helped make him a captain, but they also paved the way for Mike Eruzione to become an American icon and an American hero. In spite of this, as well as his wealth, fame and success, it was reassuring, from this writer’s perspective, to witness what a humble gentleman Mr. Eruzione truly is. 

Hailing from Danvers, Mass., just 20 miles from Winthrop, Patrick O’Brien Demsey was one of the countless Americans who has looked up to Eruzione for his efforts in 1980.

“You know what’s funny? I think he did tell me not to screw it up,” joked Demsey, referring to his portrayal of Eruzione for Miracle. “Even if we had discussed his mannerisms or what he did and the psychology behind it, playing Eruzione was the best part about it.”

Some may have believed that they were a longshot for a medal while others believed that they simply had no business being there in the first place. Nevertheless, a group of young kids came together and worked harder than they ever had with a goal in mind, no matter how unrealistic it seemed to outsiders.

Even as a Canadian, this writer, to this day, cannot conceal his goosebumps when watching Eruzione’s goal or Al Michaels’ famous ‘Do you believe in miracles? Yes!’ call, when witnessing arguably the greatest upset in sports history.

Every time I watch, I think of my grandfather, who proudly served his country as a decorated member of the United States Air Force. I think of my mother, who grew up in the United States and who proudly sang The Star-Spangled Banner at every sporting event she attended. I think of my late cousin, John, who was a proud member of the United States Marine Corps and all of my American family and friends who, regardless of their backgrounds or their beliefs, are proud to call themselves Americans no matter what.

Mike Eruzione was integral in helping to remind Americans of how great it was to be proud of their country, including Patrick O’Brien Demsey, who helped reinforce that pride 24 years later.

“It was incredible,” Demsey said of his experience in Miracle. “I know ESPN has called [the Miracle on Ice] the greatest moment in sports history in the last 100 years. I mean, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world to have been chosen. I mean, for some reason I was chosen to be a part of this and 17 years since we made the movie, it’s still incredible to me.”

“40 years,” Eruzione reflected. “It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, but it was a great moment for a lot of different reasons.”

As said by Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks in Miracle:

On one weekend, as America and the world watched, a group of remarkable young men gave the nation what it needed most: a chance, for one night, not only to dream, but a chance, once again… to believe.

*Special thanks to Mike Eruzione, the Boston University Athletic Department, Patrick O’Brien Demsey, Shannon Nelson and Sylvie MacLean for their contributions to this story.

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