This Day In History, 1980: Do You Believe In Miracles? Yes!!

"It was out of control. You go from nobody knows you to being the hockey god right away."

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the Miracle On Ice, read @THNMattLarkin's oral history of the greatest international game in hockey history:https://t.co/vw2NZjCKwD

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) February 15, 2020

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On my office wall hangs one of my most prized possessions: the photo taken 40 years ago today by the great Heinz Kluetmeier, which became the only Sports Illustrated cover ever without any headlines or type. I was in college on February 22, 1980, the day of the USA-USSR hockey game at the Lake Placid Olympics. The game was played in the late afternoon/early evening Chicago time and was to be shown on ABC on tape delay that night, but there was no way I was going to wait for that. I pointed the antenna of my transistor radio out a window on the top floor of the Chi Omega house at Northwestern and somehow found a crackly broadcast of the game, and the rest was history. A few years later, I met Heinz and asked him every conceivable question about the game and his famous photo. Another year after that, he came up to me with a long, thin box. I opened it to find an incredible gift: this signed copy of his historic photograph.

A post shared by Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) on Feb 22, 2020 at 1:50pm PST

Because you know I love magazine covers:


Issue dated March 3, 1980


An interesting tidbit. The hockey game was played at 5.00 Eastern time, but
ABC delayed airing it until 8.30 p.m. Before the game was shown,
hockey fans could watch this:

❄️ABC Primetime, February 22, 1980:
— ‘The Pink Panther Olympinks’ pic.twitter.com/OW6NjRVsnI

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) February 23, 2020