Every now and then it does the soul good to reflect.

It’s healthy to check the rear view mirror periodically, take a deep breath, and assess the road one has traveled to arrive at the current spot along life’s highway.

These moments in one’s life are markers which simply cry out, IMPORTANT!

The same can be said for a group of people or a country.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to wind the clock back to a time in our country’s history where the collective psyche of the nation teetered between winning and losing.

The mindset of “losing” was undoubtedly “winning”!

I’ll go ahead and date myself again.

I was in high school in the early 1970’s and although I knew about current events, I also did not pay attention to them all that much deferring to my teenage interests like sports and girls.

Our national identity was in conflict and divided over an unpopular war in Vietnam.

America was rocked by the Watergate scandal and soon thereafter experienced the first round of oil embargoes in 1973.

A presidential resignation ensued, which kept the word “impeachment” out of the official records despite swirling in the wind for months.

On a personal note, I experienced a major milestone in my life when I married my bride, Jackie, at the start of our senior year (1978) soon followed by my college graduation in the spring of 1979.

We nearly missed the latter event as we were in a near fatal car accident en route to my first job interview which occurred on the same day as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.

A few years later we lived near Middletown, Pennsylvania the site of the disaster.  Our parents wondered if we would glow in the dark!

Round two of the oil crisis played out on a national stage in 1979, resulting in price spikes, gas rationing, and long lines.

Mortgage rates were soaring in the mid-to-upper teens.

The Cold War chatter between the United States and Russia never seemed to stop.

As a nation, we took a kidney punch in the form of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, where 52 of our citizens were taken hostage for 444 days by a group of radicals who stormed our embassy in Tehran.

It seems as if not much has changed given the current world situation.

In short, it was a time of national uncertainty and despair.

In terms of this brief history lesson, we as a nation had had enough!

I know it is true for my life and I will take an educated guess for yours as well– there are times when we reach our limit and we need to register a “win”, anything positive!

The decade of national drama we experienced set the stage for something to cheer about.

Great moments are almost always born out of great adversity.  When opportunity knocks on our door we have a small slice of time in which to respond.

Such was the case on the national scene in February 1980.

The setting – Lake Placid, a tiny village tucked away in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.

The event– the games of the XIII Olympiad, otherwise known as the 1980 Winter Olympics.

The unsuspecting actors on the national stage – a group of the best college hockey players in the nation, fashioned into a team by the best college coach at the time, the late Herb Brooks.

The date – February 22, 1980.

For sports fans as well as non-sports fans, looking back is front and center this weekend as the events of 35 years ago will be revisited and relived with a reunion of all living members of the 1980 Hockey team taking place in Lake Placid.

This Sunday marks the 35^th Anniversary of what has commonly become known as The Miracle on Ice, depicted in the 2004 Disney film, Miracle.

You can check out the official trailer here which will give you a good sense of the odds the U.S. Team faced.

Do yourself a favor and watch the movie. It will inspire you.

The backdrop of the game was a sliver of the Cold War played out on a sheet of ice.

For the record books, it was the USA versus the USSR.

Al Michaels, who announced the game, said it best during his pre-game remarks:

“There are those watching this game who might not know the difference between a blue line and a clothes line”.

For our collective psyche, it was Us versus Them. The game became more than a sporting event.  It became an opportunity for the much needed national “win“.  Patriotism was about to get a shot in the arm!

Although they were considered an amateur team, the Russians had dominated the sport for nearly twenty years and intimidated their opponents into submission.

In his pre-game speech reenacted below, Brooks elevated and inspired his team to believe in a larger ideal.

Isn’t the same true for our lives?

As I mentioned in a previous post, life at times can be highly unscripted. It’s what we do with what we are presented.

In the words of Herb Brooks, “Great moments are born from great opportunity.”

There are times where you and I simply need a “win”, a time for the pendulum to swing our way.

Our setbacks and adversities are the launching point for the great moments which unfold in our lives.

I can’t speak for you, but I can only marginally skate and have not done so for decades.

Thinking “broken bones” would be a reasonable bet!

I imagine none of us are hockey players.

However, we can allow the power of the thought, “Tonight we are the greatest hockey team in the world!” to echo in our own minds and elevate our thinking to enter into our own intersection of fate and destiny.

You were made for the time where your great moment is born from the great opportunity in front of you.

As Brooks challenged his team, allow his words to seep into you.

“This is your time. Their time is done. It’s over! Now go out there and take it!”

The outcome of the 1980 USA versus USSR hockey game became the greatest moment in American sports history.

Correction – the greatest moment in sports history!

It was a time where The Dream That United a Team gave way to The Team That United a Country!

Names like Eruzione, Craig, Johnson, Pavelich, and Harrington, along with Coaches Brooks and Patrick skated their way into our collective heart.

They overcame obstacle after obstacle after obstacle, stringing together a series of come from behind wins!

It also became a pivotal moment in the psyche of our nation. We needed a “win” and we got one!

The moment could not have been captured better by Al Michaels infamous tag line.

As the game clock was winding down and victory was seconds away from USA Hockey team, he posed the following question:

“Do you believe in miracles?”

Two days later they secured the Gold Medal with a victory over Finland in yet another come from behind win.

You were meant for the moments you are living. Now is your time. Go about doing what only you were meant to do.

You can recapture the final moments of actual game footage below. I challenge you to do so. It will put a smile on your face, especially as you see the flags waving and as you listen to the chants of “USA!”, “USA!”, “USA!”

Watching the video clips, thirty five years after the fact, left me overcome with emotion.  I hope you too can take a moment to look back.

We are facing similar times now and a win is desperately needed.

We need to allow the truth of this statement to sink in, personally and collectively. It is the foundation on which a national “win” rests.

“What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord, whose people He has chosen as His inheritance.” Psalms 33:12 (NLT)

What, if anything, did the events of the 1980 USA Hockey team win mean to you whether you experienced it at the time or via the replay footage provided?

 

Photo Courtesy of Brittany Castillejo