Miracle on Ice: The Speech that Upturned the Hockey World

By Colleen Pagnani   

Some say it was the most motivational speech ever given, right before the most important American sporting event ever played. It was February 1980 in Lake Placid, NY, and the United States Olympic hockey team was set to play the greatest team to ever set foot on ice--the Soviet Union. The speech was a locker room pep talk by the late, great Herb Brooks, coach of what the world now knows as the ‘Miracle on Ice’ hockey team.

At the time of the Olympics, America was struggling economically, with Iran  holding American citizens hostage. But all their worries seemed to fade away on a Friday night in upstate New York on February 22, 1980. Although there is no video showing Brooks’ speech, the reenactment of it in the movie Miracle is as close as it gets to the real thing.

“One game,” Brooks said, was all it took to beat the Soviets and shock the world. “If we played ‘em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight.” At the time, the United States only sent amateurs to the Olympic games, not professionals, unlike the Russians. So, on that Friday night no one expected a bunch of college kids, some still teenagers, to beat a team full of grown men, many who had multiple Olympic medals to their name. Herb Brooks made sure that his players knew that they only had one shot to get this thing right.

After all the hard work they put in making it that far in the tournament, the only thing that could prevent them from winning the game was themselves: Herb Brooks made sure his guys knew that. He also made sure that this “great opportunity” was not looked past, for they would regret it for the rest of their lives if they lost and even “take it to [their] grave.” They earned the privileged to play in that game, so now it was time to
prove to the world that they deserved to win it.

The best part about the whole thing was that it was not the gold medal game; they still had one more left as long as they beat the Soviets. Not only did they listen to Brooks’ motivational words, but they also won the Gold medal, bringing together a nation whose citizens were at a low point in pride in their nation

Herb Brooks was known to people, especially his players, as a very passionate man, in life and on the ice, who was not afraid to speak his mind. The 1980 speech prior to the Soviet game was not his only one, it was just the most effective and memorable. He proved to the world that a group of American college kids had the skills and mindset to beat a team that was better than them on any other night than that night in Lake Placid. 

Just like he said in his speech, they were “the greatest hockey team in the world.” That night, not only did he believe in his team, but he also taught a nation to believe again.