Walking on Frozen Water

The Miracle on Ice

Mark DeLap
Posted 7/2/20

My weekly column - In The Wind

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Walking on Frozen Water

The Miracle on Ice

Posted

Walking on frozen water

We have been surrounded with history lately. Companies celebrating centennial anniversaries, people celebrating long marriages, towns celebrating long existences.

This year, we hit the 40th anniversary of a miracle. It was dubbed, “The miracle on ice.”

It was a time when our country was going through great turmoil and duress, breaking forth from the “me decade” into the “yuppie decade.” There was the Iran hostage crisis, Chrysler needed a bailout and the loss of John Lennon wasn’t just something we “imagined.”

A lot of our boys from the upper Midwest played and enlisted in Minnesota native son, Herb Brooks’ hockey army. Hockey. Of all things. Considered at that time to be the little brother of almost all other sports. And a little child led them.

Fourteen members of that team were from Minnesota. Some were from obscure places like Babbitt and Roseau, Virginia, and Warroad. And against all odds, in an impossible situation, the Minnesota connection was strong. 42.1959° - Not one of our skate-clad kids was born any further south than Scituate, Massachusetts.

Twenty years earlier, the Russians had been defeated by a U.S. Olympic hockey team. Herb Brooks, a graduate of the U of Minnesota was the last one cut from that team and not making the journey left a taste for determination in his mouth.

A third of all goals in that competition were made by Roger and Billy Christian, who went on to make Christian Brothers hockey sticks. They also lay claim to the largest hockey stick in the world which is on display in Eveleth, Minnesota. They also placed an heir apparent on the 1980 team – Davey Christian.

So, on that day in February where nobody expected the local boys to come out on top, my family was huddled around the television in Milwaukee watching that hockey game. I heard my dad say, “That’s my Uncle Billy” as they panned the crowd.

“Oh, and there’s Uncle Roger,” said my mom. We’d been to Warroad many times when I was a young child and was always amazed by the gold medals and the hockey stick factory. And the little kid I used to play with and teased for playing a sport “other than basketball” was skating around an ice rink in Lake Placid.

My cousin, Davey. It was more intense for us. It was family.

We bit our nails that day. We cursed a little that day at the Russian horde who didn’t get called for an illegal check. We walked away from the set on numerous occasions because we couldn’t bear to watch.

But then it happened. So quickly and so late in the game. 10 minutes left and the United States led for the first time. Those last 10 minutes were the longest of our lives and we waited for another shoe to drop, but it never did.

And we all felt a little better about hockey that day. We all felt like we could “accomplish” anything after that. It was a victory for a country that had become an underdog in a world of hungry wolves. The chant, “USA” was reborn there and still resounds today not only against foreign competition, but ever in our hearts. In the midst of the few who are trashing America right now, we need to stand up and remind them that they are NOT the majority.

It is the fabric of our lives, the strands formed of immigrants finding a home here as they passed through Ellis Island, the flag being raised at Iwo Jima, the declaration that polio was eradicated, and that ever-present feeling that came from 9/11, “They cannot break our spirit.”

We live in the greatest country in the world. And when you are purposed for greatness, there will always be those who seek to defeat that greatness. Because we are all, “born to the breed,” our everyday situations and circumstances can make us feel the weight of the world on our shoulders and at times, we want to give up.

But. Remember the day that a three-inch diameter, vulcanized rubber disc passed by the mightiest country of the world, hit a nylon net, lit the lamp and caused an ear-piercing horn to be drowned out by the resounding thunder of a people united.

"The attacks of Sept. 11 were intended to break our spirit. Instead we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom." — R. W. Giuliani

Where do we want to go today, Wyoming? Is there anything we can’t accomplish?

Catch the image of a rubber puck resting safely on the ice just beyond that red line. Perhaps then you will be able to skate. On frozen water. And you will experience your miracle.

And wherever you go… be careful out there.