The 1980 Olympic Miracle on Ice as seen and heard

On Friday, Feb. 22, 1980, I was in eighth grade at Storm Lake Junior High School and 14 years old. We had a home wrestling dual meet that afternoon vs. Spencer, which must have been rescheduled from an earlier postponement due to inclement weather. We never had duals (or basketball games) originally scheduled on Fridays, since that was the prerogative of the varsity/junior varsity. This was part of our seventh and eighth grade split schedule, which allowed my boy classmates and I to go out for both wresting and basketball and decide which one you liked better and continue at that in ninth grade and beyond.

I was better at wrestling but Storm Lake was such a basketball history-rich school, having won the Iowa state championship in both 1968 and 1980, that I suppose it made basketball seem the more attractive choice. So I continued with basketball throughout high school. But in wresting with my oldest brother Kevin having been varsity first string in 1976-77 at 138 pounds, and having grown up in a house full of my older brothers’ friends meaning we were constantly wresting and playing what would be considered today to be brutal tackle football.

I knew all the wresting moves from double and single leg takedowns to how to ride and how to escape at the earliest age, so I was pretty good and as an eighth grader actually never lost a match, even beating Emmetsburg. So on this day having wrestled the guy I was going to face previously in our dual at Spencer, I pretty much knew I could take him (although could never pin him in either of our two matches).

Thus, I suppose I had the luxury to not totally focus on my match and with the U.S. Men’s 1980 Winter Olympics hockey team after having surprisingly made it through the round robin competition with 4 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie, playing almost exactly at the same time the first (of two games) in the medal round vs. the USSR (the second game two days later was vs. Finland), but with the game vs. the USSR incredibly (by today's standards) not shown live in the U.S. although with updates provided by radio stations, there were some portable radios in the audience, so by word of mouth it was somewhat possible to follow the score and the action.

The Soviet team was an amazing powerhouse and juggernaut, having won the gold medal in five of the previous six Olympics and having won in the round robin its first two matches by 16-0 and 17-4. The U.S. best strategy was simply to try and keep the match close and due to their stellar conditioning hope the match would turn in their favor in the third period, which is exactly what happened.

And during our westing dual, I distinctly remember the U.S. being tied 2-2 at the end of the first period but behind 2-3 at the end of the second period. But just prior to my going out to wrestle, I remember hearing that the U.S. had tied the score at 3-3 early in the third period (this was the second of two goals in the game by Mark Johnson).

And then as soon as I finished my match, I remember hearing the sensational and electrifying news that the U.S. had gone ahead 4-3 with about 10 minutes left (this was the goal scored by team captain Mike Eruzione which was voted by ESPN in 1999 to be the greatest American sports moment of the 20th century).

What followed then had to be the longest 10 minutes in U.S. sports history as the Soviet team launched shot after shot at U.S. goalie Jim Craig with the puck seemingly always deep in the U.S. zone and menacing close to the score being tied.

But what happened next, I don’t have to tell you as somehow miraculously the U.S. team managed to keep the puck out of its goal during those interminable last 10 minutes. The game was so tense that even later that same evening watching the game on TV taped replay I remember my heart was pounding as minute after minute slowly ticked away and Mike Eruzione's golden goal stood up and the U.S. won a victory for the ages, 4-3 (with the ABC announcing team of Al Michaels and Ken Dryden having themselves been sensational).

I had always wanted to visit Lake Placid, so with my family in 2024 on a three-week home leave to the U.S. from my then job in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I finally made it 44 years later to the Olympic Hockey Stadium and Herb Brooks Arena. It was incredible to visit and surpassed anything I ever could have imagined as one can still hear the deafening noise of the crowd and the pandemonium which erupted inside and outside the arena with the result. The greatest of victories and upsets in U.S. and Olympic sports history — the Miracle on Ice — the Golden Goal — Herb Brook's Masterpiece — USA 4, USSR 3.

Kregg Halstead graduated from Storm Lake High School in 1984. He enjoys sharing his cherished childhood memories of life in Storm Lake during the 1970s and 80s.