This video is definitely one of my favorites….for sure on the top ten list out of thousands of videos ….as it gives a game by game highlight coverage of each and every game the USA Hockey Team played at the Lake Placid Games ….all the way to Finland in the finals….cuz I love watching Bone Daddy’s joyful and expressive face even today….as he tells the stories of the “jam packed” houses at Madison Square Garden..The Sports Place at 302 E. 6th St. in Austin, Texas….the night of The Miracle on Ice. During this historic game with the USA vs USSR….Bone Daddy describes the atmosphere in the Garden as the crowd’s pot that was stewing and brewing as the game progressed…..when fans began to realize that the Americans…..a team made up of kids and minor league players…..could actually beat the big bears of the east….the world champion Soviet squad made up of NHL professionals…..fpr BD says the feelings and emotions in the house…..were just growing and building to the perfect eruption stage….and when the USA won….the crescendo erupted….and what had been building throughout the contest…..was now bouncing off the walls…the ceiling…the floors….piercing and permeating everything everywhere inside the walls of MSG that day.
Every good cook finishes their masterpiece with “a cherry on top”….”a garnish for color”….”a final touch”…..and what’s cool about this video is that very final touch….delivered by the eloquent and elegant speaking Jim McKay….when in the latter part of the video, he covers the medal ceremony…..and if you are a person who has Red, White & Blue in your veins….I’m telling you it was powerful stuff….cuz in this lil ole Chiweenie’s opinion….the medal ceremony for the 1980 Olympics Men’s Hockey….may very well be….the top step of the ladder.
As the years have passed since 1980….when Bone Daddy tells the story surrounding the events of that day at the Lake Placid Winter Games….and the excitement that the story musters up within him still today…. for it has never diminished a bit….and to my way of thinking….the ability to fervently muster up an old story and make it worth listening to….is the essence of sports…..for it is the memories that keep things that have been covered up by the pages of time…..alive and joyful in our minds, memories and heart that really matters the most….and this is what sports does for HUMANITY.