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I beg to differ that the 1980 "miracle" was the "greatest sports moment" in our country's history. I'm sorry, but I don't find it possible that America's greatest sports moment could occur in a sport that cancels an entire season and you can count the number of people who give a damn on two hands.

The game was just shown on ESPN classic this week for the first time in its entire since 1980. Not that many people have even watched the game start to finish...and nobody watched it live because it wasn't even on live. Again, these facts mean that it's not possible that it was our greatest sports moment.

OK, the previous commenter's logic makes about as much sense as saying that because Slavery is no longer legal, and there is no more talk of the South seceding in this country, the Civil War was really no big deal.
How much do we want to bet that the anonymous poster can't even remember what the cold war was.
While it can be argued (in my mind, poorly) that the "Miracle on Ice" wasn't the greatest sports moment in American History, I don't think that it can be disputed that it was the sports moment that did the most to galvanize this country. It wasn't about sports, it was about beating the Russians (or the Commies, as most would have said then). The fact that it happened on a hockey rink, a place where they were dominant for so many years, made it all the more sweet for Americans yearning for heroes.

"Don't belive the hype..."-Flava Flave

Any other great moment in sports is only great to its partisans, and less great to the rest of us. For example, to me, the greatest moment in football is Mike Jones tackle on the 1 yard line to save the Super Bowl for the Rams, what with me being a Rams fan and all. Someone in Massachusetts might think it was Vinatieri's field goal a couple years later. That person would, of course, be a gibbering halfwit. Greatest moment in baseball? Well, down here in Georgia, it's #715. Elsewhere, maybe Larsen's perfect game, a record breaking homer from Bonds, McGwire or Sosa, or Bobby Thompson. Or Bucky Dent. Or watching the Yankees perform the biggest collapse in baseball postseason history.

The Miracle on Ice was great for everyone, whatever part of the country you were from. Whether you were a huge hockey fan, or you were my mom, who still doesn't know why they have so many face-offs. The fact that hockey was never a big deal here is precisely the point. It wasn't our sport. The Soviets were better in any event, and they were cheating besides. We won anyway.

Well put Gib.

Wow, looking at that first comment just makes my head hurt. Because today's NHL management and union can't pull their collective heads out of their asses makes the Miracle on Ice less significant? Also, one doesn't really have to be a hockey fan to see the significance. This was at the height of the Cold War with the US already going to boycott the summer games in Moscow and Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Also, the magnitude of the upset can't really be overstated. Just a few days earlier the Soviet team had defeated the US team 10-3. I have to agree with Steve that this is the greatest moment in American sports history.

Ron- Many people including 1980 USA team member Mike Ramsey and author Wayne Coffey have stated that they believe Herb Brooks basically threw the 10-3 game at Madison Square Garden so that the Soviets would go into the Olympics over confident. Jim Craig only played half the game at MGS and the Soviet had coach has even admitted since that he could never get that 10-3 game out of their heads.

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