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It’s been 45 years since Team USA pulled off one of the most shocking upsets in history with a victory over the Soviet Union in the Olympic hockey showdown known as the Miracle on Ice. They went on to win a gold medal, and they may soon be able to complement it with another one thanks to a bill making its way through Congress.
You don’t need to be a hockey fan to know what transpired when the United States and the Soviet Union met on the hockey rink at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980.
I previously outlined just how dominant the Soviet juggernauts had been in the lead-up to the showdown that determined who would earn a spot in the gold medal game.
However, an American squad that seemingly had no business hanging with an opponent that had outscored them to the tune of 117-26 in their previous dozen games managed to eke out a 4-3 victory before Al Michaels capped things off with the call that led to the contest being immortalized as the Miracle on Ice.
The gold medal game was a bit of an afterthought based on the magnitude of what transpired in the semifinal, but Team USA capped off the Cinderella story by rallying back from a 2-1 deficit in the third period of the championship showdown by scoring three unanswered goals to earn the top spot on the podium with a 4-2 win over Finland.
February 22nd will mark the 45th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, and it sounds like there’s a chance the team could get another kind of gold medal to commemorate their stunning victory.
According to The Associated Press, a bill to award Congressional Gold Medals (America’s highest civilian honor) to the guys responsible for the Miracle on Ice has been reintroduced to the House of Representatives after it was initially proposed toward the end of the previous legislative session.
The bill is primarily being championed by Pete Stauber, a Republican representing Minnesota’s 8th District who won a national championship while playing college hockey at Lake Superior State and pivoted to a career in law enforcement after a neck injury hampered his short-lived stint in the Red Wings farm system.
Stauber wants to commission three Congressional Gold Medals that will be displayed at the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Minnesota, the Olympics Center in Lake Placid, and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado.
17 of the 20 players who represented Team USA are still alive (head coach Herb Brooks died in 2003, while Bob Suter, Mark Pavelich, and Mark Wells respectively passed away in 2014, 2021, and 2024), and Stauber alluded to the fact that they’re in their late 60s while stressing for a bit of urgency to ensure they’ll “be able to cherish and appreciate this during their lifetime,”
It’s hard to imagine any members of Congress will vote against a bill that will need to be signed by Donald Trump, so here’s to hoping they’ll be able to get their act together by the time February rolls around.