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The final day of next month’s Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina will mark 46 years since arguably the greatest sporting upset of all time.
On Feb. 22, 1980, amateur hockey players from the United States shocked the world when they defeated the Soviet Union, 4-3, in what has been known as the “Miracle on Ice.”
Nearly 46 years later, captain Mike Eruzione, goalie Jim Craig, leading goalscorer Mark Johnson and play-by-play announcer Al Michaels were back at what is now called Herb Brooks Arena to “Run Back the Miracle.”
Powered by Michelob Ultra, the event reimagined pivotal moments from the legendary U.S. Olympic men’s ice hockey team victory using high-definition holograms, full-surface ice projection and historic footage, allowing fans to relive the magic of one of the most celebrated moments in sports history.
“What we’re able to do here is we’re able to relive the moment that we never had a chance to do. When the Olympics ended, you know, I think in five days, I was playing in the National Hockey League. So was Mark Johnson,” Craig said in an interview with Fox News Digital hours before Thursday’s event. “We just, all of a sudden, we were on a team, and we were just gone. And so, this is going to be great. We’re going to relive years of experience. It’s going to bring back this memory to different generations.”
For Michaels, whose famous call has carried on for generations, it was just his third time back in Lake Placid since those Olympic Games.
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“I mean, I can feel it. I can just feel it in my bones, my fiber to walk back into this building, even though when obviously it’s been remodeled and refurbished, but I can still remember that night and 1980,” Michaels said.
The “Miracle on Ice”, where today’s famous “U-S-A” chant was born, was much more than a hockey game, as global tensions were sky-high amid the Cold War. For Craig, that made it that much more important to represent the Stars and Stripes.
“Some of us were lucky enough to play in the World Championships in 1979 in height of the Cold War, and the games were in Moscow. So we really saw how the USSR back then utilized sport as propaganda. To me, it’s not about politics, but you can’t help but get some of those in there. It’s really about pride of being and representing your country, right? And understand that brand is more important than you,” Craig added.
Michaels has been on the mic for probably thousands of games since then. But his final words while sitting next to the late Ken Dryden are saved only for when necessary.
“If I do [say ‘miracle’], then people think, ‘Hey, there he is, you know, patting himself on the back.’ No. I’m very careful when I use that word,” Michaels joked.
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