People seem to use the word “miracle” a lot these days to describe something that goes against all odds.

 

There are miracle drugs, miracle recoveries, miracle inventions and once in awhile, miracle sports comebacks.

 

Last year Minnesota Vikings fans got a taste of a miracle when Stefon Diggs caught a pass from Case Keenum with no time left on the clock, stayed on his feet and reached the end zone for a 61-yard touchdown to give the Vikings a come-from-behind win against the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs.

 

That will forever be known as the “Minneapolis Miracle.”

 

The Minneapolis Miracle was a single play in a season that ended a week later for the Vikings. In reality, the Vikings were favored to win that day, posting a 13-3 record for the season. So the outcome was expected - just not the way it happened.

 

But I remember a different sports miracle that happened almost 40 years ago. It was the Miracle on Ice, when the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team beat the Soviet Union, 4-3 in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid.

 

It was February 22, 1980. I know it was a Friday, because when the miracle happened, I was playing a regular season game in our street hockey league in New Jersey.

 

I got home after the Olympic game was over, but I didn’t know who had won. Back then, there was no Internet, and unless you tuned in to watch the Olympic coverage on TV, you were pretty much in the dark about what was happening.

 

My father knew the result of the game because he had been watching the Olympics on and off that day. The first thing I said to him when I got home was. “don’t tell me who won.” That’s because the game was coming on TV on tape delay in less than an hour. 

 

I turned the TV off until the game was ready to start, just in case there happened to be an update on the news.

 

I was glued to the TV once the game began. As expected, the heavily- favored Soviets scored first, about nine minutes into he game, and I figured it wouldn’t be long before the U.S. fell way behind. 

 

Most hockey fans around the world were expecting the same thing. Not only were the Soviets the best hockey team in the Olympics, they were arguably the best in the world. Earlier in the winter, they beat the same U.S. team, 8-3. A year before in a three-game series against an NHL All-Star team that featured 20 future Hall of Famers, the Soviets won two of three, including a 6-0 rout in Game 3 at Madison Square Garden. The Soviets had won Olympic gold every year since 1964.

 

In 1980, professionals weren’t allowed to compete in the Olympics like they are today. Some might argue the Soviets were actually professionals, subsidized by the government with no real job other than to play hockey.

 

The U.S. team consisted exclusively of amateurs -college kids, coached by Herb Brooks. They were by far the youngest team in the Olympic tournament. Not many people, myself included, gave them much of a chance against the Soviets. 

 

But the U.S. tied the game with just under six minutes left in the first period.

 

The Soviets got that goal back three minutes later and it looked like they were headed into the locker room ahead, 2-1. 

 

But not quite.

 

Dave Christian put in a rebound with one second left off a shot from center ice to tie the game at 2-2, giving the U.S. fans hope.

 

The Soviets got the lead back two minutes into the second period, and dominated the play for the next 20 minutes, holding the Americans to just two shots on goal.

 

It was more of the same in the third period until a Soviet player got high-sticking penalty seven minutes into the period. A minute later, Mark Johnson scored a power play goal to tie the game at 3-3.

 

Again, the Soviets controlled the game and with time winding down, every U.S. fan was on the edge of their seat, hoping for a miracle.

 

It happened with exactly 10 minutes left when Mike Eruzione took a pass from Mark Pavelich and found the back of the net for a 4-3 lead. Then it was nail-biting time as the Soviets pressured the U.S. net time after time. In the final minute, the U.S. struggled to get the puck out of their end of the rink. But with four seconds left they cleared the zone.

 

That’s when ABC Sports Commentator Al Michaels made one of the most memorable statements in the history of sports,  “Do you belive in miracles?”

 

Yes, we do.