'Miracle' team revels in reunion

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LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- They are fully grown men now. Some are grandparents, some are retirees, the hairlines graying and receding if not in full retreat.

But if you squinted your eyes just so while watching these old friends pull the familiar red, white and blue American jerseys over their shoulders on Saturday evening, a few yards away from the floor of Herb Brooks Arena, it was easy to imagine them as they looked that night 35 years ago.

Young -- college age, most of them -- facing a challenge few anywhere expected them to meet while playing the powerful Russians with a chance at a gold medal on the line.

During a break in the proceedings later Saturday evening, the 19 surviving members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team retired to the sparseness that is Locker Room 5, the same room these 35 years later except for the fact the medical table had been moved from the center of the room into the adjacent shower.

And who among the group couldn't hear in his mind the roar of the crowd from that night as they waited to go out for the third period against the Russians, feel the quickening of the pulse and crystal certainty of the memory of what was about to unfold?

Certainly the 5,000 who filled the one end of Herb Brooks Arena to mark the 35th anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice" and to honor former teammate Bob Suter, who died in September, were transported through time, rising as one as the final couple of minutes of that seminal game played out on the screen above.

The eyes of everyone in the building -- players, families, fans -- were transfixed on the video monitors and jumbo screens as though the moment was taking place in front of them in real time, not being replayed for perhaps the thousandth time.

And, as if on cue, with the clock ticking down from 10 seconds to nine to eight, Al Michaels was asking a nation if it believed in miracles.

And they did.

And they still do.

"The memories started coming as soon as I stepped on the plane in Detroit," center Mark Wells said.

"To me, it's like yesterday," said Wells, who is helping out with a youth hockey facility in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, after a long period of health problems.

"This is an inspiration," he said, gesturing toward his teammates and more his old friends. "This reassures me that I'm going to be OK. It is the most important thing, as we speak, in my life."

Over the years, all of the members of the team have been to Lake Placid.

Backup netminder Steve Janaszak recalled his first visit to the arena in Lake Placid after the 1980 Olympics more than a decade later.

"I had to sit down, my knees were wobbling. I could still see the rafters shaking. It was really overwhelming," he said.

Neal Broten recalled being injured while playing with the New Jersey Devils some 15 years after the '80 Olympics and driving up just to look around.

"I don't even think I went in the arena," he said, shaking his head at the memories. "It was kind of surreal."

Saturday marked the first time the entire group had gathered together in the very place where history was made.

It was a moment made even more poignant with the raising to the rafters of Herb Brooks Arena of Bob Suter's No. 20. Suter died in September, the first of the "Miracle on Ice" players to pass.

Perhaps what makes this group so engaging is the players' perpetual sense of wonderment at what they accomplished and that it still resonates so deeply with so many people.

"It's amazing the staying power this has had," defenseman Mike Ramsey said.

"Obviously, we knew we were on to something big. But we had no idea it was going to grab a country like it did. No idea," added Ramsey, who would go on to have a long NHL career as a player -- 1,070 games played -- and then later as an assistant coach.

As he rode into town Friday evening, Ramsey found himself trying to see out of the van's frosty windows, looking for landmarks, the tiny bar that used to sit at the end of the speed skating oval.

This was not a team of superstars.

Talented, yes.

No question about that.

Ken Morrow went on to win four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders.

Dave Christian played more than 1,000 NHL games.

Mark Pavelich averaged just under a point a game in 355 NHL games.

Jack O'Callahan played 389 NHL games.

But superstars?

"We could walk through any place and they wouldn't have any idea [who we were]," Broten said.

But once they found out?

Oh my, the smiles and memories and the stories.

"I think what happened is that it became a part of your fabric," forward Dave Silk explained.

The players have become used to the fact that for others, maybe an entire nation, they are defined by one game, one tournament, "as opposed to how I define myself," Silk said.

"And that's fine," he said. "It's one of those things that we did but it's not necessarily who we are."

Could even a devoted hockey fan identify more than a handful of players from that team?

Mike Eruzione, the captain. Probably.