Jeff Platsky, Press & Sun-Bulletin at Binghamton, N.Y. Business Editor Jeff Platsky covered the preparations for the 1980 Winter Olympics from the Lake Placid Bureau of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, a daily newspaper based in Saranac Lake, N.Y. Below are his memories of the U.S. Olympic hockey team gold medal win.
"Because of hockey, no one remembers the epic transportation foul-ups at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.
"Because of hockey, too few people remember that Eric Heiden won an incredible five gold medals on an outdoor speed skating oval in Lake Placid.
"They only remember that storied Friday night in February, when a ragtag group of youngsters pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in 20th-century sports. They defeated the disciplined Soviet hockey team - those despised 'amateurs' in the red uniforms - to qualify for the gold medal game on Sunday.
"The atmosphere outside the Olympic arena before the US-USSR match was charged. Tickets, which went wanting only week earlier, were selling for many times their face value. Within the 6,000-seat arena a standing-room only crowd almost willed, through sheer determination, a win that is forever etched the Lake Placid Games into the minds of the American public.
"What most fans missed was the celebration at the press conference afterward in the auditorium of Lake Placid High School. All the players faced the press, the first time fabled coach Herb Brooks allowed them out for these regular events. And even in a press room that was supposed to be filled with objective sports writers, there was an excitement that could hardly be contained. Jack O'Callahan, a gritty defenseman from the Boston area, stood on the table, teetering in full hockey dress, waving a champagne bottle and entertaining the press corps with his rambling comments.
"The victory and subsequent victory in the gold medal game against Finland capped an epic journey for a bunch of guys who first came to Lake Placid in the summer of 1979 without the fanfare and with few expectations."
Thanks to 'Gannetteer'
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