A Flash of Unity

I guess this should be a Sunday Story – but it happened on Sunday, and I wasn’t quite done working on it. So here’s a “Sunday Story” on Monday, Enjoy!!

Denison

It was February of 1980. I was a very young sprint coach for the indoor track team at Watkins Memorial High School, just starting my third year.  And we were at my alma mater, Denison University, for a high school track meet.  Back then, the indoor track at Denison was typical of the day.  Unlike today’s 200 meter (8 laps to a mile) and 300 meter (5 ½ laps to a mile) tracks, in those days many tracks were undersized; designed to fit in whatever building was available.  The Denison indoor was the same one I competed on as a college athlete:  six lanes, with the inside lane measuring 146 yards long. That’s twelve laps to a mile in lane one, ten laps to a mile in lane six.

There was a lot of teaching to do for sprinters on the Denison track.  The turns were so tight that you needed to lean into the turn and twist your shoulders.  Instead of your arms going straight at the side of your body, they crossed your body in the direction of the turn.  And while each straight away was short (about 36 yards long) you needed to take advantage both to pass and to gain speed.  Accelerating into a turn at Denison was dangerous.  Like NASCAR short-track racing, it was easy to bring too much speed and you’d fly off into the concrete abutments holding up the building.  ( I learned that lesson the hard way in my first meet in college.  I remember my coach laughing).

Up above the track there was a balcony, perched over the first turn.  I was standing down by the start/finish line (the end of the “front stretch”, except for the 45 yard dash, run across the middle of the field and out the garage doors into the parking lot).  And someone up there had a transistor radio and yelled, “They Won!!!”.

Miracle

It was the 1980 Olympic Games, and the “amateurs” of the US Hockey team had just done the impossible.  They defeated the Soviet (Russian) team, known as the best in the world and able to beat even the NHL All-Stars.  But those gathered US college kids had found their “one-in-a-million game”, and broke through.  The next day, they defeated the Finns to win the gold medal.

I remember standing on that track, my “old stomping grounds”, and feeling so proud of America.  Our “kids” beat the “pros” of the Soviet Union.  It was a year where fifty-nine Americans were still held hostage by Iran, and President Jimmy Carter worried about “American malaise”.  We were long past moon landings, Watergate and Vietnam.  The Montreal Olympics in 1976 were good, but the whole movement still lingered under the shadow of the terrorist attack on the 1972 Munich Games.

But, for that moment, we were all Americans, all proud, all amazed that our “kids”, who were roundly beaten by the Soviets just a few weeks before, could win the Gold.

If you don’t remember that moment, you might remember the play-by-play ABC announcer Al Michaels’ cry “Do you believe in Miracles?”.  Or you might have seen the 2004 movie Miracle.  Jenn and I watched it (again) Saturday night.

 Narrow Win

This past Sunday morning, the US men’s hockey team played Team Canada for the gold medal.  Teams are different these days. Like basketball, the players (both men and women) are professionals.  The men’s Olympic teams from most countries are made up of NHL players.  Athletes from different nations play together in the NHL, only to face-off against each other at the Olympics. 

The pressure on this US team was immense.  It had been since the “Miracle” team of 1980, forty-six years, that the US had won the men’s gold.  While the “kids” of 1980 broke through, the “pros” afterwards couldn’t keep up with the pros from other countries.  In this century, it was the Canadians that were the nemesis (after all, it is their game).   They won the gold in 2002, 2010, and 2014, and the bronze in 2018.  And in world competitions in this decade, the Canada v United States match often decided both the men’s and women’s championships.

The men’s game had all of the drama of the movie in “real life”.  Like “Miracle”, the goalies on both teams were marvelous.  After the first period, the US led 1-0. After the second period, it was tied 1-1.  During the third period the US survived minutes of a five to three Canadian advantage, and both teams narrowly missed a game winning goal.  They moved into a sudden-death overtime, three-on-three.  Only a couple of minutes into that fourth period, American Jack Hughes, a twenty-four year old of the New Jersey Devils NHL team, scored.  He was playing with jagged front teeth broken on a “high stick call” just a few minutes before.

Tears of Joy

And for a few minutes, it was just like 1980. I forgot all about the division, the hatred, and the polarization of America today.  For a moment in time, it didn’t matter about partisan politics. I wasn’t concerned about what athlete, or commentator, or network “supported” which side.  For that moment, we were all part of greatness.  Young Americans were celebrating on the ice. Young Canadians were manfully dealing with defeat. We marveled at the amazing athletic performances by both that made up this final game.  

There wasn’t hatred or taunting.  Come Wednesday both teams will be back in the NHL. Canadians and Americans  will mix, as well as Swedes, Finns, Russians and the rest. They’ll be playing for a chance to lift the Stanley Cup.  The American goalie, Conner Hellebuyck, is the hero of the game. Wednesday he will be “between the pipes” for the Canada’s Winnipeg Jets.

But for a few minutes, we all were Americans celebrating, waving the flag, and singing our National Anthem.  Parents and friends were in the stands in Milan, tears of joy running down faces.  

There were some tears here at the kitchen table in Pataskala as well.  

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Author: Marty Dahlman

I'm Marty Dahlman. After forty years of teaching and coaching track and cross country, I've finally retired!!! I've also spent a lot of time in politics, working campaigns from local school elections to Presidential campaigns.

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  1. Pingback: The Sunday Story Series : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life

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