Jimcs50
02-22-2005, 04:37 PM
My Turn: More than a miracle
Ken Morrow /
Posted: 15 hours ago
In my lifetime, I remember when we walked on the moon, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and 9/11. The Miracle on Ice is remembered the same way — people know where they were, who they were with and what they were doing when it happened.
Every day, someone comes up to me and tells me how they spent that night watching the game against the Soviet Union. It amazes me. I've played in the Stanley Cup finals, and people don't walk up to me and ask me about those games years later. But they still ask about the game against the Russians.
Even more important than the memories of the game was the impact it had on hockey. It brought hockey to the general public and got a lot of people around the country interested in the sport.
Now it has become something passed down from parent to child. Of course, the movie Miracle also had a big impact. It feels terrific because, truthfully, you don't feel like you deserve these accolades. We were just doing what we were supposed to do.
When we got together, we thought we could win. As an athlete, you always feel you can win. We were such a young team — maybe you could say we were naive — and we didn't know any better. The pressure was really off in that famous game. They were supposed to beat us, and they were supposed to beat us pretty badly, so we were able to go out and play our game.
The game against Finland was another story. I think Herb Brooks did his greatest coaching job on the day between the Russia and Finland games. Here you've got this group of kids coming in after the huge upset. We were patting ourselves on the backs and soaking in everything. Everybody was talking about us. Herb had to get us ready for the next challenge. He got our attention really quickly. He brought us back to earth and got our minds on the next task.
I've been asked about my greatest memory of those Olympics, and it was those few hours after the Finland game. We had three or four hours before the medal ceremony, and all of our family and friends came down to the locker room. We shut the doors and had a quiet celebration with the people who were really responsible for the accomplishment — the people who had supported us, the people who had coached us. It was great.
Recently, I've seen those games through new eyes. My 7-year-old son started playing hockey a couple of years ago, and last year he began to understand that I played for Team USA. When Miracle came out, his interest was piqued, so we started watching the game tapes.
Now we go down in the basement, and I shoot rubber pucks at him. He's Jimmy Craig, he's Team USA, and we're playing against the Russians — just like I've been told guys like Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Billy Guerin and Mike Modano did when they were young. It's another generation of kids reliving those Games. It's my son, 25 years later. It's really cool.
Ken Morrow /
Posted: 15 hours ago
In my lifetime, I remember when we walked on the moon, when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and 9/11. The Miracle on Ice is remembered the same way — people know where they were, who they were with and what they were doing when it happened.
Every day, someone comes up to me and tells me how they spent that night watching the game against the Soviet Union. It amazes me. I've played in the Stanley Cup finals, and people don't walk up to me and ask me about those games years later. But they still ask about the game against the Russians.
Even more important than the memories of the game was the impact it had on hockey. It brought hockey to the general public and got a lot of people around the country interested in the sport.
Now it has become something passed down from parent to child. Of course, the movie Miracle also had a big impact. It feels terrific because, truthfully, you don't feel like you deserve these accolades. We were just doing what we were supposed to do.
When we got together, we thought we could win. As an athlete, you always feel you can win. We were such a young team — maybe you could say we were naive — and we didn't know any better. The pressure was really off in that famous game. They were supposed to beat us, and they were supposed to beat us pretty badly, so we were able to go out and play our game.
The game against Finland was another story. I think Herb Brooks did his greatest coaching job on the day between the Russia and Finland games. Here you've got this group of kids coming in after the huge upset. We were patting ourselves on the backs and soaking in everything. Everybody was talking about us. Herb had to get us ready for the next challenge. He got our attention really quickly. He brought us back to earth and got our minds on the next task.
I've been asked about my greatest memory of those Olympics, and it was those few hours after the Finland game. We had three or four hours before the medal ceremony, and all of our family and friends came down to the locker room. We shut the doors and had a quiet celebration with the people who were really responsible for the accomplishment — the people who had supported us, the people who had coached us. It was great.
Recently, I've seen those games through new eyes. My 7-year-old son started playing hockey a couple of years ago, and last year he began to understand that I played for Team USA. When Miracle came out, his interest was piqued, so we started watching the game tapes.
Now we go down in the basement, and I shoot rubber pucks at him. He's Jimmy Craig, he's Team USA, and we're playing against the Russians — just like I've been told guys like Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick, Billy Guerin and Mike Modano did when they were young. It's another generation of kids reliving those Games. It's my son, 25 years later. It's really cool.