ESPN Classic!!

[Schadenfreude]

Has anyone here ever been to Lake Placid? It's a beautiful area and the town is really something. The outdoor speed skating rink where Eric Heiden won his 5 golds is pretty cool. I liked that they did that outside. Whiteface is one of the best ski resorts in the northeast. I have been to all the big name places in Vermont and Maine and it is my favorite. It's more of a hardcore skier's mountain.

It amazes me that a town that small and in the middle of nowhere hosted the olympics two times(1932). There is nothing close to LP, the weather is bad, and there are only 6,000 residents. Outside of LP there are many cabins and rental places that were only occupied at the time of the 80 olympics, and have been rottiing away ever since.

I have been to Lake Placid. It is a neat little town. You've described it about right. The population throughout the Adirondacks probably quintuples during the cool summers -- and during winter, the weather is truly viscious.

I think in 1980, the state had restored a train line to take people up to Lake Placid from New York City. Interstate 87 gets you pretty close, too -- but everything else up there is winding, two-lane road.

(From Ohio, folks would probably want to get off I-90 at Utica, then head north).

From what I understand, Lake Placid still offers bobsled rides to the public for about $70 -- which, if you think about it, for four people, is pretty much worth the price.

I actually know a guy who was at the Miracle on Ice game. He was a newspaper reporter for a medium-sized upstate New York newspaper.

I guess when he called the office to try to tell them what had just happened, no one could understand what he was saying because of all the people still hooting and hollering and carrying on.

[Lord_Byron]

From what I understand, Lake Placid still offers bobsled rides to the public for about $70 -- which, if you think about it, for four people, is pretty much worth the price.

I've done the bobsled ride. If you ever go there in the winter, this is a MUST. The also offer luge rides also, but not from the top of the course.

Skiing on Whiteface is also pretty impressive. They have the 1980 runs marked and you can't really appreciate the steepness untill you've seen them. To get to the top of the downhill course, you need to take two chair lifts, the second seemingly going up at a 90 degree angle.

Another time I was there, they were practicing ski-jumping. We stood on the 90 meter as they took off of the 70 meter. You can actually hear them slice the air as they go by. That takes some cajones, but they're really never more than about 8 feet above the ground.

Lake Placid is a great place in the winter or summer.

[FindlayFalcon]

We were at Lake Placid in the summer. They still use the ski jump hill for practice. They land on plastic of some kind which simulates snow. Does anybody remember "Eddie the Eagle"? He was a ski jumper (a really bad one) from England. He wore these big thick glasses and since he was such an underdog everybody fell in love with him--kind of like the Jamaican Bobsled team. Anyway, he was there practicing and we were going down on the chair lift as we were going up and we said "hi" in passing. He seemed thoroughly pleased when we said "Hi Eddie".

I love Lake Placid. Sure would have been neat to be there in 1980 and 1984,

[Anonymous]

Has anyone here ever been to Lake Placid? It's a beautiful area and the town is really something. The outdoor speed skating rink where Eric Heiden won his 5 golds is pretty cool. I liked that they did that outside. Whiteface is one of the best ski resorts in the northeast. I have been to all the big name places in Vermont and Maine and it is my favorite. It's more of a hardcore skier's mountain.

It amazes me that a town that small and in the middle of nowhere hosted the olympics two times(1932). There is nothing close to LP, the weather is bad, and there are only 6,000 residents. Outside of LP there are many cabins and rental places that were only occupied at the time of the 80 olympics, and have been rottiing away ever since.

What, you mean the town is not how it is shown in the 1999 movie, "Lake Placid"

[kdog27]

Skiing on Whiteface is also pretty impressive. They have the 1980 runs marked and you can't really appreciate the steepness untill you've seen them. To get to the top of the downhill course, you need to take two chair lifts, the second seemingly going up at a 90 degree angle.

I have skied all over the US and if I had to choose one place to go on this side of the country it would be Whiteface. The place is always empty. When conditions there are right there is no place in the NE that compares IMO. The problem is they get a lot less snow there then they do in VT and it pretty cold. The two runs Skyward and Cloudspin off of the summit are pretty impressive. There are actaully more fearsome runs off of the summit of little whiteface but they are rarely open, maybe a week out of the season, they are so steep that there is rarely ever enough snow to cover them. I think one of them is called empire. It's a fun place to ski, I haven't been there since they updated their lifts. I'm sure it is much nicer now that they have that gondola and a high speed quad. The rides to the summit were brutal on those old things.

[Falconfreak90]

We were at Lake Placid in the summer. They still use the ski jump hill for practice. They land on plastic of some kind which simulates snow. Does anybody remember "Eddie the Eagle"? He was a ski jumper (a really bad one) from England. He wore these big thick glasses and since he was such an underdog everybody fell in love with him--kind of like the Jamaican Bobsled team. Anyway, he was there practicing and we were going down on the chair lift as we were going up and we said "hi" in passing. He seemed thoroughly pleased when we said "Hi Eddie".

I love Lake Placid. Sure would have been neat to be there in 1980 and 1984,

I remember "Eddie the Eagle". He was fun to watch, knw he wasn't going to win anything and had a blast! I prefer "Freddie Falcon".

[Flipper]

I prefer Frieda cause she's STACKED!!!!

Anyhow, re the whole Hockey East/CCHA/WCHA conflict, there was a fair amount of tension between members of each league in the past. In fact, the made for TV movie about the team that featured Karl Malden as Herb Brooks played the regional conflict up quite a bit, IIRC.

Andrew Stevens played Eurizione in that movie...how fricking GAY was that?

I loved that 1980 Gold medal team like a fat kid loves twinkies. I missed bith the USSR game and the Gold Medal game because I had to bus tables at Bill Knapp's. Tuition was a whopping $360 per qtr that year so I had to hustle. Bill Knapp's is gone, but the memories of 1980 live on. I bought a copy of the USSR game on EBay, but I 've yet to se the final game for sale anywhere. I am Ahab and it is my whale.

[BGSU99]

I've watched that dvd several times and I still get choked up. I was at a hs basketball game that night and the loudest roar of the night was when the pa guy announced the score. Of course, he ruined it for those of us who were going to go home and watch it later (LOL)! We also have the 'Miracle' dvd and I was thinking they should have given Morrow a little more play in the movie as he was arguably the team's best defenseman. One good point that was made in the movie was the magnitude of that game ... that it was a lot more than a hockey game to a lot of people. The Cold War was definitely alive and well in 1980 and I still tell everyone that was the greatest sports moment in American sports history. So, um, does anyone have a dvd of BG's 1984 National Title Game?

[TG1996]

So, um, does anyone have a dvd of BG's 1984 National Title Game?

One of us (err, "two of us" do, I'm told, but they're sworn to secrecy and keep it under lock and key. ) That is *MY* whale, though I think I taped the whole Miracle on Ice game a few years ago from ESPN Classic, I just have to find it.

As for the "East vs. West" conflict... I just watched that HBO produced DVD again, and A) it was awesome, B) just about everything that has been said here about Disney "building up a storyline" actually happened. The east vs. west thing was prominent, Brooks was "like Yogi Berra meets Casey Stengel", and he really had them skate Herbies well after the arena fell dark. As much as I gave that DVD props in an earlier post, multiply that by a thousand. It really is an awesome find, especially for $10. In fact, search Amazon for "1980 hockey" and you can find it. (though I'd still go pick it up at Target or such, if you can find it there)

The win itself gives me chills, Jim Craig looking for his dad starts a bit of the waterworks... damn near every time.

[pdt1081]

So, um, does anyone have a dvd of BG's 1984 National Title Game?

There are a couple of them out there. Some people were able to get them at the National Championship reunion banquet last year. The NC$$ owns the rights to the game and all copies must be accounted for. Only offering of them that I know of was at the banquet. I've only seen part of one of the overtimes, not sure which one it was though.

[Class of 61]

You know, I just watched this game in its entirety for the first time in my life, and I can only find one word to describe it - electirfying. Even 25 years later, interrupted by interviews with Jim Craig and Mike Eruzione, I watched this game as if it were happening for the first time. Everytime the US team scored a goal I jumped a bit. Everytime the Soviets scored a goal I marvelled at their talent. Excepting a few BG games that I have witnessed in person, I have never had that type of reaction to a hockey game, and certainly not to that level.

Also, I have watched (twice now) Michael Wilbon try to diminish the effect of this game by stating that there was no run-up to the game and that not many people cared about the game until after it happened. I've heard him say the same thing in the past on PTI. Well, he's a friggin' moron who is just trying to make a name for himself that he will never have. The very fact that there was no run-up to this game and no one realized its magnitude until afterwards is testament to how big of an upset it truly was. Wilbon was right in pointing out that a game such as this one would never be shown in tape-delay in today's sports climate, but the fact that it was not shown in real-time, again, proves just how big of a victory this was, not only for USA Hockey, but for the USA itself.

As a student of history and being congnizant of what was taking place in February of 1980 politically and socially, I suppose I am in somewhat of a different position to appreciate this game than most. But, from this position, I would have to say that this was truly one of the greatest events in American history, given its context, as great as VE and VJ day. I know that may sound insulting to some whose family members gave their lives during WWII, but when you think about the state of the American consciousness and what transpired in US/Soviet relations in the decade that followed this game, in my mind there is no doubt of this. No other moment in sports -- at any time in human history -- can claim this level of socio-political impact. If this game can elicit the kind of emotional response that it has in me, someone who was born over a year after it took place, I can only imagine what it must have been like to experience it first-hand.

Also, I have to add that this team was FAST! I have never in my life seen a team beat out icing the way this team did. Apparently those "Herbies" did the trick!

Bleed,
You're right in what you've stated about US/Soviet relations and how they were affected...one of the BIG things that also came from this uplifting win was that American people truly united again, behind a hockey team no less; The Iranian hostage crisis was still going "strong" with many people(read political leaders) in this country at a loss as to how to free them...
It was as if all the problems of the world were gone, at least for a few days.

[Falconfreak90]

I prefer Frieda cause she's STACKED!!!!

Anyhow, re the whole Hockey East/CCHA/WCHA conflict, there was a fair amount of tension between members of each league in the past. In fact, the made for TV movie about the team that featured Karl Malden as Herb Brooks played the regional conflict up quite a bit, IIRC.

Andrew Stevens played Eurizione in that movie...how fricking GAY was that?

I loved that 1980 Gold medal team like a fat kid loves twinkies. I missed bith the USSR game and the Gold Medal game because I had to bus tables at Bill Knapp's. Tuition was a whopping $360 per qtr that year so I had to hustle. Bill Knapp's is gone, but the memories of 1980 live on. I bought a copy of the USSR game on EBay, but I 've yet to se the final game for sale anywhere. I am Ahab and it is my whale.

Yes, Flipper....she is quite stacked! Hubba Hubba!

[BGFan]

I prefer Frieda cause she's STACKED!!!!

Anyhow, re the whole Hockey East/CCHA/WCHA conflict, there was a fair amount of tension between members of each league in the past. In fact, the made for TV movie about the team that featured Karl Malden as Herb Brooks played the regional conflict up quite a bit, IIRC.

Andrew Stevens played Eurizione in that movie...how fricking GAY was that?

I loved that 1980 Gold medal team like a fat kid loves twinkies. I missed bith the USSR game and the Gold Medal game because I had to bus tables at Bill Knapp's. Tuition was a whopping $360 per qtr that year so I had to hustle. Bill Knapp's is gone, but the memories of 1980 live on. I bought a copy of the USSR game on EBay, but I 've yet to se the final game for sale anywhere. I am Ahab and it is my whale.

Yes, Flipper....she is quite stacked! Hubba Hubba!

Personally, I don't think they're real. They just don't bounce like you'd expect them to.