`Do you believe in miracles?’

`Conversation’ continues with St. Lawrence County event

By Ken Tingley

When I entered the darkened room, I knew exactly what I was going to see.

I knew what was coming.

But it still overwhelmed me and I was back there again, too.

It had been 43 years. I was a young man then. Just starting out. Also, believing anything was possible.

The Lake Placid Olympic Museum just opened in December. It’s tucked into a corner of the basement at the Olympic Arena just a slap shot away from where those baby-faced college kids danced deliriously on Feb. 22, 1980 after startling the world with what we all know now as “The Miracle On Ice.”

The Miracle on Ice lives on at the new Lake Placid Olympic Museum.

It was a reminder that anything is possible.

It was a reminder of the total disrespect youth can have on the status quo.

It was a reminder that an entire country can be lifted up by sports.

And it was something even more. It was a reminder of possibility, of hope, that dreams may indeed come true.

It was something serious, too, a reminder that the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union did not guarantee dominance, not on the ice and not a decade later when the Berlin Wall finally fell.

The average age of those kids playing hockey for the United States was 22 years, 5 months. It was the youngest team in the Olympic tournament.

The Soviets had beaten Japan 17-0.

They had steamrolled the Netherlands 14-3.

They led the Americans 3-2 going into the third period.

The game was played in the afternoon.

It was not shown on live television.

I had been working at the Press-Republican in Plattsburgh for just seven weeks. I arrived too late to get Olympic credentials. My job was to roll the computer tape back at the office and keep the copy flowing to the special Olympic edition we put out daily.

There in the dark, the viewer is rushed through that hockey tournament much too fast. Suddenly, it’s the semifinals and the Lake Placid arena is filled with waving American flags and chants of “USA, USA, USA” with the Soviets waiting.

The Russians went ahead 3-2 after two periods.

The Americans tied it on Mark Johnson’s second goal with 11:21 to play.

I knew what it was coming next.

What Sports Illustrated called the greatest sports moment of the 20th Century.

Mike Eruzione, the captain of the team, flashed across the middle of the crease, takes a pass and buries it into the back of the net.

The chills are back.

And I swear I hear the bells again.

  Four of them.

In 1980, the Associated Press wire printed out its stories simultaneously on paper and computer tape and when there was breaking news, a bell would ring in the wire room.

The old hands in the newsroom said they had never heard more than two bells.

When Eruzione scored there were four bells.

I ripped the paper off the machine and read it aloud in the newsroom.

And then we all waited.

There was still 10 minutes to play.

Back in the darkened room it was easier. We watched what the rest of the country saw later that night on prime time.

Goalie Jim Craig made the saves as the Americans desperately tried to hold on to the miracle. And then Al Michaels’ legendary call, “Do you believe in miracles?” and pandemonium on the ice.

And I was back there again and smiling in the darkened room.

And a tear welled up in one eye as we watched Jim Craig looking for his father in the stands.

Four bells clanged out that the Americans had prevailed 4-3 in the newsroom. They had shocked the world.

Sure, they still had to beat Finland in the Gold Medal game, but everyone knew they would do that.

They showed the medal ceremony and the entire team surrounding Eruzione on the podium in the arena just down the hall as they raised the American flag.

As I left the darkened room Thursday, I looked around the room. There was a hockey tourney going on in the Olympic Arena and there were parents with their kids. And I realized that even the parents had not been born yet in 1980.

Those baby-faced kids crowded onto the podium for the medal ceremony were now Social Security age.

I was just up the road, but I missed that Olympics.

After 1980, I set a goal for someday covering the Winter Olympics.

Twenty-two years later, I covered the games in Salt Lake City. The 1980 Olympic hockey team lit the Olympic flame to open the Games. Afterward I interviewed Mike Eruzione knowing that I would always believe in miracles.

Elevating the Conversation

The St. Lawrence County Democratic Committee hosted me for a talk on newspapers and journalism Thursday night in Potsdam.

It was a good turnout with over 40 in attendance.

It was the first of what the committee hopes will be a series of discussions about issues in its county.

My message was that newspapers and the journalists who do the work are critical to our democracy and holding elected officials accountable.

It was an engaged audience with good questions.

It’s the type of discussion that every community should be having.

Another bookstore

Earlier Thursday, I spoke to the Plattsburgh Rotary Club. It was another good audience who showed its concern for the erosion of community journalism.

I met a young woman afterward who runs The Corner Stone Bookshop on Margaret Street in Plattsburgh. She wanted some of my books to sell in her store.

So for those of you in the Plattsburgh area, you can now get “The Last American Newspaper” downtown at The Corner Stone Bookshop.