The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team [Paperback]

More than just an underdog-achieves-greatness story, this book is a revealing look at the elements that went into that incredible victory in Lake Placid. Little is glossed over, and both Herb Brooks and several players are examined in detail. Brooks is not portrayed as a saint, but his genius in creating a team and a system to win gold shines through.

The Russians are not treated as a bunch of villains, but instead are shown to be just as human as the American boys. The political climate of the time obviously made the victory that much sweeter, and Coffey does an excellent job of setting the victory against that backdrop.

As a hockey fan, it's difficult to think of a greater moment than watching the players and crowd go crazy as those final seconds ticked away - for many of us, it still gives us chills 25 years later. This book does a wonderful job of honoring one of the great moments in American sports history.

I was 18, almost 19, years old that night in February 1980. I was a freshman in college, only a handful of years younger than the talented young men who donned the sweaters of the USA to play in the Lake Placid Olympics. It would be hard to imagine a time when morale was lower, and people felt more negatively about being an American--it was the Carter administration, interest rates were 21%, the Iranian hostage crisis was in full disaster mode, and the Soviets had just invaded Afghanistan. I grew up 65 miles from Three Mile Island, and the accident there had occurred two days after my 18th birthday in March 1979, and nobody knew whether the accident there would have long-term negative effects. Relations with the Soviets were at their nadir, the Cold War was at its height, and I remembered that things in this country were at about their lowest point possible.

And then a miracle occurred.

Herb Brooks and his team of unknown college kids beat the greatest hockey team in the world, perhaps in history. I will never forget--as long as I live--hearing Al Michaels cry out, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" as time ran out, and seeing the bedlam when the U.S. boys realized what they had accomplished. At that moment, it was okay to be an American again. I think that the resurgence of the Reagan years actually began that night in Lake Placid. It certainly marked the height of amateur hockey in the Olympics--the whole concept of "Dream Teams" was not even yet on the drawing board.

Wayne Coffey has written the definitive book on the Miracle game. It covers the action on the ice in minute detail while also telling us just who these unknown college kids--and their sphinx-like coach--were. Coffey tells us what has happened to these 20 men since their miracle, and discusses the travails and accomplishments, ranging from Mark Wells, who has faced nothing but adversity and illness, to men like Mark Pavelich, a great player who remains as enigmatic today as he was then.

For those who remember that night, or those who want to know more about it, there are two things I can recommend--the 2003 movie Miracle, where Kurt Russell BECAME Herbie Brooks--and this book. It's a quick, easy read by a master of sportswriting craft, and I can't imagine anything ever topping this book. The tragedy, of course, is that Herb Brooks died in a car accident in the summer of 2003, and never got to see either Russell's wonderful portrayal of him, or the reunion of his boys at Salt Lake City--now older, fatter, and grayer--when they lit the Olympic flame and re-captured the joy of their miracle moment.

Buy it. Read it. Cherish the memories. And remember the greatest moment in the history of sports when a bunch of unknown college kids beat the best team on earth.

Curiously, though the event has rated an HBO documentary, a made-for-TV movie, and a full-blown theatrical retelling, the complete story of the "Miracle on Ice" has never been put between covers in a real, live book (as opposed to a tome of the "instant paperback" variety). Unfortunately, it still hasn't. Coffey does a good enough job of telling the only story that people seem to care about anymore - the February 22, 1980, shocker that the U.S. hockey team pulled off against the unbeatable Soviets - but he reproduces each and every hockey movement of the game to such an excruciating degree that it's all the harder to forgive him for paying scant attention to the rest of the games that the Americans played to cop the gold. The interstitital mini-biographies of the various players and Coach Herb Brooks (whose 2003 funeral following a fatal car crash serves as the book's curtain-raiser) break the game narrative up to the point that the book is a bit confusing to read. It's an OK effort, but "Do You Believe in Miracles?" (the HBO documentary) and "Miracle" (the Disney feature flick) remain the best reminiscences of this epochal moment in sports history.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 40 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars