Redstate

and a lump in the throat, all these years later.

And every man and boy (I'm like, 10 or something) in that hall was cursing the universe because we had no blipping idea that the US/CCCP game was going to be that blipping important when the date for the dinner was set.

No blipping TV in the blipping hall where we could get at it, either.

So somebody who must have snuck out to listen to the game gets up to announce the results. He starts off by going "The USSR 3..."

We all groan.

"...the USA 4."

We all stop. We all blink. We all roar. I'll remember that to the day I die.

I still would've liked to see the game, though.

The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC. I've been usurped!

Back in 2001 on the team, and I was lucky enough to catch it a few weeks back on a replay. It was awesome. Despite having Walter Mondale on it (he's not on for long).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276918/ - It's worth checking out your On Demand if you have HBO to see if it's available on there. According to the IMDB page it should be on HBO on Monday July 9th at 7 PM. I highly recommend it.

"My heart was here...I feel like I have unfinished business here." - Roy Hibbert

What's even more amazing, perhaps, is that despite the enormous gravity of the moment and the level of passion everyone had, there was really no brawling and no fighting, no rushing of the "court", no nothing except real celebration among the winners and a sportsmanlike aplomb from the losing team. Despite the average age of the U.S. team being so young, they handled themselves incredibly well, as did the Soviet team.

We can't count on that today, in much less important events.

Losers. Murderous losers.

I remember when Americans used to love their country. Noways, so many on the left truly hate this country.

And seem to recall that it was televised at a very odd hour..can anyone remind me when that was?

This is one of the things I despise about the pre-package crap that is Olympics coverage. Watching Franz Klaamer's downhill run live, being sure that he was going to crash and die, and then seeing him end up winning the gold was also a pretty cool moment - though not nearly what the hockey win was.

This event, like many sports events, is an excellent paradigm into what it takes to win in life. It shows that winning is largely about having the will to win, not the odds of winning. I hate to apply this to the Long War, but can't help it. Perhaps if we as a nation were truly committed to winning and were willing to do what it takes to win like Herb Brooks and this team, we would surely do it.

Sadly either war critics aren't familiar with this concept or have conveniently forgotten it. I suspect the latter. At least we have the opportunity to elect another great communicator who can convey this to the American people.

Consensus doesn't prove anything, in science or anywhere else, except in democracy, maybe. - Reid Bryson

as a young infantry lieutenant stationed in West Berlin.

For those who can't remember those days, they were depressing. The match took place in the last year of the long dark night of the Carter Administration. Americans were held hostage in Iran. The Soviets were on the march in Afghanistan and sub Saharan Africa. West Germany seemed to be daily on the verge of going Finland on us. We weren't looking like a real reliable ally either in the nasty aftermath of Vietnam and with our economy going into the crapper. "Malaise" was an understatement.

We didn't get telecast of the match in Germany because of licensing/royalty issues between the network and Armed Forces Network television. We did get live radio play-by-play.

German TV, naturally, carried the game but the format was incompatible with US televisions (which we troopers owned) and you could get a grainy picture (not all that bad because this was the era when television signal came in via broadcast signal, something most of you haven't experienced).

I was in my quarters, late night/early morning because of the time lag, watching the picture on my tv with the volume off (no "mute" in those ancient days) and listening to the play-by-play. The video ran about 3-5 seconds ahead of the audio.

I wasn't a hockey fan but the US 1980 team had a buzz about it and the quadrennial head-to-head competitions with the Soviets in the Olympics were always high drama.

The buzzer sounded and I/we bailed out of our rooms to go downtown (West Berlin was singular in not having a curfew, one of my favorite bars, Joe's Bierhaus in Berlin-Charlottenburg closed at 8am and reopened at 10am for lunch). This was the first of two occasions when anonymous Germans bought me beer. Der Hockeyspiel, they said.

The next time I benefitted from anonymous beer was in August 81 when the US was under different management and the US Navy dropped a couple of Libyan fighters into the Gulf of Sidra.

"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." -- Rudyard Kipling