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

On the fateful night of 22 February 1980, I was 12 yrs old and witnessed the best event on tv or otherwise that I had *ever* seen or have seen since. The game against the Russians and ensuing victory forever changed my life. I have been both a hockey fan since and I most assuredly *do* believe in miracles. I was too young to appreciate the world events that kept the mood in the country downtrodden but I will always remember that game if only for the tremendously motivating story that it is. It's not possible to capture an intangible like hope, however Coffey's book certainly accomplishes precisely that. If you never read another sports based book, this one will be all that you'll ever need. Now if I can just find a VHS copy of the 13th Winter Olypic Games that features the game in question so I can burn the game to DVD to have forever more.

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.

Given that I was born in June of 1980 - some 4 months after the greatest sports moment of the last 25 years - I have had to rely 100 percent on documentaries, articles and movies to truly understand how important this event really was. My father, who has everything from DVDs to framed artwork commemorating the game, still talks about the event today as if it just happened. But, even the movie Miracle, which came out last year and is No. 1 on my all-time sports movie list, didn't do for me what this book does. What history has told us again and again over the last 25 years is how special this victory was because of the fact that it was a bunch of college players who were virtually unheard of taking down a Soviet powerhouse made up of solid veterans. However, what nobody has attempted to do was tell us the story of who these 20 young men really were. Until now. Wayne Coffey takes us through - not only the game minute-by-minute, period-by-period, but also he tells the story of the players. Who they were. Where they came from. Where they are now. He does a marvelous job of breaking down the book and weaving in and out between past and present. With such in depth analysis, you would think it would be hard to follow, but Coffey's gift for story telling makes it easy to get through. There are some books that once you finish you feel kind of dissapointed - not because you didn't enjoy the book, but because you enjoyed it so much you are going to miss it. This is true of this one. After you're done, you feel as if you know the team personally, as if you were the 21st member in Lake Placid, along side Pavelich, O'Callahan, Harrington, Suter, Craig, Eruzione, McClanahan, Johnson and even the legendary late coach himself, Herb Brooks. This one is a real page-turner from start to finish. The book brings those like my father right back to a time in history that will never again be revisited and for people my age, it brings us to a time that we wish we could have experienced first hand. Obviously, we will never be able to go back. But this is the next best thing.

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.