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It Is Written

John Bradshaw

Do You Believe in Miracles?

Coming up next, please stay tuned for It Is Written, presented by Pastor John Bradshaw.

They were basically a team of college kids.

Now their opponents had won the last 4 Olympic gold medals.

They hadn't lost a game at the Olympics in 12 years.

And their record against the United States over the previous 20 years was 28 wins against 7 losses.

And in case you're forgetting the era, Soviet teams were made up from the very best players from Russia and the Ukraine and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and Moldova and Estonia and Lithuania.

But that US team, coached by Minnesotan Herb Brooks, played their hearts out.

They beat the Soviets, 4 goals to 3, following a goal late in the game scored by team captain Mike Iruzioni.

Then they went on to play Finland, and they beat Finland, and they won Olympic gold.

What helped make that victory over the Soviets in 1980 so memorable as it took its place in sports legend was 1 of the most famous lines ever uttered in the history of sports commentary.

With just seconds to go and victory now in the grasp of the US team, Al Michaels famously said, Do you believe in miracles?

Now what happened at Lake Placid in 1980 wasn't a miracle.

It was an upset, no doubt, but not a miracle.

You know when the New England Patriots came back from being down 28 points to 3 to win the Super Bowl, or when that little high school team from Indiana won the state basketball championship, or when Leicester City won the English Premier League.

Now, those were surprises, absolutely, but they weren't miracles.

So what's a miracle, Apart from me being able to stay up on these skates.

I've come to Boston to talk to Mike Erruzione, who was the captain of the US Olympic hockey team that won that gold medal in 1980.

In fact, he scored the iconic winning goal.

I wanted to find out about miracles, the miracle, the miracle on ice from the perspective of a man who lived it.

So tell me what was on your mind, on the mind of the players as you're building up to this game.

We look at it now through the lens of history, but how were you looking at it then at the time?

An opportunity to win a game and play for a medal, play for the gold medal.

And I think that was kind of the mindset.

You can't go in too high, you can't go in too low.

You gotta be focused and prepared and understand what's at stake.

And I think we went in with all the emotions you have for a big game.

You know, excited, you're nervous, you're curious.

But I think, you know, again, our mindset was, let's 1 shift at a time, 1 period at a time.

And when the game's over, let's see what the end result is.

Did you come into the game with any of that political baggage or the historical baggage?

You know, we knew a little bit of what was going on around us because it was in Lake Placid, and we knew a little bit of the political climate because of the people in Lake Placid were waving the flags and USA, USA chant.

So the game meant a lot more to a lot of people than just a hockey game.

But for us as a hockey team it was a hockey game.

You know, by us winning didn't solve all the world's problems or the crises, but what we did I think was we brought joy and pride back to a nation that was looking for something.

You know, as a country we're looking for something to feel good about.

I mean almost what we're dealing with now and it happened to be us.

So the game is known as the miracle on ice.

Diffie No, I've never I mean, miracle's a catchy phrase and it sounds really nice.

Miracles are to me some of the things that our doctors and nurses do day in and day out, the lives that they save.

You read about, you know, a building that collapses and all of a sudden, 3 days later, they find somebody that's alive.

I don't consider sporting events miracles.

Was there ever a moment looking back where like, man, I might not have been involved in that, if but for this?

What if he cut me, which he threatened to do?

And I think he was just sending a message to the team.

You know, if he's willing to cut Mike, he's willing to cut anybody.

There's no guaranteed spots until you got to Lake Placid.

I'll sit here sometimes in my living room or I sit out in the backyard, look around and see what I have now and I think, boy, we could have lost.

We didn't and I'm fortunate and blessed to do the things I've been able to do, but I also understand that there's more to life than, like my dad always said, than athletics.

What do you tell kids who are looking to get ahead in life, not in hockey or hockey's part of life, whether it's hockey, school, business, but in life?

Like I told my own kids, what I did in my life is what I did, What you do is what you do.

I don't care if you make touchdowns and get winning goals.

I want you to be a good kid, be a good brother, be a good sister, be a good neighbor, be a good friend.

When the smoke clears, people, I don't want people to remember me as a guy who won a gold medal.

I want them to remember me as the type of person I was.

God bless you and thanks for your company.

The dictionary defines a miracle as an event that can't be explained by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributable to a divine agency.

And when you come to the Bible, you find it's full of miracles.

In fact, if you were to open the Bible to its very first page, you'd be immediately confronted by 1 of the most remarkable lines in the history of literature.

It says, "...in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth." Now, how in the world did He do that?

Back then in the beginning, God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

Back in the Psalms it says, He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Now isn't that an incredible thing to ask a person to believe?

But the alternative to believing that is no less incredible.

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Do You Believe in Miracles?

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