February 22, 1980…The Miracle On Ice Game; USA Beats USSR
On February 22, 2015
- TV History
February 22, 1980…The Miracle On Ice Game; USA Beats USSR
At the link is the final minute of the historic Olympic hockey game played 35 years ago today. The Russians were veterans and by all measures, the best team in the world, but somehow a bunch of American college kids beat them, and the crowd went wild…from sea to shining sea. Thanks to Kevin Vahey for the images and reminder! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
CTV, they held the Canadian air rights for that year’s Olympics carried it live. If you were in the States and wanted to see it live, you had to be on the border. Kind of ironic as we Canucks usually had to do that to see certain sports not carried on our networks, or even today, using OTA broadcasts to see the American Super Bowl advertisements. By the way, one of the best hockey games to watch, ever. On par with the Mets winning the 1969 World Series.
ABC Sports delayed airing the game to prime time, while Canadian TV showed it live. Living on the border, those of us who watched the Canadian pickup, knew the final score.
A big problem came from the local Buffalo ABC affiliate, whose P.R. guy wrote the evening news briefs. The anchorman recorded it, and the brief tape playback came during the ABC feed of the now recorded game, during intermission. I heard their newsroom got swamped with complaint calls from those who did not want to know the outcome until it actually aired over the network.