hockeypopa loves the 1960 and 1980 US Mens Olympic Hockey Teams

I was walking up Main St. In Burlington today out for one of my many walks I take through city every week.

I am wearing my 1980 Team USA Hockey jersey.

It has Brooks on the back and the number 80.

It is signed in Gold my Mark Johnson.

As I was walking.... horns were honking and people around would yell out USA or Go USA!!!

It is amazing what happened last night at the Olympics in Vancouver.

On the eve of the greatest upset in the history of sports a little "Miracle" happened again in ice hockey.

The US upset the Canadians 5-3 in the opening round of the Olympics.

Their were no medals handed out for this great win, but it does give the US hope as they move on in these Olympics.

They may meet the Canadians again down the road in Vancouver only time will tell.

But as I heard the horns honk I wondered......I wish more and more people would watch hockey games.

It is just such a beautiful sport.

Anyone who has played knows how much dedication it takes to play this game.

The time you are on the road and the money that your family has to sacrifice for their kids to play this awesome game is unbelievible.

People that do not play hockey often fight with me that hockey players are no where near the athletes that are in the other sports. I tell them go out buy a pair of skates and try doing what these athletes do and then you try and say that.

It is amazing that a sport as beautiful as hockey is cannont be seen by more people.

I guess that is just the way our society is these days.

What ESPN wants to show is what everybody watches.

You get 60 minutes of highlites of Basketball...more basketball...even more basketball...here's football...more football...oh yeah steroid issues and what is Tiger doing next!!!!!

Atheletes in other sports do work hard too do not get me wrong I watch some of the other sports too.......but how often do you see a hockey player really messing up his personal life in the news?

If you get a chance watch a game please do.

Watch Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Kane, the Sedin Twins, Ryan Miller and all the other great players that play.

Watch an old video of Gordie Howe and Bobby Orr skating in those old skates you will say how did they do that?

The more you watch them the more you will appreciate this sport.

The other thing that happened today when I heard the horns and the USA chants was where I was on this day in 1980 February 22nd.

Where else right in front of the TV!!!!

I remember watching this game with some of my friends we were going crazy when Mark Johnson tied the game with no time left on the clock.

Imagine our surprise when Tretiak the greatest goalie in the world was sitting on the bench after that goal.

Imagine how crazy Me and my friends were when Mike Eruzione scored that magnificent goal to put the US ahead!!!!

When the clock ran down and Al Micheals said his famous quote "Do you believe in Miracles?"......."Yes"...me and my friends were yelling and screaming and jumping up and down dumping soda on each other and we ran out of the house screaming and we heard the whole neighborhood doing just about the same thing people were running out of their house's on this friday night in 1980 you could almost hear the celebration in Lake Placid it was like you were there.

Two days later at Nana's house for sunday dinner at 11:00 am in the morning I watched the US team complete the job and beat the Fins for the Gold Medal.

I spent many of my high school days with my hockey teammates "Hawk", "Beano", "Chico" and of course "Hairbear" reliving these moments when we played at practice or at the Park.

I would sit in some of my classes at Rice and "Hawk" would quiz me on who scored what goal or where each player was from.

I do not think I ever got one of them answers wrong unlike some of my grades!

Since that day I have been reading any book, watching any video and collecting anything that had to do with this team.

I am watching "Miracle" for the 1,000,000,000th time tonight!

In 1995 Signature Rookies came out with a 50 card set to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice.

I collected the whole set.

It was so much fun to be able to get the cards from my favorite hockey team ever.

Before that I collected all the Topps cards and OPC cards some of the players had.

Since that time with the help of the hockeymonkey(my daughter Jenna) together we have gotten all 50 cards from this set autographed by the player on the card.

It is an amazing set I have added pictures of it.

We obtained almost everyone thru the mail though some we did get in person.

These guys even wrote some notes back to us.

I got the Herb Brooks ones signed when I met him in Lake Placid years ago.

Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione, Mark Johnson, Phil Verchota, Steve Janasak, Neal Broten, Mark Pavelich, Steve Christoff, Bill Baker, Dave Christian, Bob Suter, Mark Wells, Jack O'Callahan, Rob McClanahan, Dave Silk, John Harrington, Ken Morrow, Mike Ramsey, Eric Strobel, Buzz Schneider, Craig Patrick and Herb Brooks have all signed this set at least two times each.

We also got an autograph of Ralph Cox the last guy cut from this awesome team.

It has been so much fun collecting all these autographs I even have a full ticket from the first game against Sweden signed by Mark Johnson.

I have a newspaper set that I got from the weeks papers in Lake Placid and i have photos and magazines signed as well.

I have many autographs from this team and I treasure them in my hockey collection.

I will never forget collecting these or the memories this team gave during my youth.

But it would not be fair if I did not talk about the first "Miracle" team the US Olympic Gold Medal team from Squaw Valley that beat the Soviets for the Gold Medal in 1960.

They were a great group of players and I have been very lucky to have met a few of them thru the years.

the hockeymonkey came up with the idea that we should write to them as well and add their autographs to our collection.

So a few years ago we(hockeymonkey) wrote to all the living players from the 1960 first "Miracle" hockey team.

She recieved many of them back.

Many of the players even sent her small photos and wrote little notes to her.

Bill and Bob Cleary, Weldy Olsen, Jack Reiley, Bob Owen, Dick Meredith, Jack Kirrane, Jack McCarten, Dick Rodenhiser, Roger Christian, Paul Johnson, Jim Claypool the manager, John Mayasich they were all nice enough to sign for us.

It was really cool reading about these guys.

This brings me to another point about almost all hockey players.

They love to sign autographs. They appreciate their fans.

I know you will hear some stories how so and so would not sign for me today......well keep trying you will get them.

So as we celebrate the great win by the US last night lets not forget the great teams from the past and hopefully these Olympics will bring us another "Golden Moment".