Do those of you, specifically fellow AARP card carrying folks, remember what you were doing in the late morning/early afternoon 40 years ago today?

You were likely glued to your TV sets.

It’s gotten a lot of attention over the last week, the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team upsetting the Soviets and then moving on to win the gold medal. The Miracle on Ice.

Remember, the win over Russia put the Americans in position to get a gold medal, it didn’t win them the gold. But it may as well have. On this day 40 years ago, the U.S. Still had to beat Finland 4-2 to capture that incredible medal.

Here are some fun facts concerning or related to that whole weekend of historic hockey and what became of many of the heroes in the decade to follow:

— The win over Finland gave the U.S.the gold, but it wasn’t winner take all for Finland. In fact, had the Americans lost and Sweden had beaten the Soviets, the U.S.would have finished fourth according to the way things were calculated back in 1980 (different today). — The U.S.actually trailed Finland 2-1 in that game after two periods.

— U.S. Olympian Dave Silk has made a couple of appearances locally. In mid-February of 2014, he was at a local movie theatre, speaking to local youth hockey players and the Nashua High School North hockey team back in mid-February of 2014, with a showing of the movie “Miracle.” If you want to know just what this meant to the lives of those players, coaches, etc., consider what Silk told the crowd that day when asked what the moment was like after beating the Soviets:

“I would say if took the very, very best moment in your entire lifetime, multiply it by a thousand,” he said, “then wrap it up in everything you ever dreamed of as a kid, that’s what it would be like.”

Wow. Silk’s appearances were arranged by local sports memorabilia/promotions expert Jon Goode, former Nashua Silver Knights VP.

—- Late U.S. Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks, the colorful taskmaster, went on to coach in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils and the Pittsburgh Penguins, with a combined record of 219-222-66, a tough 19-48-13 mark with the North Stars in 1987-88 ruining his chances to finish above .500. His best season in the NHL was 42-29-9 in 1983-84 with the Rangers, but they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Islanders and one of Brooks’ Olympic stars, Ken Morrow (more later).

But here’s some things you may have forgotten or not known about Brooks: After 1980, he was a head coach in two other Olympics, coaching France in 1998, but then winning a silver medal coaching the U.S.again in 2002 in Salt Lake City with another semifinal win over the Soviets exactly 22 years to the day of the Miracle On Ice game over the USSR. Amazing. Alas, Team USA lost to Team Canada in the Gold Medal game, and remember, those were all mainly NHL players. And one more interesting note: The guy who fired Brooks with the Rangers and took over as interim coach midway through the 1984-85 season was Ranger GM Craig Patrick. Patrick, of course, was Brooks’ assistant coach with the 1980 team.

— Six future New York Rangers between the U.S.and Finland played in that 1980 U.S.gold medal win.

— Don’t forget that U.S. Olympic goalie Jim Craig once played for the the Boston Bruins. He was property of the NHL’s Atlanta Flames during the 1980 Miracle. He played a handful of games with Atlanta later that winter, but was traded to the Bruins following that season, but never really caught fire the way everyone had hoped. He was 9-7-6 for the Bruins during the 1980-81 season, with a goals against of 3.68, and did not play in the Stanley Cup playoffs that year. The Bruins let him go, and he resurfaced in the NHL for for games with Minnesota in 1983-84. He’s now a motivational speaker.

—- Always thought the smartest guy on the U.S. Olympic hockey team was Mike Eruzione, who never played again after the 1980 Olympics, doing the corporate/endorsement thing instead.

Several 1980 Olympians who went on to fairly good NHL careers, but some of the most successful were Neal Broten (1,099 career NHL games, with 289 goals, 634 assists, mainly with Minnesota and New Jersey); Dave Christian (five NHL teams, including the Bruins, with 773 points in 1,009 games);Mark Johnson (five teams, 508 points), Mike Ramsey (decade with Buffalo) and Ken Morrow (10 seasons, four Stanley Cups with the Islanders).

—- Johnson, son of the late and former University of Wisconsin/Pittsburgh Penguins coach Bob Johnson, went on to win four national titles coaching the Wisconsin Badgers women’s team.

—– The last player cut from the U.S.team before it headed to Lake Placid was a player on the University of New Hampshire – Ralph Cox of Braintree, Mass. Cox was the only player to ever score 40 goals twice in a season for UNH, and is in the New Hampshire Hall of Fame. A former Bruins draft pick, he never played in the NHL. This humble scribe was working for the Braintree Forum weekly paper at the time but believe it or not can’t remember if he did a Cox interview. Yikes.

— Where was yours truly 40 years ago today? Watching the game in his Hemenway Street college dorm room in Boston that had wall to wall carpet and a walk-in closet, a big deal back then. And yes, the TV was color.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.

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