This amuses me way too much. Someone has actually uploaded the 1980 USA vs Finland gold medal game and I'm so glad I watched it. The "Miracle on Ice" unbeknownst to some, wasn't the end-all game of the Olympics, this game was.

Buuuuuut here is a little bit of the Miracle fic I’ve been working on. THIS IS THE ROUGHEST DRAFT. I know it needs A LOT of work.

But I figured I would post a little bit. I’m super insecure, I haven’t posted any writing in like 4 years, and never on Tumblr. So please don’t be too mean :) ALSO the format kinda got messed up, so I’m sorry. I guess here it is?

Julie huffed in annoyance as she stepped out of the airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She immediately noticed how much cleaner the air was here, as opposed to Los Angeles, where she had been living since she was 16. She pulled her sunglasses down onto her face as she hailed a taxi. She struggled with her luggage as the taxi driver pulled up beside her.

“Need some help there?” The driver asked, exiting the car while trying to hide a laugh.

No, I’ll just get this all myself, Julie thought to herself, trying not to let her bad attitude show.

She had overpacked a bit, to say the least. Two large suitcases, a carry-on suitcase, and her purse, but what was a girl to do when she had no idea how long she’d be away from home? The taxi driver loaded up her luggage before they both got in the car and headed off to the address she had given him. The whole drive, she could feel the man looking at her in the rearview mirror. She wanted to snap at him, to tell him that yes, it was her, and to stop staring at her. To say that Julia Brooks was on edge was the understatement of the decade. Julie couldn’t believe she was back in Minnesota. She was here totally against her own free will, and she was far from happy about it. She tapped her red nails against the door handle, her leg bouncing up and down.

This is some terrible dream that I’m going to wake up from any second.

She held her breath as the taxi pulled up in front of the ice arena. Julie felt like stomach was doing flip-flops. She paid the driver his fare, throwing in some extra for a tip and he helped her get her luggage out again. She tried to take all her stuff with her as she made her way to the doors, stopping every couple of seconds when she lost control of a suitcase and muttering a string of profanities. Right as she was about to open the door, it swung open from the inside.

“Julia,” a man said quietly as Julie dropped her carry-on again.

Herb Brooks was a middle-aged man with a stern face and neatly combed brown hair. Julia noticed what he was wearing, a maroon tracksuit with USA on the front of it. Herb Brooks had been involved with hockey his entire life. After coaching the University of Minnesota hockey team for years, he had been named the head coach for the U.S. Olympic hockey team. Practices had begun not even a week ago. She looked up at him, once again holding her breath. Her blood felt like ice running through her veins. This was the first time she had seen him in almost a year, and the first time she had spoken to him in two weeks. Since her big accident. She waited for him to start screaming at her. After what felt like an eternity of silence, she decided he wasn’t going to yell at her and finally decided to speak up.

“Hi, Uncle Herb.”

Before either of them could say anything else, the doors swung open again, this time with a lot more noise. A group of three boys came streaming out the door, stopping when they saw the two of them.

To be fair, Julie didn’t really look like she belonged outside an ice rink in Minnesota. Her brown hair was in big, bouncy curls. She wore a fair bit of makeup, with her lips painted a deep red. Her Led Zeppelin t-shirt, leopard print pants, and black heeled boots were certainly not helping her blend in. The designer sunglasses pulled over face didn’t make her look nice. The three boys stopped in shock, all three of them shocked for different reasons.

Oh, here we go.

“Julie?” She looked towards the voice and smiled slightly in relief at the boy who spoke her name. Phil Verchota.

Julie had to be honest with herself, there was one person she was not looking forward to seeing. Of course, here he was, one of the first people she saw, standing outside the doors next to Phil Verchota and an unknown man. She tried desperately not to get emotional at the sight of him, so she just chose not to look at him. Instead, she turned to Phil Verchota and the brunette beside him who was clearly confused.

“Hi, Phil.”

“What are you doing here?” Phil asked, moving forward to give Julie a hug. She returned the hug, before pulling away and looking towards her uncle. The words that threatened to pour out of her mouth were stopped by the look on her uncle’s face.

“Boys, help my niece take her luggage to my car. I need to go talk to Coach Patrick.”

And with that, her uncle handed her the car keys and went back inside the arena, leaving her standing there with the three boys. The unknown brunette boy smiled at her, before introducing himself as Mike Ramsey and picking up one of her suitcases. Phil picked up the other, and Julie started to follow them with her carry-on before a hand grabbed onto the handle of the bag. She looked up and there he was, the only one she didn’t want to see, taking the luggage from her hand, while still avoiding eye contact.

“So, what’s got you in Minnesota?” Mike asked her.

A lot of threats and screaming. My life and career being ripped from me.

“Well, you see….everyone thought it would be best if I got out of California for awhile,” she told them, walking to the car. Julie tried not to let any of the bitterness she was feeling drip into her voice. She was really understating it, but who had time for the truth?

“Got out? But you were dominating! Every time I turned on the radio or opened a magazine, there you were,” Phil said as they approached the car, and she unlocked the trunk of her uncle’s car.

“I kind of got into some trouble and everyone thought I deserved to be shipped away to old Minnesota,” she said flatly, shrugging her shoulders as the boys helped her load up the trunk. That seemed to be enough to satisfy them while the four of them finished situating the suitcases. Julie looked up to see her uncle walking towards them with his briefcase in hand. His face held that same stern look he always has around his players. Julie pitied herself, on account of how often she was going to be seeing that look.

“Oh, good lord, help me,” she groaned quietly. She loved her uncle, she really did. Her uncle Herb was so fun when she was a little girl. He taught her how to skate, and the two of them used to take fishing trips in the summer. That was before she went and wrecked it all. Everything was going to be different now. Julie doubted they would spend much time fishing.

“Well, hey, we’d love to catch up. We were gonna go to Maureen’s Diner tonight around 7 if you’d like to join us,” Phil said as Mike shut the trunk. Mike and Phil stayed behind for a second, but of course the other boy was gone the minute he got the carry-on in the trunk. He hadn’t even heard Phil invite her to Maureen’s, which was probably a good thing.

“Yeah, maybe I’ll meet you there,” she smiled at them before they said their goodbyes and were on their way. The truth that she didn’t want to tell them was that she didn’t even know if she was allowed to go. She scoffed at how ridiculous that sounded. She was 21 years old, why would she need to seek permission to go to a diner with some friends?

“See you tomorrow, boys,” Herb called to them as he got into his car. She followed suit, getting in quietly and buckling her seatbelt. It was eerily quiet as he pulled out of the parking lot and started the drive towards his house.

“Not quite the reaction I expected from you and Mac. The two of you didn’t even say hello,” he pointed out, after a few minutes of silence. Julie knew this conversation was coming, and yet her stomach was still in knots.

“We got into an argument a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t talked since,” she shrugged, looking out the window. If she acted like it didn’t matter, maybe it really wouldn’t.

“I know you got into it a couple weeks ago, and I know what it was about. And I think you need to talk to him. He’s your best friend, Julia, and believe me, you’re going to need a friend for the next couple of months.”

https://my.w.tt/3Tgou7tQt4

“Great moments are born from great opportunity.”  -Herb Brooks

36 years ago today, perhaps the greatest upset in sports history took place, as the mighty Soviet Union hockey team fell to the unheralded United States men’s hockey team, a group of college players from rival schools. Unexpectedly, the USA tied the game three times, first midway through the first period on a goal by Buzz Schneider, then most dramatically at the end of the first period when Mark Johnson, current Wisconsin women’s hockey coach, tied the game in dramatic fashion. Johnson would tie the game again in the 3rd period, before Mike Eruzione scored the golden goal just eighty-one seconds later, putting the USA up 4-3 with ten minutes remaining in the final period. The US would hold on, due in large part to the superb play of goaltender Jim Craig, who saved 36 of 39 shots on goal in the game.

Al Michaels immortalized the final moments of the game with this call: