Thirty years ago today a bunch of college boys from the USA beat the vaunted Soviet ice hockey team at the 1980 Olympics. The USA coach, master motivator Herb Brooks, gave a stirring speech before that game.
You can view Kurt Russell's Hollywood version of that speech.
Most people forget that beating the Soviets did not earn the team a gold medal; they still had to beat Finland in the finals. Brooks was naturally worried that the team would suffer a letdown, figuring they had done what needed to be done.
So his speech during the second intermission of the Finland game (with the USA down 2-1) was simple, direct, and on target:
“If you lose this game you will take it with you to your fucking graves." As he started to leave the locker room, he stopped, turned around and added, "Your fucking graves.”
Finland game was not a “final”. It was a round robin, prescheduled tonplay Russia first, then Finland. Had Finland beaten the US, Russia would have won gold, Finland Silver and US bronze. Instead Finland lost and did not medal at all.
Posted by: Dan | Sunday, 24 February 2019 at 09:53 PM