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<< Previous   of   Next >> Jennifer Buchanan / The Herald  (click to enlarge) Jim Craig was the goalkeeper for the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that beat the Soviet Union in the famous “Miracle on Ice” game and eventually won the gold medal.   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Stephen Colbert, too, is a ‘syrup-sucker’ 12/7/09 • Norway’s Ulvang shows true Olympic spirit 12/6/09 • Olympics a ‘once-in-a-lifetime experience’ for Kelly Tysland 11/19/09 • 2010 Olympics: In our back yard 11/8/09 • 2010 Olympics: Things to do in Vancouver (other than watch the Games) 11/8/09 • 2010 Olympics: Go and have your gold-medal experience 11/8/09 » More 2010 OLYMPICS stories >   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Saturday, October 24, 2009 Jim Craig, the ‘Miracle on Ice’ goalie, finds himself an inspiration to many People still want to talk to him about the U.S. hockey team’s improbable victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics By Rich Myhre Herald Writer TULALIP — Nearly three decades later, people still want to shake Jim Craig’s hand, to get his autograph, and to tell him what they were doing at the moment Craig and his United States Olympic teammates beat the Russians. Every day, it seems, he’s reminded that he was part of a miracle. “Anybody that (recognizes) me, but hasn’t met me, they will stop me and tell me,” Craig said Friday. “It really is quite amazing.” On Feb. 22, 1980, Craig was the goaltender when the U.S. hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union 4-3 at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. Two days later, the U.S. beat Finland 4-2 to clinch gold medals for themselves and a storied place for their team in American sports history. Even today, the team’s golden aura remains bright. Wherever Craig goes — and he goes a lot of places as a motivational speaker and corporate trainer for his Boston-area company Gold Medal Strategies — people light up in his presence. They stand to applaud his speeches. And in conversation they want him to know how much they, as ordinary Americans, were inspired by what happened on the ice at Lake Placid. He hears “where they were, how they were rooting and how they were a part of it. And they really were a part of it. We all won that game (against the Russians), and it made a lot of people feel good.” The 52-year-old Craig, who was in the Everett area on Friday for a speaking engagement at the Tulalip Resort Casino, has plenty of precious Olympic memories. He remembers, for instance, the pride of marching in the opening ceremonies “with the greatest athletes in the world at that time.” Also, the stirring pre-game speech by U.S. coach Herb Brooks, who told his players, “You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours,” before they took the ice against the Russians. But maybe the best moment, Craig said, “was when we were all up on the podium (after receiving their gold medals). We had achieved our mission, our goal, and then to hear everybody in the crowd chanting ‘U-S-A,’ and all of them being really proud of us. … There are so many great memories there, and it was just a wonderful thing to be a part of.” Brooks, he went on, “was fabulous at pulling greatness out of each and every one of us. … When we needed confidence, he gave us confidence. When he thought we had too much, he took it away. He was really quite an unbelievable man.” Craig’s Olympic team was chronicled in the movie “Miracle,” which was released in 2004. The title was drawn from TV sportscaster Al Michaels’ famous phrase in the waning seconds against the Soviet Union: “Do you believe in miracles?!!” “The greatest thing about the movie ‘Miracle’ is that it helped our legacy,” said Craig, who consulted on the movie with four of his former teammates. “Kids today, and I know this from experience, they’re watching it before dance recitals, they’re watching it before soccer, hockey, baseball, football and lacrosse games. It doesn’t matter which sport.” In American culture, he said, “we get a lot of feel-good stories. And this is a feel-good story that was real.” But was it a miracle? Well, after all these years Craig isn’t so sure. “I don’t think what we did was a miracle,” he said. “Because I think a miracle is a term for somebody that didn’t believe they could do something. And what we did was a lot of hard work. “I like to tell people we were a team of dreamers. And we were able to make a dream, and even a seemingly impossible dream, come true.” READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out Jim Craig Nice man, nice story. Thank you! Jan Leatherman | Oct 24, 2009 9:11 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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