They’re bringing 18 of us in. They’re also bringing in Herb Brooks’ wife and his kids, and they’re naming the 1980 Olympic rink after Herb.
Our first reunion was in 1990, but it was mostly a reunion for the parents. Our parents became really good friends while staying in the “Hostage House” in Lake Placid. They called it that because about 12 of our families had rented this house really close to the rink. Once we started winning, more and more people started coming, and they all started bonding, and before you know it, in this house that maybe held 30 people, there were 60 people sleeping in there. All the moms and dads were shopping and cooking. It was a total frat house.
You sort of look at this like it was Herbie’s science experiment.
It was real interesting when they had that line in the movie. (1) Craig Patrick says, “Herb, you’re missing some of the best players here.” He says, “I don’t want the best players; I want the right players.”
He was shaping us mentally. Coaching us mentally. He was helping develop a sense of “Yes, we can” instead of “Oh, my God.”
When Herbie talked to us before that game, he said, “You want to know something? You guys deserve it, you were born to be players and you were meant to be here. This is your time.” It was unbelievable. Kurt Russell did a great job in the movie. He caught the emotion really well.
Here’s what happened: We played the Russians on tape delay. It was the last Olympics that you could have a tape delay like that. We win. We go up the street to the Holiday Inn, meet our families. The place is overflowing with people. We go into this area where they have a giant screen TV up there, like a movie theater, and we sit down and order dinner and watch the game.
Yeah, we watched the tape delay, just like everybody else in the country. Best part of the Olympics.
After they give us our medal, they say, “No, you can’t stand on the podium.” So, I get into an argument with this guy and I say, “Look, you don’t understand. Yes, we can. We just won a gold medal. We’re standing on the podium.” They say, “No, only your captain stands on the podium.” I go, “No, our team stands on the podium.” The guy says, “You stand in a single line behind him while they play the anthem.” I say, “Stand next to the Russians? I don’t think so.”
We went to the blue line because we wanted to be on our own. So we went out there, sang the national anthem, and when it was over, we started, “Let’s go, we’re going on the podium.” I still tease Eruzione to this day. I say, “Everybody thinks Mike is `Captain America,’ waving everybody up, but he didn’t start waving until we were halfway there.”
My parents always held it up to me: You can be the president the United States if you want to be, or you can be a criminal.
I get on the bus to go to school, and I look up the alley and one day I saw a guy with five bullet-hole blotches in him. Fifty yards from me. That was my town. (2)
The name is Beanpot Financial Services. (3) We’re a commodities broker.
We named our scholarship program after Maggie, so it’s the Keith Magnuson Blackhawk Alumni Scholarship. It’s $3,000 per year toward college. We award three because that was Maggie’s number.
I get letters from kids: “I watch this movie before every single game. I’ve seen it 27 times.” College kids, 7-year-olds. It’s really cool. I answer every letter.
It was the greatest year I had as a hockey player.
(1): “Miracle.”
(2): Charlestown, Mass.
(3): His Chicago-based company.
