{"id":119293,"date":"2025-03-08T04:49:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T04:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/american-history\/americanstudies-march-5-2025-hockey-histories-the-miracle-on-ice\/"},"modified":"2025-03-08T04:49:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T04:49:36","slug":"americanstudies-march-5-2025-hockey-histories-the-miracle-on-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=119293","title":{"rendered":"AmericanStudies: March 5, 2025: Hockey Histories: The Miracle on Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

[On March
\n3rd<\/sup>, 1875<\/a>, the first organized ice hockey game was played. So this
\nweek for the sport\u2019s 150th<\/sup> anniversary I\u2019ll AmericanStudy a handful
\nof hockey histories, leading up to a weekend post on some SportsStudiers we can
\nall learn from!]<\/p>\n

On the symbolic
\nrole of sports in society, and the line between history and story.<\/p>\n

For a solid
\nfive-year period in the early 1980s, the sports world and the Cold War felt
\ninextricably linked. Beginning with the February
\n1980 Olympic hockey semifinal<\/a> between the U.S. and Soviet Union teams (on
\nwhich a lot more momentarily), continuing through the two prominent Olympic
\nboycotts (the US boycott of the 1980
\nSummer Olympics in Moscow<\/a>, and the retaliatory Soviet boycott of the
\n1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles<\/a>), and culminating, of course, with 1985\u2019s Rocky IV<\/i><\/a>
\nand its climactic, Cold
\nWar-ending boxing match<\/a> between American underdog Rocky Balboa and Soviet machine (literally
\nand figuratively) Ivan Drago<\/a>, the stories and images of international
\nsports in the period mirrored quite strikingly the political
\nand cultural clashes<\/a> between the two superpowers.<\/p>\n

One of those
\nfour sports events is not like the others, of course\u2014the fight between Rocky
\nand Drago, compelling as it undoubtedly was, took place only in the realms of
\nfilm and fiction, unlike the actual historical events surrounding the 80 and 84
\nOlympics. Yet I don\u2019t believe that the line between those categories of events
\nis nearly as clear as it might seem. While the Olympic boycotts of course had
\nvery tangible
\nand often desctructive effects<\/a>, not only for the athletes and teams but for
\nthe respective host cities and countries, they were, first and foremost, about
\nthe manipulation of and contests over images and narratives. And while the 1980
\nhockey semifinal was not scripted by a team of Hollywood screenwriters, however
\nmuch it might have felt that way (and the subsequent TV<\/a> and Hollywood films<\/a>
\nnotwithstanding), the narrative of the \u201cMiracle on Ice,\u201d which was developed quite literally in
\nthe moment<\/a> and has become the defining image of that game, represents
\nimage-making at its most potent and enduring.<\/p>\n

The question,
\nthough, is even more complicated than whether the phrase \u201cMiracle on Ice\u201d
\nrepresents an image rather than the event itself (it certainly does). I would
\nask, instead, whether we collectively remember the event not only through but
\nalso because of the image; because, that is, of how the event was turned into a
\nstory that can have cultural and symbolic resonance far beyond even the most
\nstriking individual historical moment. Whether the image and story are accurate
\nto the history is a separate (and important) question, and in this case I would
\nsay that they largely are (the US team was a huge underdog to the powerful
\nSoviet squad, and the victory thus one of the more
\nunexpected<\/a> in sports history); but to my mind, the question of accuracy can
\nblur the importance of the process of image-making, can make it seem as if \u201cmiracle\u201d
\nrefers to the game rather than to the narrative that was and has been developed
\nin response to it. A great deal of the Cold War was defined by such image- and
\nmyth-making, never more so than during
\nthe Reagan Administration<\/a>; to recognize the way in which sports can be
\nfolded into such narratives is thus a historical analysis, as well as one with contemporary
\nand ongoing implications.<\/p>\n

Next
\nhockey history tomorrow,<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben<\/span><\/p>\n

PS. What
\ndo you think? Hockey histories you\u2019d highlight? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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