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Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980
U.S. Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an
unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest
sports moment of the twentieth century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has
become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even
more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown
triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to
play hockey happily ever after. It is still unbelievable.
"The Boys of Winter is an evocative account of the improbable
American adventure in Lake Placid, New York. Drawing on hundreds of
hours of interviews, Wayne Coffey explores the untold stories of
the U.S. upstarts, their Soviet opponents, and the forces that
brought them together.
Plagued by the Iran hostage crisis, persistent economic woes, and
the ongoing Cold War, the United States battled a pervasive sense
of gloom in 1980. And then came the Olympics. Traditionally a
playground for the Russian hockey juggernaut and its ever-growing
collection of gold medals, an Olympic ice rink seemed an unlikely
setting for a Cold War upset. The Russians were experienced
professional champions, state-reared and state-supported. The
Americans were mostly college kids who had their majors and their
stipends and their dreams, a squad that coach Herb Brooks had
molded into a team in six months. It was men vs. boys, champions
vs. amateurs, communism vs. capitalism.
Coffey casts a fresh eye on this seminal sports event in "The Boys
of Winter, crafting an intimate look at the team and giving readers
an ice-level view of the boys who captivated a country. He details
the unusual chemistry of theAmericans--formulated by a fiercely
determined Brooks--and he seamlessly weaves portraits of the
players with the fluid, fast-paced action of the 1980 game itself.
Coffey also traces the paths of the players and coaches since that
time, examining how the events in Lake Placid affected and directed
their lives and investigating what happens after one conquers the
world.
But Coffey not only reveals the anatomy of an underdog, he probes
the shocked disbelief of the unlikely losers and how it felt to be
taken down by such an overlooked opponent. After all, the greatest
American sports moment of the century was a Russian calamity,
perhaps even more unimaginable in Moscow than in Minnesota or
Massachusetts. Coffey deftly balances the joyous American saga with
the perspective of the astonished silver medalists.
Told with warmth and an uncanny eye for detail, "The Boys of Winter
is an intimate, perceptive portrayal of one Friday night in Lake
Placid and the enduring power of the extraordinary.
"From the Hardcover edition.
A comprehensive manual for training professionals and volunteers to
assist persons with handicaps in learning the sport of fly fishing,
covering adaptive fly fishing, fly tying, tackle and equipment, and
working with disabled individuals in safe, effective ways. A
portion of all proceeds goes to support the important work of the
Adaptive Fly Fishing Institute, Inc.; a 501(c)(3) public charity.
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