A Word from Fox

Don Bryant

Don "Fox" Bryant brings his extensive knowledge and storytelling to HuskersNside Magazine. Bryant has witnessed nearly 50 years of Cornhusker Athletics, serving as the Sports Information Director at Nebraska for 31 years after 10 years as Sports Editor at the Lincoln Journal Star. A member of the CoSIDA Hall of Fame, Bryant currently serves as Sports Information Director Emeritus at Nebraska and has written two books, Tales from the Nebraska Sideline was published in 2001, and More Tales from the Nebraska Sideline, which will be available this fall.
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Don Bryant worked with former United States Hockey Coach Herb Brooks during the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.

Old Fox and Duke LaRue held a wake by telephone when word reached Lincoln that famed Olympic Hockey coach Herb Brooks had been killed in a Minnesota car crash.

The news was a jolt for both of us, and we recalled those unbelievable exploits of the 1980 USA hockey team at Lake Placid. We both were with the American team in Lake Placid. Duke as the trainer for the hockey team, and I was a member of the USOC media coordination crew.

Duke has retired from his labors at the University of Nebraska, where he spent years as an instructor in training techniques in the Teachers College. I was the Husker Sports Information Director and assistant athletic director on Bob Devaney's staff. Both of us will never forget the great performance by Herb Brooks and the collection of college kids that stunned the Soviet Union's supermen on ice.

The Soviets had ruled Olympic hockey for years, piling up gold medals, and no one could dream that the Americans could upset the Soviets, let alone win the gold medal. It was the Cold War  at its chilliest. Iran had imprisoned American embassy personnel in Teheran, and the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan. The Jimmy Carter administration was urging the U.S. Team to withdraw from the summer games in Moscow in an attempt to force the USSR out of Afghanistan, an election-year effort that failed, but the America team did boycott the Moscow Games (and the USSR, in turn, boycotted the Los Angels Games in 1984). All this was bubbling in Lake Placid as the "Russian Army" team and Yanks zeroed in on a collision course. Could a youthful group of American kids (plus 1976 Olympic Buzz Schneider) have a chance?

Herb Brooks wasn't sure, but he did set a pace that would maybe give his team a chance. He booked a 62-game schedule and was as tough as a Marine Corps Drill instructor at Parris Island, pushing, pulling, molding, stressing teamwork and dismissing any idea that there was a difference between hockey played in the East and Midwest, where he was a three-time NCAA championship coach at Minnesota. His message: "We don't have anyone from the East or West or New England, all we've have are Americans."

It was a strategy that would send chills of excitement through Americans when the Games opened at Lake Placid after a 10-3 loss to the Soviet team in Madison Square Garden a week earlier. Brooks & Co., battled through Sweden, the Czechs, Norway, Romania and West Germany, and Lake Placid was abuzz on February 22, 1980, for the late afternoon face-off. Some 8,500 fans jammed the arena, many waving American flags, and the arena shook with shouts of USA the entire game.

The score was tied at two after the first period, and the USSR took a 3-2 lead heading into the final 20 minutes. It became bedlam during the final 10 minutes after the USA team tied it at three and captain Mike Eruzione rammed home a 30-foot shot for a 4-3 lead 81 seconds later. American goalie Jim Craig was the man on the spot, but he became the man-of-the miracle as the clock ran down to victory. The Good Guys, by golly, could and did whip the Bad Guys and the celebration of one of the greatest upsets in sports history exploded. The American players answered the shouts of USA by tossing sticks in the air, piling on each other, hugging, skating around the ice with the America flag.

Duke and I both agreed that night in Lake Placid we witnessed the most exciting event we have ever seen. But it didn't end on the ice. After the players finally reached the locker room, they yelled and clapped and whooped it up before breaking into "God Bless America." Duke and I hugged, tears streaming down our faces. A State Trooper with us, also puddled up and embraced us, and the emotion was overwhelming. The United States had hung a big one on the Soviets. How sweet it was.

So sweet, by the way, that a day later President Carter invited the entire USA team to fly to the White House for a reception. I will never forget the end of the reception when we were all going in different directions. Hockey players sought each other out, shook hands, hugged and cried, as they parted after proving once again that there was truth in what Herb Brooks brought to them. Through teamwork, they did achieve a "Miracle on Ice."

As Duke and I wound up our phone wake, he paid perhaps the highest assessment of Herb Brooks when he observed, "You know, that win over the Russians was tremendous, and it was a great coaching job. But Herb probably did his greatest coaching job after that game because he still had to play Finland for the gold medal. He had to bring those kids down after the emotion of the win over the Soviets, and get them prepared for Finland."

Herb and the Boys did, indeed, winning 4-2, and igniting another giant celebration, not only in Lake Placid, but all across America. To this day, when I hear or sing "God Bless America," I'm swallowing hard by the end. Likewise for Duke LaRue, I'm sure.

Nebraska athletic director Steve Pederson has launched a powerful message to Husker coaches, players, staff members and fans about the importance of teamwork, with all hands moving forward together toward higher goals. And why not? Herb Brooks and the 1980 United States hockey team proved it's possible to do the impossible, if the teamwork game-plan is developed and executed.