Starred Review. In this well-written and thoroughly researched story of the 1980 Olympic gold-medal winning hockey team, New York Daily News sportswriter Coffey does much more than simply evoke memories. Expertly using coach Herb Brooks (who died last year in an auto accident) as his focal point, Coffey shows how Brooks, a devoted student of the game, used both psychological tactics and a groundbreaking system predicated on speed and constant motion to defeat the Soviets, a team of highly trained, older and bigger professionals who had dominated the international competition for decades.
Over the years, this story of the Americans' victory has become larger than life, replete with drama and drenched in patriotic themes. Coffey's greatest achievement is that his narrative never sinks into melodrama. He captures the rigorous training and the thrill of the games, yet digs deeper, soberly rendering the tenor of the American spirit amid the Iranian hostage crisis and the Cold War, and humanizing and illuminating (rather than caricaturing) the Russian side. For example, although the Russians were a world superpower, they scrounged for Band-Aids and didn't use slap shots because a shortage of quality sticks meant they couldn't risk breaking them—details suggesting the underlying faults of the Soviet regime.
Coffey portrays the American side, a diverse collection of amateurs, warts and all, and gives special attention to Brooks, an enigmatic figure who turned a bunch of regional rivals into a tight-knit family whose bond still exists today. Filled with primary interviews and exceptional insight, Coffey's effort should delight more than just hockey fans.
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The story of the victory by the U.S. men's hockey team over the vaunted Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics is still as luminous and improbable as it was nearly 25 years ago: a group of plucky but not overwhelmingly gifted young amateurs, whose style of play is overhauled by their mercurial but visionary coach Herb Brooks, taking on the virtually unbeatable Soviet pros on their way to a gold medal.
In his unintended but effective companion to Disney's 2004 movie Miracle, sportswriter Coffey details, period by period, the events of that historic game. In doing so, he also tells the individual stories, past and present, of the team and offers a sympathetic view of the Soviet side as well. All 20 U.S. players could be forgiven if, over the past 25 years, they found it impossible to top their Olympic victory. But as player Eric Strobel, embracing the essence of that remarkable team, told Coffey recently, "It was a great moment, but where is it going to get you? You just get on with your life."
Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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An exciting replay of the American hockey team's defeat of the Soviets at the 1980 Olympics from Daily News sportswriter Coffey, who provides generous background on both teams.
The sensational American victory became iconic for a country still mired in post-Vietnam malaise, infuriated by the Iranian hostage crisis, and depressed by a faltering economy. But this come-from-behind fairy tale is not what occupies Coffey. Enough of the jingoism and folderol, he writes: Who were these guys? What were they holding in their hands?
Coffey proceeds to describe the mechanics of the game, with the U.S. eschewing its usual dump-and-chase tactics to play with more finesse. "A well-conditioned team wins in the first 10 minutes, maybe less," the Soviets' famed coach Anatoly Tarasov had once said. The US coach, Herb Brooks, knew that his team couldn't wait too long to take charge; from the beginning they needed to have the "speed of hand, speed of foot, speed of mind" for which the Tarasov-trained Soviets were famed.To achieve this, Brooks would have to overcome the bitter regionalism of the players and mold them into symphony on ice.
Along with the game's play-by-play, Coffey braids into the story the backgrounds of the US players and as much of the Soviet players' as he can. He shows the Americas adapting to a hard, aloof Brooks, happy to have a measure of luck (as well as poor Soviet tactics) on their side. Then come the years thereafter: the alcoholism and the vehicular homicide balanced against the pro careers and the successful restaurant business.
Coffey's tale reminds us of a more innocent Olympics era, when doping and judging scandals were not common currency, when there were no millionaire professionals at play in an overhyped "dream team." The 1980 hockey players were, contrarily, a bunch of amateurs and dreamers. Makes pure hockey of a much-manipulated moment.
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