The First Miracle

On this day in 1960, the U.S. hockey team won the first Olympic gold medal in American hockey history by defeating Czechoslovakia 9-4 at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley. Just a day before, the Americans had pulled off what is now referred to as The First Miracle, defeating the defending-champion Soviet Union in a taut 3-2 masterpiece, the first time a team from the United States ever beat the Soviets in ice hockey.

Much like their 1980 dopplegangers, however, the win over the USSR won the Americans nothing but pride in 1960. A gold medal hung in the balance with an 8 a.m. game the very next morning against the Czechs. Emotionally drained and physically exhausted, the Americans looked early on as if they were ripe for a major letdown. The Czechs scored their first goal in eight seconds, and proceeded to mount a furious attack, scoring four in the first period, and leading 4-3 at the end of two.

In the break between the second and third periods, the U.S. team got a highly unexpected visit from the captain of the Soviets, Nikolai Sologubov. Aware that the Americans were completely spent, and unable to speak any English, Sologubov mimicked repeatedly with a gesture to his face that after some confusion was eventually interpreted correctly - he thought the team should procure some oxygen. A tank was brought in, and the mask was passed. Revived, the U.S. side returned to the ice and promptly went bubonic, scoring six unanswered goals in the period to walk away with a most unexpected gold medal, an upset miracle at least as amazing as the more famous one that would come twenty years later. As for Sologubov, the motives for his locker room visit were far from pure. A Czech victory would have kept the Soviets out of the medals, while the American victory guaranteed them the bronze.