Miraculous

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Al Michaels didn't plan it.

It was Feb. 22, 1980 and Al Michaels was on the call of his career. Oh he didn't expect it to be. He didn't think it would be the game that changed his life.

He thought the game would be a blowout.

Michaels had already worked with Chick Hearn in Los Angeles (but Hearn didn't like him), and called minor league baseball in Hawaii, as well as football and basketball for the University of Hawaii.

He was even an actor on an episode of Hawaii Five-O.

By 1971, he was with the Cincinnati Reds and was part of NBC's World Series broadcast team in 1972, at the age of 27.

He would soon ascend to ABC for baseball, college sports, and more.

He loved hockey, but was limited on experience, having called just one game professionally, in the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan. Michaels called the Soviet Union vs. Czechoslovakia game on NBC.

That gave him one more hockey game than virtually the rest of the ABC sports roster as they descended upon Lake Placid, NY in 1980.

Michaels, of course, would go on to call the "Miracle on Ice" on Feb. 22, 1980. But he didn't plan to say the word "miracle."

After all, how could he? How could anyone?

The Soviet Union, the dominant team coming into the Olympics, had just routed the United States, 10-3, at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 9.

But something strange happened with the scrappy collection of college kids, coached by Herb Brooks (and not Kurt Russell, who played Brooks in the movie Miracle). The Americans scratched for two first period goals against the unstoppable USSR goalie, Vladislav Tretiak.

When the second period began, Tretiak was gone, having been benched. The game changed.

Mike Eruzione scored the game-winner with 10 minutes left in the third period.

From there, the US held on for dear life as goalie Jim Craig made 36 saves in the win.

In the booth, Michaels and parter Ken Dryden watched in amazement as it unfolded. Michaels noted earlier in the game that the crowd was subdued, but as time wound down, he said that crowd was "going insane."

Still, there was no way he could manufacture the "miracle" line.

However, he had a word in his mind, and it was indeed "miraculous."

You see, as as play-by-play announcers, what we do can't be scripted. It needs to be natural. Oh sure, a word or concept might creep into the mind, but it still can't be rehearsed. It needs to be -- it MUST be -- ad-libbed.

So while "miraculous" was in Michaels' brain, he still had to utter it.

"11 seconds, you've got 10 seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!"



Dryden could only say "unbelievable."

And that it was. The "miracle" call entered the lexicon of sports sayings, as is arguably the most famous call in history, standing up with "The Giants win the pennant!" and literally everything that Vin Scully has ever said*.

*It's my blog. I can say that. But consider the Koufax perfect game, the Mookie Wilson grounder, and the Kirk Gibson home run. He's Vin.

As many know, the miracle game wasn't broadcast live, and Michaels still had another game to call that night, so he had no idea how the US/USSR game impacted the world until he left the arena.

As many often forget, the US did not win the gold medal until they beat Finland 4-2 two days later. Michaels punctuated the moment.

"This impossible dream comes true!"