U.S. Olympic hockey: A series of "Miracles"

Lost in the uproar of that U.S. victory over Team Canada in hockey Sunday was the interesting history behind those vintage red, white and blue uniforms.

The look reportedly was an homage to the 1960 U.S. Olympic hockey team, which, unfortunately, is a footnote largely lost to Olympic history in the American sports pantheon, even though it had uncanny similarities to the Miracle On Ice team that beat the Soviet Union 30 years ago today.

(Remember where you were that day? My wife, Meri-Jo does. She was at home in her hometown of Lake Placid, N.Y., no more than a mile or two from the ice arena. The family had one ticket for her and her sister, Jody, who won the coinflip or whatever means was employed. So MJ watched the greatest sporting event of the century on TV -- walking distance away. Not that it still drives her nuts or anything, but everytime I bring it up, to this day, she says of her sis, "She didn't even LIKE HOCKEY!")

Anyway: The 1980 story is well-known, and if you don't know it, watch "Miracle" on a DVD. But retelling the older "miracle" tale, recounted in my Winter Olympics book, seems appropriate now that the U.S. has defeated Canada in the Games for the first time since that day:

The 1960 team also came into the tourney as a tremendous underdog, having lost some warmup matches to American college squads. But it caught fire at Squaw Valley, beating Czechoslovakia, Australia, Sweden and Germany, then topping Canada, 2-1. They then defeated the defending champ, the USSR, 3-2, on strong performances by two pairs of brothers, Bill and Roger Christian of Minnesota and Bob and Bill Cleary, both of Harvard fame.

Just like the 1980 team, the 1960 team had one more hurdle in the path of the gold medal, against the same Czech team they had beaten earlier. They fell behind, but rallied -- reportedly with the help of some fresh oxygen suggested by Soviet players -- to win 9-4. The shocking gold medal created nary a ripple in the U.S.

Twenty years later, Bill Christian's son, Dave, skated for the victorious Lake Placid team, creating a blood link between the twin "miracles." And there was one other large connection, which surely changed history:

The last player cut from the 1960 team was some guy named Herb Brooks.