It’s fair to say I feel ambivalent about Miracle. The previews are certainly exciting and interesting (and the early reviews are glowing) but in many ways, this seems like one of those moments that should be left alone. I remember a thoroughly horrible TV movie shortly after the fact. Maybe as a member of the generation that has ownership of this moment (at least the childhood perspective of it) I’m worried that a movie will replace the actual moment and people’s memories will be of the cinema and not where they were that Friday night in 1980. But if you watched, can those memories ever really be replaced or augmented by a movie a quarter century later?
Each time ESPN Classic replays the original game, I’m taken back to our living room in Jackson, MO. I remember sitting there alone (that had to be one of the first times my mom ever let me stay home along) watching on my chair literally inches from our 13″ TV. I had my massive National Geographic atlas on the floor by me, so I could see where the USSR was (as I had done with Czechoslovakia and Sweden earlier in the tournament). And I totally remember completely wigging out when the clock counted down. I don’t care what your sport and team affiliations are: if you’re between 30 and 40 and you saw that game that night, there’s been no bigger sporting event in your life. Sorry, it’s not even close.