UW’s Johnson stars for U.S. in Miracle on Ice
With the sports world on hold, we present a countdown of the 50 greatest moments in Wisconsin sports history over the past 50 years. This is No. 15.
On any list of the top 50 sports moments in the United States over the past 50 years, Miracle On Ice will inevitably be near the top, if not No. 1.
So how can it merely be No. 15 on this list? It’s a triumph that belongs more to the nation than it does purely Wisconsin, although it almost certainly doesn’t happen without major contributions from the Dairy State. Mark Johnson, whose family name has become synonymous with Wisconsin hockey, played a starring role Feb. 22, 1980, when the Americans staged a shocking upset of the Soviet Union in the final round of the men’s hockey tournament at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.
Fellow University of Wisconsin product Bob Suter fought off an ankle injury to play on the blue line for the Americans, and former Milwaukee Admirals player Buzz Schneider scored the first goal of the game. But it was Johnson who delivered two goals against the USSR and set the stage for one of most dramatic sports upsets in the nation’s history. “Maybe in a few years, I’ll sit down and it will all come to the surface,” Johnson said in the aftermath. “Then I’ll be really excited. I’ve got this feeling that if we played them again in two days, we’d lose.”
By now, you know the bones of the story. The Soviets were the dominant force in international hockey, while the Americans were a crew of mostly unheralded college kids who were seeded seventh in a 12-team field. As the United States moved closer to a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics scheduled for Moscow, the Cold War-tensions between the two nations were palpable.
The game was famously played in the afternoon and shown on tape delay later that night, though many Americans were able to tune into the game on the radio. In Milwaukee, unaware families gathered around their TVs and didn’t know the outcome until they heard those famous words: “The United States has scored one of the most stunning upsets in Olympic history.”
Wait, that’s not how the memorable line goes.
A Milwaukee TV mishap
During the game’s broadcast on WISN-TV (Channel 12), viewers saw that Johnson had just scored his second goal and the game was tied at 3-3 with 11 minutes to play. During a commercial break, broadcaster Vince Gibbens promised more highlights during the 10 p.m. broadcast of the dramatic upset.
Most viewers weren’t aware of the outcome ... until then.
“A lot of people around here found out that the Americans beat the Russians before they wanted to, judging from an hour’s worth of irate phone calls,” sportscaster Ron Swoboda said on-air later. “There’s nothing we can do about it now, but I will show the highlights, especially for those who said they’d never watch us again.”
Perhaps that meant Mike Eruzione’s go-ahead goal with 10 minutes left to give the U.S. a 4-3 lead was a bit anticlimactic, as was the defensive stand that followed, spearheaded by goalie Jim Craig. It still had to be a thrill to hear broadcaster Al Michaels utter those famous words, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”
Johnson’s handiwork, however, went unspoiled.
The son of longtime Badgers hockey coaching legend “Badger” Bob Johnson, Mark skipped his senior year at UW to compete in the 1980 Olympics.
“It’s just a thrill being a father and having something like this happen,” Bob Johnson said after the Miracle on Ice game. “(Mark) was the first to lead the team down with the handshake. I know he’s very excited.”
Tretiak gets pulled
Mark’s first goal was a thriller. As time wound down in the first period with the Soviets ahead, 2-1, David Christian unleashed a long shot against USSR goalie Vladislav Tretiak. The puck wasn’t cleared, and Johnson gathered the puck and sent it past the extended goalie for an equalizer as time expired in the period.
“I was only out there because Schneider got mixed up and came off,” Johnson said afterward. “That’s my buddy Buzzy. I came on the ice with 11 seconds left. I thought Christian was going to carry the puck into the zone, but he shot, and it was do or die. I had to go after it.
“I saw the goalie come out and make the block with his pads, but he left me the rebound. I didn’t realize how much time was left, I just put it in the net and went crazy.”
Tretiak, famously, was benched thereafter.
The Soviet Union took a 3-2 lead into the final period, but Johnson knotted the score again at the 48:39 mark in the game, cashing in with 8 seconds left on a power play.
“We had a three-on-two and Silky (Dave Silk) had the puck; I thought he was going to throw it in to Robby McClanahan, but it hit a Russian skate and came right to my stick,” Johnson said. “I shot it. It was just a reaction-type goal. That gave us a big lift, and then Eruzione came back and got that big one.”
Eruzione’s shot went in less than 2 minutes later. Craig, who stopped 36 of 39 shots, held on from there. The U.S. won despite just 16 shots.
“In the last five minutes, (the Russians) panicked,” Eruzione said. “Believe it or not, they panicked.”
Schneider scores first
Schneider, a native of Minnesota, had also played on the 1976 Olympic team. He spent 11⁄2 years in Milwaukee with the Admirals, and his slap shot from the left side with 6 minutes left in the first period tied the game at 1-1.
“In town here, Feb. 12 to Feb. 24 (were declared) Buzz Schneider Recognition Days,” said his 17-year-old sister, Amy Schneider, of their Babbitt, Minnesota hometown. “We’re a really small town of 3,400 and everybody in town knows everybody else.
“I found out Buzzie had scored when I went to the grocery store and the owner came out and said, ‘Did you know your brother just scored?’ ... Every time I hang up, someone else calls.”
Two days later, the United States finished off the impossible dream by topping Finland, 4-2, to guarantee the gold medal. Johnson’s rebound goal marked the final score of the game, and his rifled pass to Rob McClanahan accounted for the goahead goal in the third period after the U.S. went into the final period trailing, 2-1.
The product of Madison Memorial High School finished as the Team USA’s leading scorer.
Suter, who attended Madison East, didn’t record a point, but he appeared in every game. His brother, Gary, and son, Ryan, both played in the NHL.
How the moment lives on
It’s the Miracle On Ice. It lives on everywhere and just celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Johnson, who’s No. 10 jersey was retired by UW in 2018, won a national title with the Badgers in 1977 with on the team. He was a two-time first-team All-American and the Most Valuable Player in the WCHA in 1979. His 125 goals in just three seasons are a record, notched in just 125 games. He’s also second in school history in points (256) and holds single-season records in goals (48) and points (90).
Johnson played 11 years in the National Hockey League and also coached at the international level. He led the U.S. women to a silver medal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, and he’s made a major mark as the head women’s hockey coach at his alma mater.
He’s a charter member of the UW Athletics Hall of Fame and a two-time inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as both a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team and as an individual. He was also a 1999 inductee into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.
Suter died of a heart attack at the age of 57 in 2014. He’s the first player of the Miracle on Ice team to pass away. Coach Herb Brooks was killed in an auto accident in 2003.