One of the greatest moments in the history of sports still has implications today, right here in Starke County. That’s the message former WSBT-TV sports anchor Charlie Adams shared during the National Day of Prayer breakfast in Knox yesterday. He’s studied the “Miracle on Ice” at length. It took place in Lake Placid, New York during the 1980 Winter Olympics. An unlikely group of young men, mostly from the Midwest, stunned the world when they beat the Soviet Union’s hockey team during the first game of the medal round . Adams says the miracle occurred at a time when the nation was a mess. The Vietnam War ended in the 1970s, followed by Watergate, President Nixon’s resignation and a spike in inflation, and things got worse from there.
“In 1979, before the Miracle on Ice in the 1980 Winter Olympics, our hostages in Iran, flags burning on the nightly news, and the Soviet tanks went into Afghanistan, right around Christmas of ’79 and did atrocities. They dropped men from villages to their death to scare the Afghans, put flame throwers on villages – an evil empire, as Ronald Reagan would later say.”
It was against that backdrop that the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team stunned the Soviets in a 4-to-3 victory on their way to winning Olympic gold and brought the nation together.
“God did amazing things with this team. They are kids from the same kind of places as Starke County. One of the reasons He wants the story told here is incredible things can happen here and it starts with faith and looking to God in prayer.”
Adams says the Miracle on Ice team demonstrated the kind of unity Jesus calls us to in our daily lives when they all embraced on the ice after beating the Soviet Union.
“They ran up, and that is what we need as America. Right then, one nation, under God, indivisible. And the only time in history “Sports Illustrated” went with a cover with no caption, because everyone knew what this meant.”
WKVI will air Adams’ entire “Miracle on Ice” presentation without interruption Sunday at noon on Kankakee Valley Viewpoints.
