Striking Silver: The Untold Story of America's Forgotten Hockey Team

by Tom Caraccioli, Jerry Caraccioli

For many people, the history of United States Olympic hockey begins and ends in 1980. Books have been written, movies have been made, and for many Americans it was a seminal moment in which they will never forget where they were when they heard the news, "The U.S. beat the Russians!" The gold medal miracle in 1980 has been documented as arguably the greatest American sporting moment of the 20th century. It is categorically the greatest moment in the history of American hockey. Less chronicled, but very much a part of United States Olympic hockey lore, is the gold medal victory of 1960 in Squaw Valley, California. Even today, people would be hard-pressed to forget that the Americans were runner-up silver medalists in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Since 1956 the number of men who have won an Olympic medal in hockey while playing with "USA" emblazoned across the chest of their sweaters is small. The names Eruzione, Craig, Johnson, and Morrow from the miracle team in 1980; McCartan, Christian, and Cleary from the gold medal team of 1960; as well as NHL stars Chelios, Hull, Roenick, and LeClair from 2002 may be more prominent in United States Olympic hockey history, but they must forever be mentioned along with one team, that for many reasons, seems to have been forgotten. Striking Silver tells the story of that forgotten team and its members which included players that were plucked from the jungles of Vietnam, schoolboy heroes, and college Ahearn, Bader, Boucha, Brown, Christiansen, Curran, Ftorek, Howe, Irving, McElmury, McGlynn, McIntosh, Mellor, Naslund, Olds, Regan, Sanders, Sarner, Sheehy, and Sears - the Silver Medal-winning 1972 United States Olympic hockey team. Thirty-four years later the accomplishment of the United States Olympic hockey team during the 1972 Winter Games has seemingly been one of American hockey's most well-kept secrets. The team's anonymity through the years most certainly was due to the extremely low expectations others had for them going into the Games. They were playing in a remote land, Sapporo, Japan. The time difference to parts of the United States was 10 hours. There was also, in large part, a lack of media coverage and exposure. Part of that was by the coach's design, trying to protect his team from pressure. Perhaps being sandwiched between the Cold War heroics of the 1960 team and the miraculous victory in 1980 made it easier for people to forget the silver medal-winning team of 1972? The glow of those golden moments blinded others into never letting the brilliant shine of unexpected silver line their collective memories. Or maybe it was just the times. The country's collective conscience was preoccupied with the Vietnam War and the turmoil of world events while the feats of this other band of brothers, who were also representing their country in Asia, became overshadowed and unrecognized. Like the returning Vietnam veterans, it became easier to forget them than to remember. They became forgotten in the times, but are now remembered in Tom and Jerry Caraccioli's Striking The Untold Story of America´s Forgotten Hockey Team.

Genres: Sports, Hockey, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2006

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I happenned to pick this up because I remember watching the 1972 Olympic Hockey Team -- a team that competed in Sapporo, Japan and a team essentially forgotten -- partially because of the success of the 1980 Gold Medal winning team at Lake Placid. You look through the roster and the only two names I recognized when I started this were Mark Howe -- son of NHL Hall of Famer Gordie Howe -- and pretty good NHL defenseman in his own right (mostly with the Philadelphia Flyers) and Robbie Ftorek,who I remember more as a coach with the LA Kings, although I understand he was a pretty good NHL player. What amazed me was the craziness this team had to put up with in getting the best amateur players available while also having to deal with the military draft, Vietnam, and the efforts made by the military to reassign soldiers who were potentially Olympians and give them a chance for medal. (A practice still done today through the military's World Class Athlete program). It is a very enlightening team effort that got them the silver medal in 1972 when the USSR and Czechoslovakia were the world hockey powers. They beat the Czechs, Poland and Finland on their way to a tie in the points standings with the Czechs, but by beating Czechoslovakia, 5-1, the earned the tie breaker that gave them the silver medal. It is a must read for any lover of US Olympic Hockey.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really biased about this book since my brother was on THIS team. This is the real story of the 1972 U.S. Men's Olympic Hockey team that won a silver medal in Sapporo Japan. Many of the guys were drafted at the time and serving in the Army (VietNam era). Very cool stories of how this team came together to win a silver.

Read only if you are superinterested in hockey and have followed Olympic hockey over the years. It won't make sense to you otherwise. There is a real story to be told about this team and what they initiated, didn't get credit for, and have been long lost on the list of successful accomplishments as a result.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating:
4 ½ of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:
The United States has won the gold medal twice in Winter Olympics history – the scrappy team of 1960 and the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980. However, there was another improbable medal won by an American hockey team in the Winter Olympics. In 1972, the Olympics were held in a country not in Europe or the US for the first time, in Sapporo, Japan. Expectations were not high for the Americans, as they finished dead last in the top group of teams during the 1971 World Championships and were not expected to do any better in this tournament.

Why and how something different happened during those two weeks in Japan is described in the wonderful stories shared to the authors by the players of that team. The Caracciolis blend personal stories from each player and coach Murray Williamson along with brief descriptions of each game together in a wonderful and entertaining manner. The stories told by the players were the best part of this book. They not only talked about their Olympic experiences but also how they felt about their adventures to make the team and how they bonded as a team.

The book is also an illustration of how different an era that was, not only for Olympic hockey but for American society as well. An entire chapter is dedicated to how a certain war affected the members of this team, simply titled “Vietnam.” Two players on the hockey team served in combat in Vietnam, goalie Pete Sears and forward Stewart Irving. The others either had served on “temporary duty” by playing on the American team or were able to avoid service because of a high draft number. Something that I felt was sobering was that at the start of each player’s story, the page listed the player’s birthday, jersey number on the USA jersey and his draft number.

Something that may surprise many fans, especially those who only know about the 1980 USA win over the Russians, was that the young American squad and the older, experienced Russian team bonded together during the preliminary games and during the Olympics themselves. The Americans and their coach were enthusiastic students to learn the international game, and the Russians were happy to share some lessons. Of course, that didn’t mean they were not rivals during actual game competition, but they did some off-ice socializing as well.

The Olympic tournament was different at that time as well. Of the 12 nations that sent teams, they were divided into two pools based on their rankings at the end of the 1971 championships. As the bottom of Pool A, the US had to face the best team of Pool B, Switzerland in the elimination round. That was the first game and each winner of the six games would qualify for the round-robin medal round. The USSR did not have to play an elimination game and automatically qualified for the round. After the Americans beat the Swiss and entered the medal round, they felt good about their chances. That paid off as they pulled off an upset of Czechoslovakia, lost only to Sweden and the USSR and won the rest of their games. They ended their play in a position to win a medal if Finland could beat Sweden, which happened and was the second biggest upset of the tourney. Then one game was left – between bitter rivals Czechoslovakia and the USSR. The Russians not only did not want to lose to their rivals, but if they won, their friends from the US would win the silver medal, as they would win the tiebreaker because they had beaten the Czechs. As expected, the USSR won and the Americans were the silver medal winners in 1972.

This book brings all of the experience back from the player’s viewpoint and also by weaving a good description of what the international hockey life was at that time. Any fan of Olympic hockey or hockey history will enjoy this entertaining and fascinating book about an American medal winning team that history has somehow overlooked.

Did I skim?
No.

Pace of the book:
Excellent. All of the stories, both those shared by the players and coaches and those of the games themselves were all brief enough to be quick reads, but informative and entertaining as well.

Do I recommend?
Yes. I would almost want to call this required reading for any fan of Olympic hockey. The stories of each of these players are worth reading, and the humility of them is refreshing. While the title was correct at the time of publication as the accomplishments of this group of young men was forgotten, this book will certainly help fans either remember what this team did or introduce them to a new group of fans.

[Cameron Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that this was a very good book to read. I learned a lot about old time hockey and how the game was played then. I also learned that U.S.A. hockey was not as famous as it is now, and that to win a medal then was a very big deal compared to now. This book was a great read if you have any interest in hockey. It really tells you the untold story, before I read this book I didn't even know about team U.S.A.'s 1972 silver. I had always heard of the 1980 Olympics where the U.S. took home gold, the '72 games are always overlooked today because the 1980 games was such a miracle. The fact is this book tells the whole story of the '72 games. It tells the players stories including 18 year old Mark Howes, the son of Gordie Howe. It was a great book all around. I would recommend this book to any hockey fans.

[VaughanPL]

Click here to find it in the catalogue.

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story for Winter Olympics fans

[Matt Jex · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a team

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the topic of this book to be super fascinating! The 1972 U.S. Olympic hockey team is definitely overshadowed by the 1980 "Miracle on Ice", and to some extent by the other U.S. men's team that won gold in 1960. But this book taught me that the 1972 team seemed to lay a lot of the framework that the 1980 team eventually won with. On top of that, I had no idea that several members of the team had been literally plucked out of the jungles of the Vietnam War to compete. How's that for adding tension! All that said, the reason I'm not rating this book more highly is the structure. It sometimes felt more like a loosely connected series of articles than a whole narrative. It also jumped back and forth in time a bit too much for my taste, over what was really a fairly brief period, and it ended up feeling repetitive. I also liked the idea of the individual player biographies, but after a while there wasn't a whole lot to distinguish between them, and scattering them through the descriptions of the Olympic matches just added to the feeling of continually repeating things I already knew. Definitely a story that deserves to be told! I just wish it had been told slightly differently.

[Robert Magalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about the "foregotten" 1972 US men's hockey team that won silver in Saggano. Because it was under the radar, had low expectations, and played their games in the middle of the night US time, they didn't receive much press. Also, being between the 1960 and 1980 gold medal teams affected their image. Very quick and interesting read. It's nice to read about an Olympic team that was still made up of amateurs.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story reminded me of why I started watching the Olympics in the first place. Sacrifice, self awareness and finding a way to do the impossible - not the pursuit of big endorsement dollars or a Hollywood audition. Well done.