Forty years ago today, an unheralded group of young American hockey players shocked the world, both politically and athletically, when the U.S. Men's Hockey team stunned the Soviet Union 4-3 in Lake Placid, N.Y at the Winter Olympics.
The game was viewed as much more than a sporting event as the Cold War was still in high gear and it was Democracy against Communism.
Tensions were so high between each country that then-President Jimmy Carter would boycott the Summer Olympics later that year in the Soviet Union.
Morale across the United States was a low as it could possibly be when this group of young men would step on to the ice and beat the greatest hockey team on the planet.
The game was played before a capacity crowd amid chants of "USA!" "USA!" as the young Americans, led by Boston's Mike Eruzione and Jim Craig, would help will their squad to victory.
The outcome is considered the greatest sports upset of all-time. The U.S. would go on to complete their Gold Medal run in the 1980 Winter Olympics with a 4-2 win over Finland two days later.
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(Photo by Steve Powell/Getty Images)