The History of a Miracle
The green van with gold trim pulled around the circle at King’s College twice for me during The Miracle at Placid Project. The first time it was Doc in the driver’s seat, and I quickly found out that he was a no nonsense guy when he was on location. His first words when he greeted us “Let’s go fellows… No time to waste. We’ve got to make Cheshire, Connecticut by noon.” My first shoot, what a marvelous experience!
The second time the green van trimmed with gold rounded the circle, Kitch was in the driver’s seat and the atmosphere was the same. Off to Lake Placid we rode, equipment piled high to record the relighting of the Olympic flame.
I’m the story-teller, the painter of pictures for the people who couldn’t come along on our trips. As the scribe for both the Connecticut and the second Lake Placid shoot, I tell the story from my point of view, detailing the moments that a camera can’t capture. In addition, my art adds another dimension to the entire project.
The goal of this project is to make college seniors look beyond the scope of their academic work to find within themselves a spark that will drive them to set the bar higher. During this project I learned that hard work, persistence and a great deal of stretching can help a student reach that bar. It also results in building character along the way.
The values that I’m going to walk away from this project with are service, creativity and persistence. Much of this I learned as an occupant of the green van with a gold stripe.
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Between Smoke and Fire: Learning about Herb Brooks on Mirror Lake
The night was cold and damp and the huge snow flakes were like white doilies floating down. You could hear the crunching of the snow beneath our tired feet as we made our way down the path and onto Mirror Lake. When we arrived it was stepping back in time, 1980. The roar of the crowd was the same as it was on the night of Feb 22, 1980, and between the smoke and the fire, I saw a swarm of people around a man who resembled a businessman. As I approached the crowd I learned that the businessman was Olympic hockey player, #4, Mike Ramsey. Standing next to a makeshift bonfire talking to Ramsey the smoke from the fire floated between us, and between smoke and the fire I learned about Herb Brooks and the team he coached to victory.
At a time when technology dominates every aspect of life, teaching values can be a difficult and risky business. Most of the college seniors I know are pretty fixed in what they believe. They want to graduate and land a good job with benefits and a salary that will make them feel good about themselves. They rarely talk about values. You can imagine what a surprise it was for me when I learned that my teacher was determined to help his students understand that the way you succeed in life is to have strong values. That’s what Coach Herb Brooks did with the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, and that’s exactly what Dr. Anthony Mussari is trying to accomplish by having us participate in the Miracle at Lake Placid Project.
Before I became involved in this project I knew nothing about Coach Herb Brooks. Now I know that he wanted to teach his players the importance of being men of character, integrity and to work hard on and off the ice.
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The most important lesson I learned from studying the life of Herb Brooks is a simple one: miracles don’t happen. It’s how much you put into something that gives you results. Brooks knew how far to push his players, and in the end it was hard work, dedication and determination that gave them the gold. It’s amazing how one man can transform the sport of ice hockey by making the game his own.
While doing this project it occurred to me is that we have our own Herb Brooks right in front of our eyes. He’s older than Herb Brooks was when he coached his team to the gold in 1980, but he is just as determined and focused as was Coach Brooks. Like the coach, he never lets you settle for less, and he knows how to take you to a different level in your life. He is not afraid to tell you the truth no matter what the consequences. In 1979, Herb Brooks took a group of young men, and he transformed their lives. During this project, I experienced a transformation. The setting was a classroom. The coach was my teacher. The result was an eye opening experience that made me realize that if you want something badly enough you must work hard, and never lower your standards. That’s the recipe for a gold medal performance in everything you do.
Thank you Coach Brooks. Thank you Doc.
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Mike Lewis: Six Strings and a Bridge
One foot taps lightly on the floor as Mike Lewis’s fingers move up and down the fret board, dancing from string to string, note to note, chord to chord. His eyes are closed and the only thing that exists outside of his guitar is the music resonating from it. There is no house, no world, not even a universe it seems. There is just the music.
Like many musicians, Lewis talks while he plays his guitar. Often when there is break in the conversation, even a small one, his right hand begins to pluck at the strings while his left hand does the talking. For Lewis, there are two ways of speaking.
The legendary coach Herb Brooks knew this. His instrument was a pair of skates and a hockey stick, and he played the ice the way Lewis plays the fret board. With carefully chosen words and phrases called “Brooksisms,” he bellowed instructions to his team. After six and a half months of this they got the message that took them to the gold.
“I’m a big picture guy,” Lewis says, “not a details one. I like to look at the whole picture through my songs. I like to leave things open to interpretation. For me the art of music is showing an audience, not telling them.” I think Coach Brooks would have liked Mike Lewis, because Brooks was very adept at showing the world what hard work, discipline and dreams can produce.
Again and again Herb Brooks told his players “the name on the back of the jersey means nothing, it’s what’s on the front that counts.” In this same light, there is no ego at Windsor Park. No one ever tries to upstage one another. Lewis had nothing but words of praise after we viewed Doc’s Windsor Park story on Steve Gibson. He never once indicated that he should have had a bigger part in the show, if anything, whenever there was footage of him, he would respond with self-deprecating humor.
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When the opportunity presented itself, Doc returned the favor. He told us about the very talented people who worked with Mike at a recording session in Nashville. Bobby Ogden who played for Elvis, Dave Pomeroy who frequently appears on the David Letterman Show, Kerry Marx who’s a regular on the Grand Old Opry stage, and Steve Gibson who is legendary as a guitarist and a producer.
And when Doc left the room to get a tape for the video camera, it was Lewis who said, “You really need to listen to what Doc has to tell you, he has a lot to teach you, and there are very few men like him around.” Never once did he say “Look at all the wonderful things I have done, aren’t you glad you had the opportunity to work with me?”
Our Miracle at Lake Placid Project gave me an opportunity to demonstrate how music can effectively communicate the nature, tone, and spirit of the meaning of the Olympics. The original music that Mike Lewis is creating will capture the inspirational tone of Herb Brooks’s leadership. It will also illustrate the way 20 seniors embraced the miracle project which took them to places they never dreamed possible.
Lewis’s fingers come to an abrupt stop, the room is quiet, and everyone assembled who hears the music knows that it is perfect for the project. The goal of this part of the project is to show the way music can effectively communicate the philosophy and inspirational force of Herb Brooks. It also illustrates the way 20 seniors at King’s College can learn from two great teachers, one who we have in the classroom once a week, and the other who unfortunately is no longer with us, but whose family and friends are keeping his legacy alive.
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