"Miracle" Movie Jersey Collection

Released in 2004, "Miracle" chronicles the story of Herb Brooks and the 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team from Brooks' hiring to his formation of his squad followed by his rigorous training methods and efforts to instill in his players an unfamiliar style of play in an effort to combat the dominant team from the Soviet Union, a team made up of battle hardened veterans who had already proven capable of defeating the best the National Hockey League had to offer just one year earlier and who through any route to a gold medal would inevitably have to pass through.

Brooks, played by veteran actor Kurt Russell, has to overcome resistance to his methods by his bosses and the division amongst his team, who carry their East vs. West rivalries from their college teams into their training camp. Brooks, a master psychologist, presents himself as disciplinarian and taskmaster in order to unite his players against a common foe - himself as indicated by the lines "I'll be your coach. I won't be your friend."

Herb Brooks (left) and Kurt Russell (right)

Still upset with one of his new teammates over a past incident during the college hockey playoffs, Jack O'Callahan from Boston University instigates a fight during practice with Rob McClanahan from the University of Minnesota. Following the fight, Brooks tells the players his team is all about "flow and creativity, not old rivalries", and has each player introduce themselves. They all respond with their name and what school they played for.

Later, in one of the movie's defining scenes, the distracted team sleepwalks through a 3-3 tie against Norway, which incenses Brooks, who famously punishes his team with an exhausting workout following the game, as he skates his players to exhaustion, even after the arena staff has turned out the lights in the rink, commanding his team to over and over skate "Again!" to the point of vomiting.

Finally, when team captain Mike Eruzione states his name and that the team he plays for is not Boston University, but The United States of America, Brooks has driven home his point of the required hard work and team unity he demands from his team, and the practice mercifully ends.

The team suffers an embarrassing and eye opening 10-3 loss to the Soviets in an exhibition game just prior to the Olympics, followed by an opening game tie against Sweden, where the Americans are saved by a final minute goal by Bill Baker following a trademark Brooks motivational tactic to fire his players up.

The team then goes on a roll, defeating the favored Czechoslovakians 7-3 and then posting wins over Norway, Romania and West Germany to earn a spot in the medal round and their date with destiny against the Soviets.

During their showdown, the Americans fall behind no less than three times, but keep fighting back to tie the game. Finally, Eruzione scores to give the US a 4-3 lead, but with ten agonizing minutes left to play. The US holds on thanks to the goaltending of Jim Craig, setting off an emotional celebration.

Despite the win against the heavily favored Soviets, the United States still has not even assured themselves the gold medal, as they must defeat Finland in their final game. As they have many times in the tournament, the Americans must come from behind to win, and Brooks warns the team that they will take a failure "to their graves" if they lose. Properly motivated once again by their coach, the team comes out flying to win the game 4-2 and secure the gold medal, setting off another round of celebrations.

With so many hockey scenes needing to be shot, the filmmakers needed an enormous amount of wardrobe for the movie and contacted AIS to produce all the jerseys used in the making of the film. All told, they made 11 different team uniform sets, plus additional items such as practice jerseys for the tryout scenes and team jackets.

The most interesting thing to note about the jerseys used in the filming of the movie was the choice of colors for the jerseys used in the pre-Miracle on Ice scenes, as all the colors for the jerseys are three shades darker than than they were originally, such as the use of navy blue rather than royal blue or brick red instead of a vibrant primary red. This is particularly noticeable when looking at anything that was originally white, as it was all now rendered in a grey/silver tone.

It took us a decade of patience and searching, but we were finally able to complete an entire set of each team used in the filming of the movie, and we now present them in the order they appear in the film.

The first appearance of any to the team jerseys is in the first half of the film during the exhibition game held in Norway, which earns the team the full brunt of Brooks' wrath in the "Again!" scene has the team is forced to do repeated "Herbies" (an exhausting skate from the end goal line to the near blue line, back to the end line, to the center red line, back to the end line, to the far blue line, back to the end line, then to the far end line and finally back to the end line) and immediately illustrates the use of the altered colors for the jerseys that appear in the early part of the film as evidenced by the "white" Norway home jerseys.

1980 Norway National Team Jersey

Next from that scene is the first appearance of the jerseys worn by the United States in the pre-Olympic scenes, which has "USA" diagonally across the front rather than arched, as it would later appear in the Olympic Games. Again, this jersey is made from a muted Navy Blue, Brick Red and Grey color palette.

1980 United States National Team Jersey

After the navy blue jerseys appear again in a game versus the IHL All-Stars, the next jerseys to appear in the movie are the brightly colored jerseys of the United States and the Soviet Union during their exhibition game at Madison Square Garden just three days prior to the Olympics. The Soviet blood red jerseys and the Americans snow white jerseys give the game the desired visual excitement the filmmakers were looking for.

1980 Soviet Union National Team Jersey

1980 United States National Team Jersey

With that thrashing of the United States over with, the scenes featuring the actual Olympics then dominate the second half of the movie with the first American game being against Sweden, where Baker saves the day with his last minute goal with goaltender Craig pulled to spare the United States an opening game defeat. Being a non-Soviet opponent, the filmmakers are back to using the muted colors for the Swedish jerseys, although the yellow still appears relatively vibrant on screen. This is also the first use of the royal blue Olympic jerseys for the United States, giving the game the desired visual excitement.

1980 Sweden National Team

1980 United States National Team

The next opponent for the United States was favored Czechoslovakia, who appeared in their brick red jerseys during the movie for all of ten seconds.

1980 Czechoslovakia National Team

 

The scene following the USA versus Czechoslovakia game sees Brooks walking on the streets of Lake Placid with Walter Bush. Team jackets are seen from East Germany (DDR) and Italy before they encounter the Soviets, led by head coach Viktor Tikhonov, who is followed by several team members wearing CCCP jackets to keep them warm against the snow flurries.

1980 Soviet Union National Team Winter Jacket

Norway appears as the next US opponent, only this time wearing their red road jerseys against the Americans. The Norwegians are dispatched in a mere 13 seconds of screen time.

1980 Norway National Team

The next game is against Romania, who are wearing yellow jerseys similar to Sweden. The shade of yellow used by the Romanian jerseys is slightly darker than Sweden's and again has the muted navy blue and brick red secondary colors. Of all of our "lesser" country jerseys, the #15 of Alexandru Halauca appears on screen the longest while he breaks down the ice as part of the Romanian attack.

Unusually, we also acquired another Romania jersey, this one with a lace-up collar, rather than the v-neck of the Halauca jersey, a style which does not appear on screen during the movie. It has been suggested to us that this may have been a goaltender jersey, but in reality, Sandor Gal (spelled with just one "L") was a defenseman. This jersey arrived without laces.

1980 Romania National Team

West Germany received a generous 35 seconds of screen time and was the last and most difficult jersey for us to obtain to complete our collection. Having passed on an easy opportunity to get one when they first appeared on ebay when the jerseys first began to be made available to the public prior to setting our sights on having a complete set, it would take another ten years for one to resurface after their initial availability.

While the jerseys for the United States and Soviet Union were made in multiple sets in case of physical damage due to their amount of use in the filming, jerseys from the remaining nations were only made in a single set and can be much harder to obtain due to their limited numbers.

Unlike the other jerseys, the West Germany jerseys use an elastic material for the waist stripes, which results in it's clinched appearance at the bottom. Again, note the use of the brick red and grey for the West German jersey.

1980 West Germany National Team

We finally arrive at the Miracle on Ice game between the United States and the Soviet Union for which the entire movie has been building up to. Both teams are outfitted with their brightly colored jerseys, which virtually leap off the screen compared to the muted colors of the other nations' jerseys, especially under the bright lighting of those scenes. The game takes 30 minutes of screen time to complete.

1980 Soviet Union National Team

1980 United States National Team Jersey

There is still one more game left to play however, that being the United States versus Finland, which the US must win to cement the gold medal. Finland, wearing "white" is back to being depicted in the muted color palette. The game action is all of three seconds, as the producers chose not to dramatize the come from behind American victory to clinch the gold, with the majority of the scene being the post-game US celebration in their blue jerseys.

1980 Finland National Team

1980 United States National Team

Following the Finland game, the movie concludes with the medal ceremony, during which the Soviets are seen wearing track suits, while the Swedes are still wearing their yellow game jerseys.

1980 Soviet National Team Track Jacket

We also have one particularly special jersey from the filming of the movie "Miracle" in our collection, that worn in the pre-Olympic scenes by actor Eddie Cahill, who played starring goaltender Craig. After obtaining the jersey we had the opportunity to have the jersey signed by Craig in person with the inscription "Jim Craig #30 - 1980 Gold Medal".

1980 United States National Team

The movie ranks as one of the best hockey movies ever made and gave new life to many great lines, particularly those of head coach Brooks, whose players actually kept a diary of his most memorable "Brooksisms". His speech to his team prior to the Miracle on Ice game is one of the most memorable scenes of the film and is often quoted today.

Finland Wins Their First World Championship - 1995 Finland National Team Ville Peltonen Jersey

On this date in 1995, Finland won the IIHF World Championship for the first time in their history. The script could hardly have gone any better for Finland, as they defeated arch rivals Sweden in Sweden.

Finland has a long history in the World Championships and Olympics, first appearing in 1939 and being regular participants since 1949, but did not earn their first medal until 1988 with a 2-1 win over the Soviet Union at the Olympics in Canada, a span of nearly 40 years. Their first World Championship success would come in 1992 with a silver medal in Czechoslovakia after a loss in the final game to Sweden.

They followed that with a disappointing 7th place at the World Championships in 1993, their lowest finish since 1983, before rebounding with another silver in 1994 in Italy, after losing in the final in a shootout to Canada, just three months after earning a bronze medal at the Olympics in Norway.

Now having arrived as serious contenders on the international stage, they entered the 1995 World Championships aiming for the top after their previous close calls. The Finns were led by a line known as "Tupu, Hupu and Lupu", Finnish for Huey, Dewey and Louie, the nephews of Disney cartoon character Donald Duck.

Jere Lehtinen (Lupu), made his international debut at age 19 in the 1992 World Championships, Saku Koivu (Tupu) arrived in 1993, at age 19, in the World Championships and Ville Peltonen (Hupu) completed the line when they all played together in Pelotnen's international debut at the 1994 Olympics at age 20.

While Finland's past history was barren of medals and championships, "Tupu, Hupu and Lupu" entered the 1995 World Championships with Lehtonen (two silvers and a bronze in three years of international experience), Koivu (a silver and a bronze in two years) and Peltonen (a silver and a bronze after one year) as winners with high expectations.

Those expectations met with a rude awakening in the form of a 3-0 shutout loss to the Czech Republic in their opening game. They quickly got back on the right track with a decisive 6-3 win over rivals and tournament hosts, Sweden. They took care of business with expected wins over Norway (5-2) and Austria (7-2). They completed their First Round group play with a 4-4 tie with the United States, taking second place in the group.

Finland easily advanced in the quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over France and got revenge for their only loss of the tournament against the Czech Republic in the form of another 3-0 shutout, only this time in favor of Finland, setting up the gold medal final against hosts Sweden.

Peltonen was the star of the show, scoring the first goal to put Finland ahead in the first period after making a drop pass at the blueline and then putting the rebound of a teammate's blast into a wide open goal.

Peltonen and Koivu celebrate the first Finnish goal

During the second period Peltonen got his second goal after receiving a pass from center ice at the blueline, he simply wound up and fired a slapshot past the Swedish goaltender, launching his water bottle like a celebratory firework into the air to put Finland up 2-0.

Peltonen then completed the natural hat trick after a beautiful play after Peltonen gained the Sweden zone on the right, made a drop pass back to Koivu who made a cross-ice pass to defenseman Mika Stromberg who was streaking in unguarded on the left. Stromberg blew around the flat footed Swedish defense, cut to the net, slammed on the brakes and tried to move the puck from his backhand to his forehand, but lost control of the puck, which slid right across the crease to Peltonen, now stationed on the right side of the goal, for another easy tap in with just four seconds remaining in the second period give Finland a three goal lead heading into the final period.

Stromberg and Koivu celebrate as Peltonen is elated

after completing his hat trick

Not quite finished yet, Peltonen assisted on the fourth Finnish goal when he fed the puck back to the blueline and defenseman Timo Jutila fired the puck through everyone for a back-breaking 4-0 lead and a goal celebration that took him the length of the ice.

Sweden was able to spoil the shutout to make the final score 4-1 after a fluky, high arching deflection was misplayed by Jarmo Myllys, who otherwise stood tall in goal, earning the victory for the new World Champions.

The party has only just begun as Finland poses

after winning their first world championship

Lehtonen, Koivu and Peltonen were all named to the tournament All-Star Team, with Koivu being named Best Forward. To rub their victory in, the coach of the Finnish team, Swede Curt Lindström, took his team to Sergels torg, the central public square in Stockholm, the site for public recognition of Swedish sporting success, and brought 15,000 wildly celebrating Finnish fans with to share in the joy, which they did by singing the official Swedish song of the 1995 World Championship, "Den Glider In"

Finland received a massive welcome home back in Tampere, Finland, with the celebrations being televised on live TV to a national audience.

Today's featured jersey is a 1995 Finland National Team Ville Peltonen jersey. This is the home white version as worn during the 1995 World Championships, differentiated from the 1994 Olympics by the Warsteiner beer sponsorship patches on the upper arms.

Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1995 Finland National Team Saku Koivu jersey. This is the same style jersey used in the 1994 Olympic games and, while branded as a Reebok jersey, they were produced by Tackla using their mesh fabric and dye sublimation process. Visually, the only difference  between the Olympic jerseys and the World Championship versions are the additions of the Warsteiner sponsorship patches to each arm.

Here are the highlights from the 1995 World Championship gold medal final between victorious Finland and Sweden.

Here are scenes of the massive celebration on their return home to Finland, as they continue to adopt "Den Glider In" as their own. Don't miss the guy playing air guitar with the then World Championship trophy!

These scenes are proof that while the NHL might not take the World Championships nearly as seriously as they do the Olympics, it clearly still matters to Europeans.

St. Urho's Day

While many anticipate tomorrow's celebration of Irish and Irish-American culture, St. Patrick's Day, who is said to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland, many are unaware that today is a similar celebration of Finnish culture, St. Urho's Day.

In reality, St. Urho is a fictional saint of Finland, whose legend was the invention of Finnish-American Richard Mattson of Virginia, Minnesota in 1956. Mattson invented St. Urho when questioned by coworker Gene McCavic about the Finns lack of a saint similar to St. Patrick for the Irish.

Mattson and McCavic wrote an "Ode to St. Urho", in which he was to have supposedly cast the frogs out of Finland, similar to St. Patrick and the snakes of Ireland. The original St. Urho's Day was set to May 24th, but later changed to today, March 16th, the day before St. Patrick's Day, with credit to high school teacher Kenneth Brist and friends in an effort to have two days to celebrate, what with St. Patrick's Day being the very next day.

Not only did the date of St. Urho's Day change, but so did the legend under the influence of Dr. Sulo Havumaki, a professor at Bemidji State College in Bemidji, Minnesota, as the legend of St. Urho now credits the fictional saint with driving all the grasshoppers out of Finland, thus saving the Finnish grape crop, and therefore the country's supply of wine by chanting "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen", which translates to "Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to hell!"

St. Urho is said to have saved the Finnish grape crop

by driving the Grasshoppers out of Finland

In addition to celebrating Finnish heritage and culture, as well as being an excuse to drink somewhat heavily, like the wearing of the green by the Irish, St. Urho's celebrants traditionally wear Royal Purple and Nile Green.

There has even been a book published on St. Urho, The Legend of St. Urho, which chronicles the origins and folklore of the man, the myth and the legend of St. Urho.

The statue of St. Urho in Menahga, Minnesota

The Finland National Team first appeared at the World Championships back in 1939. Their next appearance was not until 1949 when they became regulars at the World Championships. A perennial mid-pack team, it took them until 1992, a span of over 40 years, to earn their first medal of any kind. Once the floodgates opened, they captured silver in 1992 and 1994 before reaching the pinnacle with World Championship gold in 1995.

Finland celebrates their first World Championship after arriving back home

Two fifth places in 1996 and 1997 followed before a run of four medals in row with silver in 1998 and 1999, bronze in 2000 and silver once more in 2001. A bit of a slide saw then finish 4th, 5th, 6th then 7th from 2002 through 2005 before returning to the medal podium with bronze in 2006, silver in 2007 and bronze again in 2008. Finland won their second gold medal in 2011, captained by Mikko Koivu. Two more silver medals have since followed in 2014 and in 2016.

Finland's captain Mikko Koivu is thrilled to hoist

the World Championship trophy

Finland's hockey team first appeared at the Winter Olympics in 1952, and aside from 1956, has appeared in each Olympic hockey tournament since, becoming a regular medal contender in the mid 1970's, with a fourth places in 1978 and 1980. They won their first medal in 1988 with a silver and took bronze in both 1994 and 1998. In 2006 they again won silver followed by bronze medals in both 2010 and 2014 to give them medals in three consecutive Olympics for the first time.

Jere Lehtinen, Saku Koivu and Ville Peltonen enjoying their final success as

a trio at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver where they won bronze medals

Finland has also participated in the Canada Cup and it's successor, the World Cup of Hockey, taking home the silver medal in the 2004 World Cup in the seven times it has competed.

The Finland National Team has now retired the numbers of #14 Raimo Helminen, #17 Jarri Kurri, #8 Teemu Selanne, #11 Saku Koivu, 26 Jere Lehtinen and #16 Ville Peltonen.

Today's first featured jersey is a 1991 Finland National Team Jari Kurri jersey as worn in the 1991 World Cup. This jersey was produced by Tackla out of Finland and features a short-lived cartoonish lion's head logo, which was actually the logo of a Finnish sponsoring bank, that was quickly replaced by a new shield-style logo which remains in use today.

Today's second featured jersey is a 1996 Finland National Team Raimo Helminen jersey from the inaugural World Cup of Hockey. Note that this is a #14 jersey, not the #41 Finland retired for Helminen. This attractive "waving flag" style of jersey marked Nike's entry into being the jersey supplier for the IIHF, which continues to this day. This style was worn through the 1997 World Championships until new styles were debuted for the 1998 Olympics.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's third featured jersey is a 2004 Finland National Team Teemu Selanne jersey. Finland first wore this style for the 1998 Oympics in Nagano, Japan with the crest reading "Suomi". For the 2002 Olympics, the crest was altered to read "Finland" with Suomi now printed boldly across the waist. This would be the final appearance for this jersey, as Nike would introduce a new style for the 2005 World Championships.

Today's fourth featured jersey is a 1995 Finland National Team Saku Koivu jersey. This is the same style jersey used in the 1994 Olympic games and, while branded as a Reebok jersey, they were produced by Tackla using their mesh fabric and dye sublimation process. Visually, the only difference between the Olympic jerseys and the World Championship versions are the additions of the Warsteiner sponsorship patches to each arm.

Today's fifth featured jersey is a 1996 Finland National Team Jere Lehtinen jersey. One year after Finland won the World Championship in a Reebok branded Tackla produced jersey, Nike became the official supplier to the IIHF for the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Following their debut at the 1996 World Championships in the spring, Nike also outfitted all of the teams at the inaugural World Cup of Hockey in the fall of 1996.

Their "waving flag" style of jerseys took Tackla's sublimation techniques to further extremes, as they introduced gradients to the international scene. These jerseys were also worn for the 1997 World Championships until being replaced by new styles for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

photo courtesy of Classic Auctions

Today's sixth featured jersey is a 1995 Finland National Team Ville Peltonen jersey. This is the home white version of the blue road jersey shown above as worn during the 1995 World Championships, differentiated from the 1994 Olympics by the Warsteiner beer sponsorship patches on the upper arms.

In today's video section, Finland's finest moment in hockey, winning their first World Championship in 1995 against their rivals Sweden and in Sweden.

Here are highlights of Finland winning the 2011 World Championship.

Finally, a Finnish Nike commercial featuring Mikko Koivu, Ruutu, Selanne, Filppula and Peltonen.