Sports

Photos: Celebrating the 'Miracle on Ice' anniversary in St. Paul

Greatest Day celebration in downtown St. Paul
A U.S. player moves the puck down the ice during a U.S.-USSR re-enactment game at CHS Field in St. Paul on Saturday. It was part of a celebration marking the 40th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice victory by the U.S. men's hockey team at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Christopher Juhn for MPR News

Crowds gathered in downtown St. Paul on Saturday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.

On Feb. 22, 1980, the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team beat the heavily-favored Soviet team in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Americans went on to win the gold medal.

Saturday's free, family-friendly event in St. Paul celebrated that anniversary with youth hockey games and a parade.

Tom Whaley of the St. Paul Saints baseball team is part of the organizing committee for what was called the Greatest Day Celebration.

"The idea is about connecting our kids with that day 40 years ago when we all were Americans and everyone was, you know, in a state of disbelief and euphoria for the fact that a bunch of college kids — many of them from Minnesota and a few of them from St. Paul -- had taken down the mighty Soviet hockey team," he said.

Saturday's parade started at the Herb Brooks statue near Rice Park and traveled to CHS Field, where two youth teams competed in a re-enactment while wearing U.S. and USSR jerseys.