These Boys are Still Worth Remembering

bow29 years later, the Unites States Mens hockey team’s gold medal finish in the 1980 Olympics is still a highly cherished moment in sports history.

However, despite the infamous Al Michaels line, “Do you believe in miracles?” and the timeless picture of goaltender Jim Craig draped in the United States flag after the team beat Finland to capture the gold, not much is known about the team and what made them what they were.

Considering this, it was only a matter of time before an author took it upon himself to finally tell the story of one of the most misunderstood teams in sports history.

Luckily, the author that did partake in this most challenging endeavor is former New York Daily News writer Wayne Coffey, who not only gives a front row seat to the action in “The Boys of Winter,” painlessly describing the action on the ice in vivid detail, but also provides an amazing look into each player’s background and finally puts all the pieces together.

However, while the book is a marvelous piece of prose, the thing that sets it apart is its pacing and reporting. Centering around the life and coaching of the team’s coach, Herb Brooks, Coffey paints a sensitive and caring behind the scenes picture of him, while transitioning every so often with stories of the players on the team and how they managed to capture a spot on the team’s roster. In between some great stories on the players that have a “where they were, where they are now,” feel to them, Coffey takes you through the season and eventually the Olympics, where things get spicy.

For this reason alone, the book is a must read, as many of the locker room stories of the players and the tales of their lives after the Olympics have never been told before.

By laying out this book in such a vivid and methodical manner, Coffey never bores the reader. Instead, they come back for more and never want to put it down. Throughout the book, it feels as if every player has a story worth hearing. If hearing about the lives of the American players wasn’t enough, Coffey also has a plethora of interviews from the opposition and paints a remarkable picture of the Russian team and their demise.

With that being said “The Boys of Winter,” is a modern classic that simply must be read if you’re a hockey fan. For many, the sports has changed so much in the past five years that it can barely be recognized.

For those same people, this book defines, recreates and explains why the sport of hockey is so special.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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