United States pulled off 'bigger miracle' at 1960 Olympics

Legendary hockey reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly scrapbook for NHL.com. Fischler, known as "The Hockey Maven," brings his insight and humor to readers each Wednesday. This week is a look back at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, when forward Tom Williams, defenseman John Mayasich and goalie Jack McCartan helped Team USA to its first Olympic gold medal. That launched a lengthy NHL career for Williams and McCartan's 12-game tenure with the New York Rangers.

"They said it couldn't be done, but we did it!"

The defiant words were uttered by Tom Williams of Duluth, Minnesota, in February 1960. Williams not only left Squaw Valley, California, with a gold medal, he would enjoy a 15-season NHL career, plus two seasons in the World Hockey Association.

"In retrospect," Williams told me in 1974, "what we accomplished in '60 was a bigger 'Miracle' than what Herb Brooks' team pulled off in 1980. Hey, we were picked for last place -- no American hockey team had won Olympic Gold."

Member of Team USA at the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics knew that they were underdogs well before the tournament. Their coach, Jack P. Riley, played on America's first post-war Olympic hockey team at the 1948 St. Moritz Olympics and understood the odds.

"Before the games began," Riley said in "Skates, Sticks, and Men: The Story of Amateur Hockey in the United States" written by Kip Farrington, "they kept telling us that if we expected to win gold that we were dreaming. The thing is, people didn't know how good my Minnesota guys really were, especially the Christian brothers, Billy and Roger. I put Tommy (Williams) on their line, and they clicked right off the bat."

Blyth Arena was different than today at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and so were the Olympic rules. Riley's stickhandlers all were amateurs and only Williams of the 17 skaters would make inroads into big-league play.

"Of all the teams rated by the experts," Riley told me in a 1961 interview, "our team was down at the bottom in the least likely category."

Riley, who had been varsity hockey coach at the U.S. Military Academy, got an unexpected break just days before the 1960 Olympics began. Following an exhibition against the Green Bay Bobcats led by John Mayasich of Eveleth, Minnesota, Riley made the defenseman an 11th-hour addition to the roster.

"They had me join the team at Squaw just a day before the games began," Mayasich said in an interview with Michaeli A. Smith author of, "Life After Hockey: When the Lights are Dimmed."

"I wound up with seven goals, and we won the gold on a Sunday morning. By that Sunday afternoon, I returned to Green Bay, sort of like nothing had happened."

Williams compared his U.S. team with the "Miracle on Ice" team that triumphed at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

"To me," Williams told Smith, "our gold was a bigger miracle. None of us expected to win anything. On the other hand, we were going to give it our best shot … and hope for the best."

Bill Cleary of Cambridge, Massachusetts led Team USA in scoring (14 points; seven goals, seven assists) and behind him was Bill Christian out of Warroad, Minnesota, with 13 points (two goals, 11 assists). Jack McCartan, from St. Paul, Minnesota, was voted best goalie of the tournament.

"Jack was the reason we won," Williams said. "We had tremendous goaltending and he deserved the credit. The difference between our win and the miracle fellas was the huge media attention they got, and the little we got, but that was OK. What we wanted was the gold, not cheers."

There was no miracle talk against Team Sweden on Feb. 22, 1960, but the strong skating, hard-shooting Scandinavians were routed 6-3. Heads began turning in Riley's direction two days later when the U.S. defeated Germany 9-1.

"After we beat the Germans, the press started talking about McCartan," Riley said. "Then again, our Christian Brothers, Roger and Billy, also were getting attention. Other reporters began noticing Kenny Yackel and John Mayasich, but we only had two wins under our belt and next up was Canada."

A 2-1 win against Canada was the turning point behind McCartan's 39 saves.

"Jack made one incredible save after another," Riley said. "After we took the Canadians, we became the talk of the Olympic Village."

The talk got louder against the formidable Soviet Union on Feb. 27. The game was tied 2-2 after two periods with the final result in doubt until 14:59 of the third.

And then it happened.

Bill Christian broke free, skating one-on-one against Nikolai Puchkov. The Soviet goalie tried to cut down the angle, but Christian completed his deke by skimming the puck over the goal line.

"That was it," Riley said. " McCartan wasn't going to let the Russians score again."

They didn't. The U.S. won 3-2, but then slumped through two periods against Czechoslovakia in the final.

"It looked like the wins over Canada and Russia took the edge off us," Riley wrote in "Skates, Sticks and Men: The Story of Amateur Hockey in the United States."

Czechoslovakia led 4-3 until Lady Luck intervened for the United States. During the second intermission, Soviet defenseman Nikolai Sologubov knocked on Team USA's clubhouse door and whispered to Riley.

"He suggested our players take some oxygen to restore their pep," Riley said. "Some of my guys took his advice, but not the Christians or the Clearys."

Back for the third, Roger Christian was relentless, delivering a hat trick amid a six-goal deluge for a 9-4 victory.

"For us," McCartan said, "it was a special feeling because something like that never happened before. A gold medal for America, first in our hockey history."

"Looking backward," Mayasich said, "I came to realize that the whole USA was a part of this unprecedented hockey achievement. We started what was to become a boom in kids hockey. At the time though we just didn't realize what an achievement it was."

As for the oxygen whiffs, Riley laughed them off. "Oxygen or not, it was our team's burning desire to win that made the difference."

To which Roger Christian ad-libbed his coach:

"It was the gold medal that spurred us on."