coach (8935) usa (7137) hockey (2842) olympics (316) murray williamson (2)
By JOHN SCHAIDLER and MURRAY WILLIAMSON
THE BOOK The history of U.S. amateur hockey overflows with an array of unique and colorful characters. In the decades leading up to Team USA’s 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” one man’s work can be found threading through it all. Only Murray Williamson scored a hat trick against a team of collegiate all-stars led by superstar John Mayasich; played alongside and coached the legendary Herb Brooks; fired Minnesota hockey icon, John Mariucci; and became the first U.S. hockey coach to go behind The Iron Curtain to watch t
This is the story, warts and all, of a national hockey team that won Olympic gold in 1960 only to hit rock bottom with a humiliating 17-2 loss to Sweden at the World Championships in Stockholm a mere three years later; a defeat so embarrassing it prompted President John F. Kennedy to quip, “Who we sending over there, girls?”