Jim Craig biography
Jim Craig, byname of James Downey Craig, (born May 31, 1957, North Easton, Massachusetts, U.S.), American ice hockey goaltender who was a part of the U.S. hockey workforce that received the gold medal on the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, U.S. The American victory within the hockey event, often called the “miracle on ice,” was one of many biggest surprises within the historical past of the Olympics, and Craig, who began each recreation in aim, was a number one determine within the workforce’s success.
The U.S. squad was ranked seventh out of 12 groups originally of the video games. The Soviet hockey workforce, thought-about one of the best on the planet, was the clear favorite. They had crushed a National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star workforce the earlier 12 months and crushed the American workforce 10–3 in an exhibition recreation per week earlier than the Olympics. In reality, the united statesS.R. was nearly unbeatable in Olympic competitors between 1956 and 1992 (in 1992 athletes from the previous Soviet republics competed collectively because the Unified Team). The solely groups to interrupt the Soviet maintain on the gold medal had been the American groups of 1960 and 1980, when the Winter Olympics had been held within the United States.
Craig, an All-American goalie at Boston University earlier than becoming a member of the U.S. ice hockey workforce, performed almost each minute of each recreation. He led the U.S. workforce by way of a stunning collection of victories within the first spherical, usually giving up an early aim or two however then shutting out the opponents within the remaining interval. The U.S. workforce made it to a semifinal recreation towards the Soviets, the place Craig made 39 saves and fought off a heavy barrage of photographs within the recreation’s remaining minutes. The Americans beat the Soviet workforce 4–3 and went on to beat Finland 4–2 within the championship recreation. One of the enduring photographs of the 1980 Games was of Craig, wrapped within the American flag, looking out the stands for his widowed father so as to share the gold-medal-winning victory.
Following the Olympics, Craig was recruited by the NHL’s Atlanta Flames. Media stress and accidents damage his efficiency, nevertheless, and his skilled profession led to 1984, after solely 30 video games with Atlanta, the Boston Bruins, and the Minnesota North Stars.