KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Friday afternoon, Team USA men's hockey faces Team Slovakia in the Olympic semi-finals, fighting to end a gold medal drought that stretches back to 1980 Lake Placid — the famous "Miracle on Ice."
Living in Kansas City for the last 20 years is Ken Morrow, who doesn't have to watch a movie to relive that historic moment because he lived it.
Where to begin for a man who has had a career players have only dreamed of since? We have to follow the ice, starting from his backyard.
"I grew up in Michigan, the cold winters of Michigan, I remember skating outdoors every day. I'd put my skates on in the morning, wouldn't take them off, come in, eat lunch. Go back out and skate until dinner," Morrow said.
Skating outdoors is something he wishes more players could experience.
Morrow was a defenseman for Team USA at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games. It was a miracle on ice to defeat the Soviet team, go on to win gold against Finland, and remind a divided country who they played for. A moment in time memorialized through books, documentaries and movies. Most recently, Morrow sat down for a the Netflix documentary, "Miracle: The Boys of '80."
"I actually just watched [Miracle] this past Saturday to get in the spirit. Never fails to one, be entertaining, but two, you know, inspire," said Andrew Mangold, a local hockey player.
The Olympics was only the beginning for Morrow, who had previously played at Bowling Green State University.
"We're winning the gold medal against Finland on a Sunday morning. On Monday morning we're standing on the White House steps with President Carter, and then a couple days later I'm signing my first NHL contract," Morrow reflected. "Right into winning the Stanley Cup in 1980, followed by three more, so four straight Stanley Cups."
Morrow didn't leave the ice on his own terms, but his body's. Player retirement landed him in Kansas City in 1990 for a coaching job with the Kansas City Blades. The team folded with the league in 2001.
When asked why he stuck around in a place where hockey really isn't the biggest sport, Morrow explained the city's hidden hockey heritage.
"It's not the biggest sport, but I will tell you there's a history of hockey that many people don't know about going back to the 50s, the 60s, even before that here in Kansas City, so you've got a, a really passionate fan base here," Morrow said.
Today, Morrow scouts for his former team, the New York Islanders, and works as the president of KCIce, LLC — a passion project for him to build more ice rinks for hockey players and figure skaters.
"You go across the state to Saint Louis, they probably have five times as many ice sheets as we do, so we've really been focused on trying to get more ice sheets built here whether it's outdoor, indoor," Morrow said.
That is what Morrow wants to see more of in Kansas City — ice sheets. Right now, there are less than a dozen rinks in the metro, and some of those disappear when the weather warms up.
"Youth hockey and, even more so, adult hockey has exploded here and, girls hockey is one of the fastest growing parts of the sport right now, but again we... we don't have the ice time," Morrow explained.
Ice has stayed the driving force in Morrow's life, and he wants that for the next generation.
"Dream big. I wanted to be at the rink every day," Morrow said. "I found a way to get on the ice somehow, someway."
Some ice rinks Morrow has worked on include the ones in Zona Rosa and Lee's Summit.
Team USA plays Friday at 2:10 p.m. CT. If they win, they will play in the gold medal game on Sunday — the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.
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