In the history of hockey in the United States, there are two epochs: what came before the “Miracle on Ice,” and what’s happened since.
The 1980 men’s Olympic team’s gold medal-run doesn’t just loom over team-building decisions for international tournaments in 2026 — it’s a national measuring stick for instances when sport, writ large, taps into a more meaningful vein. In the U.S., hockey doesn’t figure into bits of cultural shorthand all that often. To care about American hockey, or to care about American sport, is to know the beats of the Lake Placid team.
With that in mind — and we say this gently — if you’ve scrolled past the documentary “Miracle: The Boys of ’80” in your Netflix carousel since its Jan. 30 release, you are forgiven. Some stories, no matter their import, are simply told enough times, in enough ways, by enough people.
“The Boys of 80” manages to feel fresh, though, and often vibrant, thanks in part to never-released footage shot during games, well-curated archival bits and some remarkable interviews with the players, both as individuals and as a group. They’re often seated in the stands at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, watching footage of themselves and their families for the first time in 46 years.
The Athletic spoke recently to co-directors Max Gershberg (formerly a producer with HBO’s “Real Sports”) and Jacob Rogal (a producer for the Netflix Chicago Bulls documentary “The Last Dance”) about the project. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
When you started on the project, what was the primary goal?
Gershberg: We wanted to animate it and frame it in a fresh way. We got to work with the Olympics, with the IOC, and they had a treasure trove of old 16-millimeter footage that hadn’t been used before, and had never been seen before. Visually, we knew we could illustrate the story in a compelling new way and give people a different vantage point of those Olympics. And then in the course of research and preparing, what registered for me was that people know the team’s story. They know about the event. Hockey fans obviously know about it. But these guys on the team — the Mark Johnsons, the Ken Morrows, hockey legends — they have really interesting, rich backstories and family dynamics. We wanted to tap into some of the more personal, reflective elements and allow the audience to get to know some of the core guys in a more personal way than they had maybe in some other projects.
We know the story of goalie Jim Craig wandering around after the final, looking for his dad. What you show is how earned that moment was, and the backstory behind it. I learned things from your movie, and I didn’t know that that was possible about such an over-covered story.
Rogal: And on an over-covered story like this, you’re always still trying to personalize it for people. (It) reminds you of your family, or it reminds you of how you grew up. Max really led the charge and did an amazing job with that. When you have a story that everyone knows, it (becomes) “How do you personalize this?” And a lot of it was just getting as many anecdotes as you can from these guys that people can relate to, and usually that appeals to people emotionally.
The footage itself — the unseen, archival stuff — did you get that from the IOC? Who had control of it?
Gershberg: The Olympic Channel and the IOC, they had this catalog of old footage that had been shot — not just of hockey. Of the entire 1980 Lake Placid games, including hockey. I don’t know the exact details of how or why that footage was kind of lost to history for so many years, but it was — which is kind of amazing. It gives this kind of gritty, distinct quality. You’re watching goals and moments from the games from these low angles. As hockey fans, Jake and I loved it, but also just as doc makers, I think it allowed the whole thing to have kind of a different feel.
To watch (the current-day players) and their facial expressions when they’re sitting there in the arena, and you can tell that they’re watching archival footage, game footage, news footage — how did you pull that off? Did you have a master cut that you were showing them to get their reactions?
Gershberg: We drew some inspiration from other projects. Jake and Jason Hehir, they did “The Last Dance” and kind of popularized what you see in these sports docs now, which is handing someone a tablet and letting them react to footage, like Michael Jordan. It was so effective, right? We knew we wanted to do a version of that, but we liked the idea of doing it up on a projector and just showing their faces glowing, watching, and then cutting back and forth from their reaction to the footage. So it’s something we tried in our individual interviews, and then also in that group scene in Lake Placid. And going in, we didn’t know how it would come off, or how it would look and feel. But fortunately for us, we had an amazing team working with us on the archival side, and producers and (associate producers), and they pulled these gems — amazing bits of footage of family and old interviews and stuff that these guys truly had never seen. For us too, in the moment, watching them react to that stuff was really powerful.
Eric Strobel, Neal Broten, Phil Verchota Mike Ramsey and Bill Baker watch footage from the 1980 Olympics. (Courtesy of Netflix)
I would imagine a challenge was (that) you want to hit all the big marks, and you want to have everyone tell the classic stories, but you also need new stuff from these guys.
Gershberg: I consider it a fun challenge when you’re making a doc — to go into the interviews, whether it’s with pieces of footage or how you’re framing questions. It’s not a gotcha thing. You just want to surprise them in a pleasant way, and tap into facets of the history and the story that they’re not constantly being asked about. And hopefully we were able to do that. I think there are definitely components of the narrative that they’re not used to talking about. One of the most refreshing things that Jake and I found is that it it might be 46 years (in the past), but they still talk about it, at least the way we were able to tap into some of it, like it’s new. And that was kind of refreshing and really energizing for the whole project.
The game footage that you had access to — were there any bits that made you say wow? The stuff from the U.S.-Czechoslovakia game was incredible. The raw material is just so good.
Gershberg: There were little moments. You mentioned the Czech game. I remember being so excited when we were in the edit and (someone) found the shot of Rob McClanahan standing on the bench during the Sweden game, injured because he couldn’t sit. We knew we had the sound bite of his teammates saying, ‘You know, he didn’t sit down.” And then we find this shot. “Oh, my God, there it is.” Little discoveries like that along the way, I think were really cool.
Rogal: The footage from the game against the Soviets — as sports fans and hockey fans, just to see new stuff from that was the coolest part. It wasn’t the most footage. There’s more from the Czech game. But any time there was something you saw from (a different filming) angle, you’re like, “Oh, my God, this is such a moment.”
Did you guys know what that tournament did to popularize the ‘U-S-A’ chant?
Gershberg: Al Michaels swore this was the genesis, that this was when (the chant) took off as a thing. To a man, they all kind of say that. And we tried to paint the geopolitical backdrop of it, so people who weren’t alive and don’t know it would understand and appreciate what a moment it was for the country.
I feel like that was a needle to thread.
Gershberg: We weren’t looking to make a political film. Some people, they’re gonna put a political tint on it. That was not our intention. We just thought it was an uplifting and inspiring story. And if people wanted to draw parallels between then and now, they’re welcome to do that as the audience. For us, it was an effort to give the essence of what the country was (in 1980), and then people could interpret it as they wish.
I wanted to get at least one Herb Brooks question in, because I know his kids were honest in a helpful, positive way, and it set up a lot. What was it like securing their involvement with it? What was your approach to the Herb Brooks aspect of it all?
Gershberg: (Brooks’ son Dan and daughter Kelly) were very accommodating, pretty much right away. They were eager to participate. Dan was a little older, so he has a more stark recollection of the actual events in 1980, but Kelly told me on our first phone call, “Hey, I have this collection of my dad’s old stuff and old notes and playbooks and speeches.” And I was like, “Awesome. Bring all those to the interview. I want to see them.” And we would have loved to use even more of that stuff, because they have so much. That stuff hasn’t been out. But it was great to give Herb a presence in the film, even though he’s no longer with us.