What All 20 Members Of America’s ‘Miracle On Ice’ Team Ended Up Doing After The 1980 Olympics

It’s been 45 years since a ragtag group of Americans pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in the history of sports when Team USA defeated the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid—a legendary victory appropriately known as the “Miracle on Ice.”

No one thought the United States had what it took to beat the hockey team representing the Soviet Union at the Winter Olympics in 1980—a juggernaut featuring de facto professionals that had previously dismantled an American squad comprised of college players on multiple occasions with the Cold War in full swing.

However, Team USA coach Herb Brooks was able to whip his guys into shape before the two sides met for the right to earn a spot in the gold medal game, and his squad pulled off the “Miracle on Ice” with the 4-3 win.

The 20 guys on America’s roster instantly became hockey legends, and with the 45th anniversary of the feat falling on February 22nd, there’s no better time to take a look at what they ended up doing with their lives after becoming national heroes.

Mike Eruzione

The Boston University winger was the captain of Team USA and scored the game-winning goal with ten minutes to go in the third period,

The Rangers offered him a contract after he went undrafted, but he opted to hang up his skates while noting there was no way he’d ever be able to top what he achieved in Lake Placid.

He spent some time working as a broadcaster and also spent three seasons as an assistant coach at B.U., where he is currently employed as the team’s Director of Special Outreach with a focus on fundraising.

Bill Baker

The defenseman from the University of Minnesota was the alternate captain. He did play in the NHL as a member of the Canadiens, Blues, Rangers, and the defunct Colorado Rockies and posted 32 points (five goals and 27 assists) in the 143 games he had between those teams.

Baker eventually went back to school to study to become an oral surgeon and currently lives in Minnesota after retiring from that profession in 2017.

Neal Broten

Neal Broten is one of the more accomplished members of the Miracle on Ice team as far as hockey is concerned.

The center was one of the nine players Brooks had previously coached at the University of Minnesota and had already been drafted by the North Stars by the time the Miracle on Ice transpired.

He ultimately spent 17 seasons in the NHL and had 289 goals and 634 assists in the 1,099 regular season games he played while also winning a Stanley Cup in 1995 as a member of the Devils.

Broten has had some legal issues, as he was charged with drunk driving in Wisconsin in 1995, 2003, and 2019. He currently resides in Minnesota and has two grandsons who’ve followed in his footsteps by playing high school hockey in the St. Paul suburbs.

Mike Ramsey

We’ve got another Golden Gopher thanks to Mike Ramsey, who holds the distinction of being the youngest member of the Miracle on Ice team.

The Sabres scooped up the defenseman with the 11th overall pick in the 1979 NHL Draft, and he spent the first 14 years of his career with the team ahead of a two-year stint with the Penguins and capped things off with the Red Wings before retiring in 1997.

Ramsey played 1,070 regular season games in the NHL and ended his career with 79 goals and 266 assists. He served as an assistant coach for the Sabres and Wild and settled in Minnesota to raise his three kids—including a son and daughter who played at his alma mater.

Oh, he also founded a mutual fund known as Powerplay Capital Management with…

Dave Christian

Dave Christian was the only player from the University of North Dakota to play for Team USA and contributed an assist on the goal that tied things up at two with a single second to go in the first period.

The Winnipeg Jets drafted Christian in 1979, and he made his NHL debut shortly after earning a gold medal while announcing his arrival with a bang by scoring just seven seconds into his first contest.

The forward also spent time with the Capitals, Bruins, Blues, and Blackhawks during a career that spanned 15 seasons and saw him play 1,009 games while wracking up 340 goals and 433 assists.

Christian retired from hockey in 1996 and currently resides in Minnesota while serving as a technical services engineer for Cardinal Glass Industries.

Ken Morrow

From an outsider’s perspective, Ken Morrow’s life peaked in 1980, as he joined the Islanders in the immediate wake of the Miracle on Ice and hoisted the Stanley Cup at the end of the 1980 NHL season.

The defenseman (one of two players hailing from Bowling Green) spent the entirety of his 10-year NHL career with the team that drafted him and had 17 goals and 88 assists in 550 regular season games.

He briefly worked as an assistant coach for New York after retiring but has served as the franchise’s Director of Pro Scouting since stepping into the role in 1992.

Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson was the undisputed hero of the Miracle on Ice, and the Wisconsin native who’d been playing for the Badgers (who were coached by his father Bob) had two goals in the contest.

He ended up spending 11 seasons in the NHL as a member of the Penguins, North Stars, Whalers, Blues, and Devils, playing 669 regular season games while recording 203 goals and 305 assists.

After retiring, he followed in his dad’s footsteps by taking over as the head of the men’s team at Wisconsin (a job he’s held since 2002 while racking up seven national championships).

He also coached America’s women’s team to a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics after previously serving as an assistant for the men’s squad.

Mark Pavelich

Mark Pavelich also played an instrumental role in Team USA’s win, as the center from Minnesota-Duluth had two primary assists.

He wasn’t drafted and initially played in Europe before Herb Brooks (who was hired by the Rangers in 1981) gave him a shot in New York.

He spent five seasons with the Blueshirts, but his career essentially fizzled out after he joined the North Stars for a stint that only lasted 17 games. He headed back overseas before a two-game ride with the Sharks to end his NHL career with 137 goals and 192 assists in 355 regular season games.

Pavelich had a fairly tumultuous life after hockey.

His wife died in 2012 after falling off of a balcony at their home, and in 2019, he was arrested for assaulting his neighbor. He was still being detained when he passed away in 2021 (his death was ruled a suicide), and his sister believes he was suffering from CTE that contributed to his incarceration and death.

Dave Silk

Dave Silk was one of the four B.U. players on the Miracle on Ice team, and the winger had the lone assist on the goal Johnson scored to make it 3-3 in the third period.

He’d been drafted by the Rangers before the game and spent three-and-a-half seasons in New York before being traded to the Bruins. He had a two-year stint in Boston before one-and-dones with the Red Wings and Jets to end his career with 54 goals and 59 assists in 249 games.

Silk served as an assistant coach for the Terriers while getting a business degree. He’s worked at a number of different finance firms but currently serves as the Director of Communications and External Relations for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.

Jack O'Callahan

Jack O’Callahan was a Boston native and a standout defenseman at B.U. who was drafted by the Blackhawks a few years before the Miracle on Ice.

He spent the first five seasons of his seven-year NHL career in Chicago before finishing things out with the Devils; he had 27 goals and 104 assists in 389 games.

As was the case with Silk, O’Callahan eventually turned his attention to finance and ended up founding the aptly named Beanpot financial services with Jack Hughes, a Harvard player who was the last guy cut from Team USA before the Olympics.

He’s currently a Senior Managing Director at Ziegler Capital Management.

Steve Christoff

Steve Christoff was another Minnesota product who played center, and he’d been drafted by the North Stars with the 24th overall pick in 1978 before kicking off his career with the team after the Miracle on Ice.

Christoff spent three years in Minnesota and a season each with the Flames and the Kings prior to retiring in 1985; he had 77 goals and 64 assists in 248 games.

He ended up getting his pilot’s license and spent decades at the helm of commercial flights before settling down in Minnesota after retiring shortly before his 62nd birthday in 2020.

Rob McClanahan

Rob McClanahan also played at Minnesota and was drafted by the Sabres.

He made his NHL debut with Buffalo after the win but was traded to the Whalers midway through his second season and ended his NHL career with the Rangers after 224 games where the winger had 38 points and 63 assists.

He also pursued a career in finance that saw him work for Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns (among others) and currently coaches high school hockey at The Blake School in Minneapolis.

Jim Craig

Jim Craig was a goaltender at B.U. who started the game in net and made 36 stops on 39 shots against a Soviet Union team that did everything in its power to get the puck past him (the United States only attempted 16 shots the entire game but managed to score on four of them).

He’d been drafted by the Atlanta Flames but didn’t have much success with them, the Bruins, or the North Stars, as he only appeared in 30 games while posting an 11-10-7 record and finishing his NHL career with a .857 save percentage.

Craig (who currently resides in Florida) eventually pivoted to sales for a media company before founding Gold Medal Strategies in 2006 and has spent close to two decades serving as a “motivational speaker and leadership consultant.”

Buzz Schneider

The man with the best name on Team USA’s roster was another Minnesota player who netted the first goal for the Americans to answer the ones the Soviets posted to open up the scoring.

Schneider spent a few years playing hockey in Switzerland before starting a new life after returning to the United States. He initially worked in sales before turning his attention to real estate, and supplements that second career with a spot on the board of the Hockey Hall of Fame Museum.

John Harrington

John Harrington is the last player on this list to appear on the Miracle on Ice scoresheet, as the Minnesota-Duluth winger had the secondary assist on Eruzione’s game-winner (he’s also one of only two players who returned for the 1984 Olympics, where America failed to earn a medal).

He had a short-lived stint in the AHL and played in Europe and the defunct Central Hockey League before turning his attention to coaching.

His most notable gig was his 25-year run as the head coach at Saint John’s University in Minnesota, and he was serving as the head of the women’s hockey team at Minnesota State prior to announcing his decision to enter a well-earned retirement after the end of the 2023-24 season.

Mark Wells

Mark Wells was the second Bowling Green player on Team USA, and while he attempted to make it to the NHL, he was unable to achieve that goal after bouncing around the minors.

Wells ended up managing a restaurant in Michigan but broke his back on the job and was diagnosed with a degenerative spinal disease that largely derailed his life.

He grappled with depression and eventually sold his gold medal for $40,000 to cover debts he’d accrued, and in 2024, he passed away at the age of 66.

Bob Suter

Bob Suter was the second Wisconsin player on Team USA, and as was the case with Wells, he tried and ultimately failed to make it to the NHL (his brother Gary did end up playing over 1,000 games).

He returned to Madison to open the aptly named Gold Medal Sports store while also overseeing operations at Capitol Ice Arena, the rink complex where he helped train someone who had a bit more success in the NHL: his son Ryan, who currently plays for the Blues.

Suter was at the complex in 2014 when he had a heart attack that tragically cut his life short at the age of 57; it was subsequently renamed Bob Suter’s Capitol Ice Arena in his honor.

Phil Verchota

The Minnesota winger was second member of Team USA to return for the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984 (he was the captain of the team that failed to make it out of group play).

Verchota was drafted by the North Stars but never played for them, and the single season he spent playing in Finland was the extent of his pro career.

He took advantage of his business degree and worked at a number of different institutions before retiring in 2020.

Eric Strobel

What’s that? Another Minnesota player? You betcha.

Eric Strobel was a winger who was drafted by the Sabres but never played for them; he was a member of their AHL team when he broke his ankle and decided to retire from hockey.

He started doing sales after heading back to Minnesota and also specializes in acoustical contracting. In 2006, he had a minor stroke but made a full recovery, and spends plenty of time playing golf with the help of the course he partially owns.

Steve Janaszak

Steve Janaszak was Jim Craig’s backup and didn’t actually played during the Miracle on Ice (or any of the other games during the Olympics), but the Golden Gophers goalie still took home a gold medal.

He had a very short-lived NHL career, as he appeared in exactly one game for the North Stars and two more for the Colorado Rockies before moving on with his life.

The medal wasn’t the only thing Janaszak brought home from the Olympics, as he encountered a woman named Jaclyn Minichello working as an interpreter in Lake Placid before the two of them got married the following year.

They currently reside on Long Island and works as an investment manager (he was employed by a company with an office on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center but took a new job six months before 9/11, which claimed the lives of 67 people at the firm).