LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Do you believe in Miracles? On Feb. 22, 1980 when the Lake Placid Olympic Center scoreboard read 4-3, United States over the former Soviet Union, most Americans did believe in miracles. Known world-wide as the “Miracle on Ice,” the United States Men’s Olympic ice hockey team toppled the unbeatable Soviets and unified the nation.
Hanging high from the center ice rafters of the famed 1980 Rink-Herb Brooks Arena, the scoreboard that chronicled that historical moment and the United States’ improbable run to the 1980 Olympic Winter Games gold medal has stood the test of time. For the last 37 years, it has registered NHL, minor, junior, collegiate, high school and tournament scores, but on Monday, Feb. 6, at 1 p.m., the only scoreboard the arena has ever known, will illuminate one last time and be brought down to make way for a new state-of-the-art Daktronics video board.
While gone, the scoreboard won’t be forgotten with two of the four panels divided between Daktronics, who developed and built the scoreboard for the 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games, and the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. Locations for the remaining two panels have not been determined.
