The jersey worn by Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 U.S. hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union 33 years ago in the famous “Miracle On Ice” game, sold for $657,250 at an auction held in NYC on Saturday night.
The jersey was purchased by a private collector who asked not to be identified. “There was definitely a lot of interest,” Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions for Heritage Auctions, told ESPN. “The ‘Miracle on Ice’ is clearly one of those moments where you remember where you were. It transcends sports and has become part of pop culture.”
Eruzione scored the winning goal in the legendary upset, which Sports Illustrated called the “top sports moment of the 20th Century.” The hockey great also put nearly two dozen other items connected to the 1980 Winter Olympics up for auction, including the stick he used to score the winning goal, which sold for $262,900.
“I’m auctioning these pieces off because I want to take care of my family, my charity, and to turn them over to history,” he said in a statement before the auction. “They hold no nostalgia for me. I went to Lake Placid for one thing: to get a gold medal. I achieved that and it will never leave my possession. If my jersey can end up in a museum, or with a collector, a team or a corporation that will care for it and display it the right way, then I will be happy.”
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