The best-kept secret of the 2002 Winter Games opening ceremonies turned out not to be much of a surprise.
Led by captain Mike Eruzione, 18 members of the gold-medal winning 1980 "Miracle on Ice" hockey team grasped the torch to ignite the Olympic caldron atop the south bleachers at Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium on Friday night.
Eruzione, the enthusiastic leader of the team that stunned the Soviet Union 22 years ago, appeared from a door at the base of the caldron
wearing a USA hockey jersey with his name and number emblazoned on the back. He stood holding the torch as the crowd erupted in cheers.
A few moments later, the entire team dressed in red, white and blue jerseys emerged to face the crowd. Members then banded together to set the fire in motion at the bottom of the caldron.
The fire slowly spiraled upward 130 feet to the pinnacle of the angular steel-and-glass structure, disappearing at one point before coming to a roaring burn. It looked like a giant flaming icicle that had fallen from the sky.
Lights at the base gave the caldron a blue tinge, while four beams of light streamed skyward from behind.
"That was just something that was kind of mind-boggling for all of us," said Eruzione, who added the team wondered after the game 22 years ago if anyone was watching them beat the Soviets.
The media and others had speculated for months that the 1980 team, which came together for a reunion at the NHL All-Star Game in Los Angeles last week, would put the final torch to caldron at the Salt Lake Games.
Eruzione's game-winning goal propelled the 1980 team to improbable victory over Russia at Lake Placid, N.Y.
The team beat Finland two days later for the gold medal.
That wasn't enough to warrant the caldron lighting honors for at least one spectator.
"I was disappointed," said Chicago resident Barbara Stroming. "They did one thing. They beat Russia in a hockey game. There were many other athletes who accomplished much more than they did. Any of the athletes they had out there would have been a much better choice for the lighting."
A plethora of Olympic champions skated or walked with the torch before skier Picabo Street and women's hockey player Cammi Granato carried it up to the caldron's base through a sea of athletes in brightly colored parkas seated in the south grandstand. The 47-year-old Eruzione, who now works as a motivational speaker, took it from there.
Figure skaters Dick Button and Dorothy Hamill carried the torch into the stadium and gave it off to Peggy Fleming and Scott Hamilton, who skated it around the ice.
They handed off to skiers Phil Mahre and Bill Johnson, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist who was seriously injured in a crash last year while attempting a comeback. Gold-medal speedskaters Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen also took a lap around the ice before passing the torch to skeleton slider Jim Shea and his father, James, members of the only three-generation Olympians in the country.
Jack Shea, the 91-year-old patriarch of the family, died last month in a traffic accident near his Lake Placid home.
The former hockey players were the last of 11,500 Americans to handle the torch on its 65-day, 13,500 mile journey from Atlanta, the last U.S. city to host an Olympics.
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