President hands the 1980 'Miracle on Ice' team their congressional gold medals and tells the players in the Oval Office, 'this is very exciting.'

The President, on Friday, signed legislation honoring the 1980 U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team with the Congressional Gold Medal. The legislation passed both chambers in October. The ceremony was in the Oval Office. Several of the players, now in their late sixties and early seventies, attended.

For people who do not follow hockey: in February 1980, in Lake Placid, the U.S. men’s Olympic team, made up entirely of college players, beat the Soviet Union, made up entirely of professional players, in the medal round. The Soviets had not lost an Olympic hockey game since 1968. Two days after beating the Soviets the U.S. beat Finland for the gold. The whole thing is on tape. Al Michaels, on the broadcast, says the line about miracles. Do you believe in miracles? Yes! That line.

Hon. I will say something nice for one column. The Congressional Gold Medal, for the 1980 team, was forty-five years overdue. The Senate version of the bill had been sitting in committee, on and off, since 2002. The House version had been sitting in committee, on and off, since 2014. Two members of the team have died since the bill was first introduced. The legislation, this fall, finally moved. The President, this Friday, signed it. The players, in the Oval Office, got their medals. Their wives were there. Their grown kids were there. Mike Eruzione spoke. Jim Craig was in the back. The President, on the record, said this is very exciting. He kept the remarks short. He let the players talk. The players talked.

That is the column. That is what a signing ceremony is supposed to look like.

The reason I am noting it is that it is unusual, this term, for the Oval Office signing to be for someone else. Most weeks the signing is for the President. Most weeks the players in the room are the President. The 1980 team, on Friday, were the players. The medal, on Friday, was for them. The President, on Friday, did the part the President is supposed to do.

I have been a waitress for thirty years. Most of the men who eat lunch at my counter are nobody you have heard of. The ones who did something, when they were twenty-one, in February of 1980, in upstate New York, get their pie on the house.

That ought to concern you only in the sense that this is rare.