Every USA Olympic hockey team, ranked by miracles on ice

15. Innsbruck Olympics, 1964

Spoiler alert: Team USA wins gold in 1960.

Double spoiler alert: Things don’t go so well in 1964.

Some guy named Herb Brooks is the co-captain of the 1964 squad. He was much better as an Olympic coach than he was as a player. Brooks contributed two points in seven games. The leading scoring ended up being Paul Coppo, who tallied seven points in seven games. The 1960 version of Alexander Ovechkin, Paul Johnson, had six goals and no assists.

Team USA ended up finishing fifth in the tournament. Not as bad as the follow-up to the 1980 gold medal team, but not good, either. In fact, outside of the 1948 DQ’d squad (which we’ve already established as being a troll job), this was the worst finish for Team USA up to this point. It would get worse, but we’ve already shamed you, 2006.

Brooks and his brothers started the tournament with a 5-1 loss at the hands of the Soviet Union. A 8-0 rout against Germany got them back on track, but it was all downhill from there. Close game losses to Sweden, Canada, and Finland coupled with a blowout by Czechoslovakia dashed Team USA’s hopes of medaling. They did manage to defeat Switzerland in the final game. At least they ended the tournament on a high note.

The bad news for the 1964 squad is that they failed to medal following their first ever gold, four years prior. The good news is that 1968 was just around the corner. And that team would make us forget all about 1964.