Father and Son ‘Miracle on Ice’ USA Hockey Olympic Gold Medals At Auction

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Father and son Olympic Gold Medal winners Bill and Dave Christian will offer their Gold Medals at auction, on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. The two medals (Bill Christian won Ice Hockey gold with Team USA in 1960 and Dave Christian won with Team USA in 1980) will be offered at Heritage Auctions’ Platinum Night Sports Auction. The two medals tell the tale of an elite hockey bloodline, of a father and son driven to greatness for a common cause in different eras and of two of the USA’s greatest sports victories of all-time, one the stuff of legend and the other obscured by time. “It’s often said that lightning never strikes twice,” said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Memorabilia Auctions at Heritage, “but the tale of the Christian family belies that axiom. Both father and son were key figures in two of the most dramatic and glorious underdog tales in the history of American athletics, as members of the United States Olympic Ice Hockey teams of 1960 and 1980.” While the latter has become a universally recognized part of our patriotic national folklore under the heading, “The Miracle on Ice,” far fewer are aware that the rag-tag band of Davids that slew the Soviet Goliath at Lake Placid was, in point of fact, a sequel “Miracle on Ice.” Two decades before son Dave and his 1980 teammates were celebrated as American heroes of Cold War athletics, father Bill Christian, along with his brother Roger, helped the United States claim the gold at Squaw Valley in a struggle that was, arguably, even more arduous and improbable, coming as it did at the very height of the Cold War. While both father and son defied the odds to topple the USSR in their respective Olympics, only Dave was required to defeat all of the top seeds adding Canada, Czechoslovakia and Sweden to the USSR en route to Gold. “After the success of partnerships between Heritage and several key figures of the ‘Miracle’ team,” said Ivy, “Mike Eruzione, Phil Verchota and the family of deceased Hall of Fame coach Herb Brooks among them, the Christians have decided to present their own Olympic treasures to the collectors and fans.”