This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between, including your stories.

We've told the story of both the 1980 U.S. Olympics Miracle on Ice story and the captain of

that team's story, Mike Arruzioni. Here's Greg Hengel with an alternative look at that miraculous

tale. In his book, Win at Losing, how our biggest setbacks can lead to our greatest gains,

Sam Wyman explores how failure can often be beneficial. Among the people he profiles is Ralph Cox,

a former college hockey star who was squeezed out of arguably the greatest moment in sports history.

What you might know about Ralph comes from the 2004 Disney movie, Miracle, which is the true

story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that upset the powerful Soviets en route to the

gold medal at Lake Placid.

One of the movies bit characters is a very

likable forward with a thick Boston accent. Ralph Cox had shaggy hair and a handlebar mustache,

and in college hockey, he was a prolific goal score. The problem is, Cox also suffered an ankle

injury in the run-up to the games, and it continued

to nag him as the Americans were paring down their roster for Lake Placid.

In one of the movie's most emotional scenes, U.S. coach, Herb Brooks, calls Cox into

his office to relay the news that he had to make one more cut.

And Cox was it.

Now, here's Ralph Cox, picking up the story following the last day of training camp in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

People in Minneapolis were going to give us a going-away banquet for, you know, living there. We all lived in Minneapolis and that's where we trained.

I get to the hotel where the banquet hall is and Herb wants to see me and someone says downstairs in a small conference room, a small banquet hall.

And as I'm walking down the stairs, I'm realizing that this is probably the moment.

Like I knew Herb. Even though no one had said it, I really thought I was going to be on the team. I really thought I would be on the team and go to Lake Placet. I sense that he was calling me there to tell me otherwise. So, you know, I tell you, I stayed outside the room for about, the door's closed for a good five minutes,

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