This is an IHeart podcast.

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 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 scorer. 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

pairing 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

...