BY JAMES COOK
jcook@record-eagle.com
April 22, 2009 06:50 am TRAVERSE CITY -- Eight years after Craig's seminal moment -- the one that most people remember him for -- his father Don died suddenly at the age of 68. Now, the former United States Olympic goalie, who led the 1980 hockey team to the "Miracle on Ice," hopes to save other people from the same fate. The culprit turned out to be AAA -- abdominal aortic aneurysm -- a vascular disease that results in dilation of the aorta. "If it ruptures, the chances of survival are very, very slim," said Craig, who will be appearing at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey today as part of his coast-to-coast tour as a national spokesperson for the Ultimate SAAAVE (Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently). "So the only real way to prevent people from dying from this -- and 15,00 people a year die from it -- is to get people screened." As much as goalies don't like to be screened, Craig is all for it in this instance. Co-sponsored by Northern Michigan Regional Hospital and Gore Medical, the NCMC event -- which will provide information on who is at risk and how to get screened -- is from 7-8:30 p.m. tonight at the Library Conference Center. Gore Medical produces an excluder -- much like a stent -- that helps treat AAA, and a famous goalie made sense as the drive's pitchman. "That's kind of how Gore thought of this -- save and goalies," Craig said. "They didn't even know my dad had died of it." After three years in the NHL, Craig made a successful jump into the business world with his company, Gold Medal Strategies, where most of his work comes from motivational speaking and spokesperson jobs. But AAA awareness is more than just a job for him. "I found about it when my father died," Craig said. "People say 'AAA? That's the car place.' No, it's a vascular disease, and it's a silent killer." "This is not an old person's disease. It's an asymptomatic disease. You're going to go along today and say, 'Hey, I feel great,' and bang, you're dead. That's why it's a silent killer." Craig estimated since his father's fatal episode, he's had 25 people he knows personally who have been found to have the vascular disease. "There are 200,000 people walking around right now that don't even know they have one and another 250,000 have been diagnosed," he said. Miracle Turning 52 in May, Craig is best known for playing a big role in what is known as one of the greatest upsets in sports history. The United States' gold medal in 1980 -- or more accurately its semifinal win over the dominating Russian powerhouse -- the "Miracle on Ice" spawned an increased interest in hockey across America that has seen the National Hockey League expand from 16 to 32 teams, most in the U.S. The famous Al Michaels line "Do you believe in miracles?" from the 4-3 win over the highly-favored Soviets is something Craig gets on a regular basis. "I hear that a lot," Craig said. "And what's great about that is it makes people happy to remember something that's been passed down through generations and the movie 'Miracle' has helped with that legacy. It's something we're proud of, especially now with the economy and tough times. "People look back at those times are realize it was just as bad, if not worse, and if you have the right attitude and you have a dream that you think you can do, the support and love you have in this country makes things very, very possible." Craig made 36 saves in the victory, then guided Team USA to a 4-2 gold-medal win over Finland in a game that transcended the sport. "I was just focused on doing my job," Craig said. "There's a part in the movie where (coach Herb) Brooks says, 'Play you game or do your job," and I was fortunate to be playing with some great hockey players who made my job easier." Still, he was peppered with 39 shots by the Russians in the semifinal. His counterpart in the opposite net was hockey legend Vladislav Tretiak, considered by many to be the greatest goalie to have ever played the game. "He was always a guy I admired," Craig said. "He was the one that when the Russians weren't a great hockey team, he was the great goalie who made them a great hockey team. By the time I was able to face him in the Olympics, he had grown in popularity and respect to the ultimate level. It was great to try to utilize some of the things he did well and apply them into my own game. It was an honor to play against him." Craig was even brought on as a consultant for the movie. "It was about 98 percent true," Craig said. "About as true as you can make a movie for two hours." Left in Al Michaels' real call of the game to "make it as real to people watching for the first time as it was for us playing." Craig won at every level until his injury-shortened NHL career. He was on national championship teams at both the junior college and Division 1 collegiate levels before leading the Americans to immortality and gold in 1980. "The majority of players when I played were Canadians," Craig said. "There weren't 32 teams; there were 16, so the competition for a job was a lot harder. There were pioneers before us, but we were pioneers who helped the game (in the U.S.) and the kids out today are creating their own legacy." After the Olympics, Craig played professionally for parts three years, playing his final NHL game in Detroit at a member of the Minnesota North Stars. He tore his hamstring in three places that night against the Detroit Red Wings, and his playing days were over. "It was unfortunate because that night I was about to sign a three-year deal with the North Stars," he said. "It was really an exciting day. But what a great place if you're going to have your last game -- Hockeytown; some of the greatest fans in the U.S.A. and certainly great teams."
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Jim Craig