Do you believe … it's been 32 years?

The Internet's hockey fans are abuzz today because it's the 32nd anniversary of the day the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviet Union on the way to winning the gold medal (USA Hockey is doing a number of things on their Facebook page). The observation of the anniversary reminded us of two things related to the Big Ten. First, we recently profiled the late Herb Brooks on "Big Ten Icons" and you can watch the clip in this post.

But secondly, take a look at the full roster of that 1980 team (there's a full roster at USAHockey.com). Brooks was, of course, the legendary coach at the University of Minnesota. His roster included 11 players from Big Ten schools – nine products of Minnesota and two others from Wisconsin.That's fun to think about as the Big Ten gears up to become a college hockey conference in 2013.

By the way, that Wisconsin pair includes Bob Suter and Mark Johnson, who was a nifty scorer and is now the head coach of the Wisconsin women's team. Johnson scored two goals in that legendary game at Lake Placid, N.Y., and he had 11 points across the entire tournament.

Can it really be 32 years ago? Watch the final minute of that game with announcer Al Michaels on the call in the YouTube clip below: