In no realm of culture does cliché reign supreme more than sports. With two teams, one winner, one set of rules, and the thinnest of margins for contingency, truisms have good odds of simply becoming truths. Cliches become facts, then they become legends. Perhaps no sporting cliches are more legendary than those emanating from the “Miracle on Ice,” when a team of all-American college boys defeated the four-time defending champion Soviet Union for the gold medal in ice hockey at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics. In the waning seconds of the game, as the Americans clung to a 4–3 lead, telecaster Al Michaels counted down and, at five, asked and answered his own question: “Do you believe in miracles? YES!” Memorialized ad nauseam—films alone include 1981’s Miracle on Ice , 2001’s Do You Believe in Miracles?…