The president will sign a bill awarding Congressional Gold Medals to members of the U.S. men’s ice hockey team who defeated the heavily favored Soviet Union team during the Cold War.

The game held in Lake Placid, New York, is widely regarded as one of the greatest upsets in the history of sports.

The 1980 Miracle on Ice was more than just a hockey game. It turned out to be one of the most influential sporting events of the 20th century.

The U.S. was decades into the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and Americans were at a low point of morale. The Iranian Hostage Crisis began in November 1979, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December. The economy was in turmoil, and darker days seemed ahead.

Against this backdrop, the Winter Olympics were taking place in Lake Placid, New York, ahead of Moscow hosting the Summer Games, which the U.S. eventually boycotted.

Hockey was a major sport in which the Russians had an outsized advantage. They were four-time defending champions and again heavily favored to win the gold medal in large part because the Soviet team was made up of trained professionals, while the NHL did not yet participate, so the U.S. and Canada sent amateurs who were not in the best league in the world. The U.S. lost an exhibition game to the Soviet Red Army 10-3 at Madison Square Garden on the eve of the Olympics.

With Herb Brooks coaching a rag-tag bunch of some of the best college players around, the Americans surprisingly won four of their five group play games and tied the other to reach the medal round, where the Soviet Union awaited. The game was played at 5 p.m. local time and not even shown live on television in the U.S.

Whether by listening to the radio or watching on tape delay that night, the names of goaltender Jim Craig and goal-scorers Buzz Schneider, Mark Johnson and and captain Mike Eruzione became instant stars. The U.S. chased the best goalie in the world, Vladislav Tretiak, out of the net and came back to beat the Soviets 4-3.

The U.S. went on to defeat Finland to win the gold medal on home ice. It remains the last men's Olympic championship in the sport, and players have been cast as national heroes for pulling off an upset that, at least temporarily, restored national pride.