An Interview With USA Olympian Bill “Buzz” Schneider

During the 1980 Winter Olympics, The US pulled off a “Miracle on Ice,” beating the Soviet Union, a team who hadn’t lost a game in the Olympics since 1968 and had won the last four gold medals, lost to the Americans 4-3 in one of the most historic hockey games in history as the Americans would move on to the Gold Medal game where they would defeat Finland 4-2 just two days later to take Gold on home soil in Lake Placid, NY. Buzz Schneider, the only player who had previous Olympic experience coming into the 1980 Olympics, was on hand during the Adirondack Thunder’s “Miracle On Ice” Night and took some time to speak to the media about his experiences during the 1980 run.

Schneider played in all eight games during the 1980s Olympics for USA, putting up five goals and three assists for eight points really enjoyed the experience, and his Head Coach Herb Brooks, “It was fun; I had a great time, Herb Brooks, I played for in Minnesota I loved the way he coached; best coach I’ve ever played for; as a coach, he never made a bench mistake; he was so prepared, he’d be up till two in the morning to diagram powerplays, so you know, it was fun playing with him, a bunch of guys in Minnesota that I knew and then I played against Mike Arouzzoni” said the Former Golden Gopher. One could argue that one of the biggest goals he opened the scoring for the USA against the Soviet Union he must have been inspired by the famous pre-game speech by Herb Brooks when asked if he remembered the Speech, Schneider said he didn’t remember all of it, but there is one part that does resonate with him, “Ya, we were in the locker room; I don’t remember the longer version; all I remember was “You were born to be a player and to be here in this moment. That part I remember, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense; at the time, we didn’t think it was as deep as it was”.

Despite beating the Soviet Union, the job for the Americans wasn’t done as they still had to face the Fins and despite all the emotion on the game, Schneider mentioned that they didn’t really have much time to deal with everything that came along with the historic win, “We didn’t deal with it because the next day after we beat the Russians, there was telegrams posted along the walls, it was hockey sticks on the benches for us to sign and Herb Brooks comes in and wipes them all away and says you guys haven’t won anything yet, we made sure our heads didn’t get too big, and that day we practiced was one of the hardest practices we had, we had to play the Fins right after” he had us prepared, he said if you lose the Finnish game you take it to your grave and we made sure that didn’t happen”, and they got the job done by beating Finland in the Gold Medal Game, when asked where he keeps him medal, Schneider mentions that the location changes, and sometime he doesn’t even know where it is, “Right now, it’s in a safety deposit box, but that doesn’t work all the time either because one time I went to go look for it, and it wasn’t there; I had left it in my top drawer like I always do”.

Life After Placid

Once the Olympics were over, Schneider spent two seasons in Switzerland but only played one season where he put up 22 goals and one assist for 23 points in 28 games, “I played in Switzerland for about three years, tried to play in my third Olympics until my back went out, I went back, and I’m still involved in Real Estate now, and I’m on the Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Board, so I’m still involved, I like to be involved, a lot of great people in Hockey” said Schneider. Seventeen years after his playing days were over, the former Olympian went over to Turkey for a year where he spent had a coaching and management role but mentions that, unlike the USA, Turkey was still a long ways away from being competitive in international play, “I ended up going to Turkey as their General Coordinator and then General Manager of their men’s hockey team. It wasn’t like over here; they still had a long way to go.” Schneider

The Former Olympian mentioned that he still spends a lot of time with his teammates and fantasy camps and the movie premieres they did in LA and NY, along with the anniversaries of the Gold Medal win, “You know what, our team, it’s like a long summer; everyone keeps calling us a team, but we don’t have to play again; it’s fun to get back together; the 35th was great to see each other again; and the 40th was also held in Vegas, it’s almost like we are extended family, we are with each other so much we always converse” said Schneider. He also mentioned that despite the renovations, the history is still in the building in Lake Placid, NY, “They did a great job renovating it; they even renovated our locker room, locker room #5, times have changed, but the history is still there; they got the museum right next to it, and they got the statue now with some of the proceeds from this event going towards that” said Schneider. Despite how long it’s been, he still enjoys talking about the memories he had, “It’s still fun coming out and talking about the games; people don’t let you forget about it; everyone brings it up eventually; what about this? What about that? Most of the guys are great guys and humble guys, and they are very approachable about it.