In 1980, a group of U.S. college hockey players — 12 of them from Minnesota and coached by St. Paul’s own Herb Brooks — ended the Soviets’ 16-year lock on Olympic gold with an upset victory soon to be known as the “Miracle on Ice.”

St. Paul and the Minnesota Wild celebrated the achievement with The Greatest Day Celebration and a parade from the Herb Brooks statue across from Rice Park to CHS Field on Saturday, 40 years to the day after the U.S. beat the Russians, 4-3, in the Olympic semifinals in Lake Placid.