Jack Hughes has the craziest overlap with the Miracle On Ice USA hockey team originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The name Jack Hughes has overlapped with Team USA men's hockey before.
Of course, that name will forever now be associated first and foremost with the Hughes who plays with the New Jersey Devils, who scored the game-winning goal on Sunday to claim the gold medal in overtime against Canada.
He's not the first Jack Hughes, though, to be involved in the picture for an Olympic team.
Before the 1980 Olympics, another Jack Hughes was in contention for the roster. He's not related, but the overlap is crazy anyway.
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That earlier Jack Hughes was born in July of 1957 in Somerville, Masachusetts.
He was a candidate to make the 1980 Olympic men's hockey team out of Harvard but was one of the last players cut.
That team, of course, went on to win the 1980 gold medal after stunning the Soviet Union in the semifinal in the Miracle On Ice.
Never noticed this name getting cut in “Miracle”
— Randy Scott (@RandyScottESPN) February 23, 2026
🇺🇸 🥇 pic.twitter.com/YG5xMu31MG
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That Hughes ended up suiting up in the NHL for the then-called Colorado Rockies for a couple seasons, but his hockey career ended in 1982.
He was close to being much more than a footnote.
Now, this generation's Jack Hughes has written the country's biggest hockey chapter since 1980.
The historical overlap is uncanny.
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