Glory Road
Essays

The story of Don Haskins, the long time and Hall of Fame college basketball coach from Texas Western/UTEP had been largely uncelebrated until the 2006 release of Glory Road. Directed by James Gartner and staring Josh…

The 2006 American film drama "Glory Road" is a useful way of appreciating the notion, familiar to students of communications, of what constitutes a culture. There are two particular theses from the study of…

During the 1980 Winter Olympic Games held in Lake Placid, New York, the United States Men's ice hockey team, comprised of predominantly college players with no experience in international play, performed one of the most celebrated feats in the annals of team sport. In the midst of an increasingly hostile Cold War with the Soviet Union, the underestimated U.S. team advanced through Olympic group play to play the heavily favored Soviet team in the medal round. Faced with incredibly daunting odds against a juggernaut of a Soviet squad, one which had captured virtually every significant world hockey championship since 1954, head coach Herb Brooks rallied his untested team of American amateurs to an astonishing victory known forever after as the "Miracle on Ice." While the astounding athletic achievements of the U.S. men's team cannot be overstated, the theoretical foundation of the legendary leadership skills displayed by Brooks certainly warrants closer examination. By applying the techniques described by two fundamental theories of leadership, Robert House's Path-Goal Theory and Victor Vroom's Expectancy Theory, to the 2004 film Miracle, a biographical depiction of the U.S. men's hockey team and their inexplicable run to glory, it is possible to observe these immensely powerful leadership skills applied in a real world setting.