“Kind of Had to Slap Myself”: Retired US Basketball Icon Recalls the Painful 1972 Munich Olympics Gold Medal Match Against USSR

The 1972 Munich Olympics was probably the most controversial one in the history of the Olympics. The American Men’s Basketball team faced the then-Soviet Union Men’s Basketball team in the gold medal match. Many disputed decisions were made in the last few seconds of the match and the Soviet Union won.

The players and the American Basketball fans could never forget that match. The way things folded out in the last few seconds were just unacceptable to many. As a result, the American team boycotted the medal ceremony and didn’t accept the silver medal.

Not the most ideal Olympics

The team was very unhappy and frustrated with the match officials. Even today, fifty years later, they refuse to accept the silver medal and ask the IOC to redress the injustice they faced in that match. “We deserve gold medals,” claims Ed Ratleff, a player on that team.

Another player from the team, Tom McMillen said, “I remember when I came home, I kind of had to slap myself because I had gone to the Olympics thinking it was the most hallowed ground, and I came away from it feeling much different: ‘Wow, this is a very human institution.’”

Players re-live the incident on every anniversary

These kinds of losses are impossible to forget. The silver medals are still kept in a vault in Lausanne Switzerland as the US team denied accepting them.

McMillen said he was encouraged when the International Olympic Committee restored Jim Thorpe as the sole winner of decathlon and pentathlon at in 1912 Stockholm Games. He further added, “If Jim Thorpe can get his medals posthumously, I’m still hoping that some shoes will drop and we can get our medals — hopefully not posthumously, but sometime down the road”.

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None of the team members accepted that result in the Munich Olympics. Fifty years of that controversial loss against the Soviet Union and they haven’t received their silver medals yet. They continue to appeal to the IOC for redressing the last few seconds of that final.

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However, McMillen also feels the motive is slowly forgotten and the wrong has still not been corrected. Do you think the IOC will consider and award gold medals to the 1972 USA Basketball team?