TOPEKA, Kan. - Bob Owen was there the first time Team USA pulled off a miracle at the Winter Olympics.

A Disney film, "Miracle," opened Friday at theaters nationwide to remind one generation and tell a new one about how an underdog U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet juggernaut during the 1980 Olympics before going on to win the gold medal.

Many will remember ABC sportscaster Al Michaels' now-famous question to millions of people watching the game at home: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

The game is regarded by many as the best sports moment in the 20th century.

However, Owen, a retired businessman and college instructor who has lived in Topeka for 37 years, knows there was an equally amazing U.S. achievement at the 1960 Winter Olympics.

Owen knows, because he was there. Owen knows, because he is the proud owner of an Olympic gold medal from the first and only other time Team USA beat the world.

Owen grew up in Minnesota.

"I started skating when I was 8 years old. Nowadays, that would be considered way too late," Owen said last week as he rode with a reporter to a Johnson County theater to see an advance screening of "Miracle."

There were no organized leagues for children back then, so Owen played on "pond teams and pickup teams" until he got to high school, where he suited up for the first time in an organized squad.

Owen was good on the ice - good enough to draw the attention of a recruiter for Harvard, which was an Ivy League hockey powerhouse.

Owen wasn't too excited about going to college in the East but said the recruiter "made a smart decision. He recruited my dad."

The scout convinced Owen's father of the value of a Harvard education.

Owen proved his worth as a Harvard hockey player, helping his team win one Eastern Collegiate League and three Ivy League championships and make two trips to the Final Four.

Four of the 15 hockey players who represented the United States at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, Calif., were Harvard grads, including Owen, who earned his degree in 1958.

Like the 1980 U.S. team, the '60 squad wasn't expected to do well. Sports Illustrated picked the Americans to finish fifth.

Owen knew better as the team began two months of training and warm-up games. He told teammates they were going to do well.

How well did they do?

"We were undefeated and untied," he said, with pride still in his voice nearly 44 years after the achievement.

So was the Soviet Union the team to beat in 1960 the way it was in 1980?

"No. Canada was the team to beat, then the Soviet Union," Owen said. "Czechoslovakia was great, too, and Sweden was tough."

And in the round-robin tournament format the Olympics followed until 1992, Team USA had to play them all.

Initially on the 1960 team with Owen was Herb Brooks, the coach of the winning 1980 team.

However, the team voted to allow two stars of the 1956 team to join their ranks just days before the start of the Olympics. That meant coach Jack Riley had to cut two members, and Brooks was one.

"He was a good hockey player, and he went on to play on the '64 and '68 teams," Owen said of Brooks.

The United States' win at the 1960 Olympics didn't capture the attention of the country quite the way the one in 1980 did.

It was a different time, Owen said.

One focus of "Miracle" is how desperately Americans needed some good news as they dealt with the Cold War, the hostage crisis in Iran, long gasoline lines, high interest rates and a general malaise about which President Jimmy Carter warned the nation.

Plus, the media got bigger in the two intervening decades.

Which isn't to say Team USA's success didn't get coverage in 1960, with Walter Cronkite acting as the color guy for CBS, which covered the games that year.

And Team USA's success on the ice generated pride and excitement across the country, Owen said.

Even some hardened sportswriters were crying when the team won the gold, he said.

Owen, too, had to choke back tears when he heard "The Star Spangled Banner" played and he received his gold medal.

"It was a great thrill to play for your country, and, especially, to win," he said.

Owen was emotional 20 years later in Topeka as he watched Brooks' team go for the gold in the final game against Finland.

"I had to go over to a friend's house because I was so emotional, so elated," he said.

He was choked up, too, when he and other members of the 1960 team gathered for a reunion in 1980.

One by one, he and the other Olympic champions shook the hand of Brooks, the teammate they left behind on their trek to glory.