Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)

[Charles Doyle]

LexisNexis gives some instances of both "Team America"
and "Team U.S.A." from the 1970s, in reference to both
hockey and soccer.

--Charlie


---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:48:37 -0800
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header ----
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-
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>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
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>
>The U.S. Olympic Hockey Team was nicknamed "Team U.S.A."
after  (probably even during) its "miracle" upset of
the "unbeatable" Soviet team in the 1980 Winter Games.
>
>  This was an especially dramatic moment because the USSR
had just moved into Afghanistan, and many commentators were
prophesying nuclear doom just around the corner.  (Because
Jimmy Carter had allegedly made our military defenseless. I
vividly remember an op-ed writer in the _Washington Post_
reporting that he had already secured two kinds of pills for
himself and his family : anti-radiation and suicide.)
>
>  Since then, though, infotainment science has demonstrated
that the hockey upset was the actual turning point of the
Cold War, leading directly to the fall of the Soviet Empire
barely more than a decade later.
>
>  Hence "Team America" for all our guys 'n' gals.
>
>  JL
>
>
>Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header --
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>Sender: American Dialect Society
>Poster: Charles Doyle
>Subject: Re: Vals Kilmer (like "attorneys general"?)
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>
>And why, during the last few cycles of Olympic games, has
>the American team become "Team America"?
>
>--Charlie

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