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One day, Islanders legend and Miracle on Ice team member Ken Morrow was enjoying a leisurely drive in Huntington Village when he was unexpectedly pulled over by a couple of police officers.
âWhen they came up, I didnât know why. I didnât think Iâd been speeding or anything,â Morrow told The Post.
“Their first words to me were, ‘I thought that was the Stanley Cup in the back of your car.’ With their lights flashing, they stood at my back window, examining the Stanley Cup and reading the names,” he recalled.

This incident became one of the many unforgettable moments for longtime Northport resident Morrow, who claimed Lord Stanley’s trophy four consecutive times with the Isles — the first shortly after triumphing over the USSR powerhouse in Lake Placid.
In the Michigan nativeâs words, it didnât take long to become a bona fide everyday Long Islander.
âYou were just part of the local community, and you didnât get mobbed or anything like that,â said Morrow, who now calls Kansas City home as director of pro scouting in the Islanders organization.
Still, the defenseman who fell in love with local beaches and drives on the scenic North Shore would âget a couple of people that would come up and knock on the doorâ occasionally.
âI remember one time, we had a school bus driver pull in our driveway, and we were trying to figure out what the heck was going on until he came up to the door,â he recalled.
âI struck up a lot of conversations with people. It certainly didnât bother me at all that people wanted to do that.â
Now, nearly 45 years to that fateful day of May 24, 1980, when Morrow and the team celebrated their first Cup win in overtime of Game 6 against the Flyers, he remembers it all like it was yesterday.

the Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympic Center in Lake Placid,
famously now known as the “Miracle on Ice.” Getty Images
âWhen Bobby Nystrom scored, I think the feeling was relief as much as it was joy,â Morrow said, adding that even climbing stairs became challenging when the Stanley Cup Final rolled around.
The Olympic gold medalist, now 68, returned to the island two summers ago and recounted his days on top of the world in his memoir, âKen Morrow: Miracle Gold, Four Stanley Cups, and a Lifetime of Islanders Hockey,â co-written by sportswriter Allan Kreda.
From gold to silver
It was a blur when he arrived in Nassau County just weeks after the greatest hockey game ever played.
Morrow and his family first stayed in a Holiday Inn on Old Country Road near the beloved Nassau Coliseum, but they didnât catch much of an authentic glimpse of the island he adores at first.
What he did see, however, were fans salivating for their first chance to win it all in the spring of 1980.
âYou had a lot of interactions with the fans, which was a really great thing.â
His playing days were when spectators were much more accessible, as players parked outside the arena â right by pregame festivities that Morrow distinctly holds dear.
âThe tailgating is something Iâll always remember â probably unique to Long Island. The people were out there tailgating hours before games,â he said, adding it was the first time he ever saw the grills going for hockey games and fans escorting players toward the door.
Leaving after a victory, when cars would blare a honk to the tune of âLetâs go Islanders!â is also something Morrow cherishes deep down.
âI probably did it, too, at some point,â No. 6 said with a laugh.
Rocking the barn
The real magic, however, came inside the Uniondale walls that shook with the passion of thousands who showed up every spring to watch their Isles vie for another title in the early 1980s.
âThe roar,â Morrow, who still gets standing ovations at games, recalled, âthatâs a memory that will stay with me. You could hear it through the walls of the locker room. It just gave you chills to walk out.â
Rather than looking back at the glory days that well predate state-of-the-art UBS Arena, heâs enthusiastic about what the team has done since â especially when the old barn rocked at dynasty-level decibels.
Morrow distinctly recalls the shaking that followed the Shawn Bates penalty shot of 2002 and the Islesâ conference final run nearly two decades later in 2021.
âThereâs something about the old barn, and there have been some great moments in the history of the New York Islanders â especially in the playoffs,â Morrow said.
âIt doesnât take much to bring that out in our fans today.â