McClanahan attended Mounds View High School and went on to play three seasons for the University of Minnesota, winning the 1979 NCAA national championship. After representing the US at the 1979 World Championship tournament in Moscow, McClanahan joined the US Olympic team on a full-time basis and scored 34 goals in 63 exhibition games. The culmination of McClanahan\'s amateur career came at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York when he scored five goals in seven games while helping his country win the gold medal. He scored the winning goal in the gold medal game against Finland (which the U.S. came back to win 4–2) two days after the historic American victory over the Soviets.\n', '

During the opening game of the Olympic tournament against Sweden, McClanahan sustained a bruise on the upper thigh, which left the US team\'s roster short a second player, as teammate Jack O\'Callahan had been injured during the exhibition game against the Soviet Union only three days prior to the Olympics. A now famous argument between McClanahan and Team USA\'s coach Herb Brooks during the intermission helped motivate McClanahan to return to the game and play through his injury, inspiring his team to a come-from-behind draw against Sweden that proved vital to achieving gold medal success later in the tournament.\n', '

McClanahan was selected forty-ninth overall in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres but did not begin playing with the Sabres until 1980, shortly after the Olympics. His NHL career was comparatively short-lived as he was mostly used as a role player. He bounced between the NHL and the American Hockey League and played part of the 1983/1984 season in the Central Hockey League with the Tulsa Oilers before finishing his NHL career under his old Olympic coach Herb Brooks with the New York Rangers in 1984 (he also represented the Hartford Whalers in 1981–82). During his professional career, McClanahan also was a member of Team USA at the 1981 Canada Cup.\n', '

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