Herb Brooks will be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame today in Chicago. While he's best known for coaching the US hockey team to the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics he also coached the Minnesota Gophers to 3 NCAA championships in the 1970s. He was a fixture in Minnesota and US hockey for more than 40 years and has also been inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame and the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame. He was killed in a car accident in August of 2003 while returning from a fundraiser for the US Hockey Hall of Fame.
RIP and thanks for everything Herb.
It seems to me he never took much credit for that gold medal. Eric Heiden was overly modest, too. Refreshing even in 1980. Picture Terrell Owens or Mike Ditka in those shoes.
Posted by: Rob | December 08, 2005 at 07:17 PM
You're right Rob, Brooks went out of his way to make sure the players got the credit. There are only a handful of people in sports I regard with the same esteem.
Posted by: Dave E | December 09, 2005 at 10:09 AM
Amazing. He's one of my own personal idols. Thanks for this post.
Posted by: red | December 09, 2005 at 10:49 AM
I just trackbacked you 5,000 times - sorry!!
Posted by: red | December 09, 2005 at 01:42 PM
Oh. I just thought you were being nice. :)
Posted by: Dave E | December 09, 2005 at 02:37 PM
Well, that too!
Posted by: red | December 09, 2005 at 04:19 PM