2004 Miracle
The 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team Story, the
History of Hockey, Herb Brooks, and characters.
go with the F L O W
Brooksisms
Brooks' original expressions were known by his players as "Brooksisms." According to Olympians John Harrington, Dave Silk, and Mike Eruzione, these are a few.[14]
Brooks' original expressions were known by his players as "Brooksisms." According to Olympians John Harrington, Dave Silk, and Mike Eruzione, these are a few.[14]
- "You're playing worse and worse every day and right now you're playing like it's next month."
- "You can't be common, the common man goes nowhere; you have to be uncommon."
- "Boys, I'm asking you to go to the well again."
- "You look like you have a five pound fart on your head."
- "You guys are getting bent over and they're not using Vaseline."
- "You look like a monkey tryin' to hump a football!"
- "You're looking for players whose name on the front of the sweater is more important than the one on the back. I look for these players to play hard, to play smart, and to represent their country."
- "Great moments are born from great opportunity."
- "You know, Willy Wonka said it best: we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
- "This team isn't talented enough to win on talent alone."
- "If you lose this game you'll take it to your grave ... your fucking grave."
- "You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours."[15]
- "Write your own book instead of reading someone else's book about success."[5]
- "Boys, in the front of the net it's a bloody nose alley."
- "Don't dump the puck in. That went out with short pants."
- "Throw the puck back and weave, weave, weave. But don't just weave for the sake of weaving."
- "Let's be idealistic, but let's also be practical."
- "You guys don't want to work during the game?"
- "The legs feed the wolf."
- "We walked up to the tiger, looked him straight in his eye, and spat in it."
- "Tonight."
- "Again."
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Miracle (2004)
At the national team hockey tryouts, one of the main characters, Jack O'Callahan greets another player Jim Craig, by saying, "What's up, you sieve!" In ice hockey slang, a sieve is a goal tender who allows too many shots to go through into his/her net. Jim Craig was the goalie for the American team.
At the national team hockey tryouts, one of the main characters, Jack O'Callahan greets another player Jim Craig, by saying, "What's up, you sieve!" In ice hockey slang, a sieve is a goal tender who allows too many shots to go through into his/her net. Jim Craig was the goalie for the American team.
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Song played in the background...the bad boys of Boston...The J Geils Band
Cast:
Kurt Russell...Herb Brooks
Patricia Clarkson...Patti Brooks
Noah Emmerich...Craig Patrick
Sean McCann...Walter Bush
Kenneth Welsh...Doc Nagobads
Eddie Cahill...Jim Craig
Patrick O'Brien Demsey...Mike Eruzione
Michael Mantenuto...Jack O'Callahan
Nathan West...Rob McClanahan
Kenneth Mitchell...Ralph Cox
Eric Peter-Kaiser...Mark Johnson
Bobby Hanson...Dave Silk
Joseph Cure...Mike Ramsey
Billy Schneider...Buzz Schneider
Nate Miller...John 'Bah' Harrington
Kurt Russell...Herb Brooks
Patricia Clarkson...Patti Brooks
Noah Emmerich...Craig Patrick
Sean McCann...Walter Bush
Kenneth Welsh...Doc Nagobads
Eddie Cahill...Jim Craig
Patrick O'Brien Demsey...Mike Eruzione
Michael Mantenuto...Jack O'Callahan
Nathan West...Rob McClanahan
Kenneth Mitchell...Ralph Cox
Eric Peter-Kaiser...Mark Johnson
Bobby Hanson...Dave Silk
Joseph Cure...Mike Ramsey
Billy Schneider...Buzz Schneider
Nate Miller...John 'Bah' Harrington
Miracle 2004
Kurt Russell stars as coach Herb Brooks in a true story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team winning the gold medal by defeating the powerful Soviet Union and Finland teams at Lake Placid. Brooks has had a dream of coaching the U.S. Olympic team ever since he was cut from the 1960 U.S. Olympic team. Brooks' dream comes true, and he gets the coaching job in 1979. Brooks puts together a team of college kids and begins to get them into shape. Since the Soviet Union is the greatest hockey team in the world, Brooks begins to retrain his team in the European style of playing the game. The Soviet Union team has won four consecutive gold medals and recently defeated a team of National Hockey League all-stars. Brooks said that the all-stars were individual players and not a team. With all his hard training, he finally turns these kids into the U.S. Olympic team, and a family. The team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinal round by not allowing them a single goal for the last 10 minutes of the game. With the world watching the game on TV, Al Michaels asks his famous question at the end of the game, `Do you believe in miracles? Yes!' The team still had to play Finland in the final round, which they won. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
Kurt Russell took a pay cut so the 800-1000 extras used as the fans at the hockey game could enjoy a full hot meal instead of a brown-bag lunch.
The young men chosen to portray the members of Team USA were chosen primarily for their hockey skills due to the intense nature of the filming; acting ability was secondary. In fact, for most of them, this was their first major film.
Herb Brooks died in a car accident during principal photography of this film. A dedication is made for him before the ending credits.
While Al Michaels joined the film to recreate commentary for the games, Gavin O'Connor decided to use the last 10 seconds of Michaels' original "Do you believe in miracles?" call in the film because he felt he couldn't ask him to recreate the emotion he experienced at that moment. Thus they cleaned up the recording to make the transition to the authentic call as seamlessly as possible.
The World Trade center is shown in 1980, a digital recreation of the Twin Towers was used, being the first time they have been created (instead of just filmed) for a movie since the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001.
The scene where Brooks makes the team skate back and forth on the ice all night, after their 3-3 tie with Norway, was actually done by the real actors over a span of three days - 12 hours a day. The director wanted the moment to be as realistic as possible.
Michael Mantenuto got into a fight with another player who picked on him and other guys on the ice during tryouts. He apologized to director Gavin O'Connor afterwards, to which Gavin responded, "No, that was good." Michael ended up winning the part of Jack O'Callahan, the defenseman dubbed "the first one to drop his gloves".
Buzz Schneider is portrayed by his son, Billy Schneider.
To avoid confusion, during filming Kurt Russell referred to the actors/hockey players cast as Team USA exclusively by their corresponding characters' names or nicknames, not their real names. For the most part, the Team USA actors maintained this policy among themselves also.
Over 4,000 men auditioned for only 20 roles on the US Olympic Ice Hockey Team in the movie.
This film is considered one of the most accurate depictions of true events, including dialogue.
In real life, the "Herbies" after the Norway game did not end with Mike Eruzione saying he played for the United States of America. They instead ended with Mark Johnson's frustration of having to do the Herbies, where he smashed his stick against the glass.
Over 280 miles of film were shot, more than any other Disney movie.
The shots of the NHL-Soviet game on Herb's TV where Mikhailov is seen scoring is real footage.
The game against the Soviets was filmed in Vancouver at the PNE Agrodome - an arena featured in another legendary USA Vs. USSR battle; the Soviet arena where Rocky fought Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985).
During filming at a residence of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, rowdy residents disturbed filming by hanging USSR flags in the residence windows, reporting the shoot to the fire marshal, yelling distracting taunts at the actors, and even stealing Kurt Russell's chair.
Kurt Russell is right-handed, but he used his left hand in the movie because Herb Brooks was a lefty, and this attention to detail shows how deeply Russell got into his role and how closely he studied Brooks to BECOME Herb Brooks for this film rather than just being an actor playing a hockey coach named Herb Brooks for the film.
The referee for the semifinal game is played by Ryan Walter, an ex-NHLer and Vancouver native who finished his career as a Vancouver Canuck and was a technical consultant for the movie. He "choreographed" all the hockey scenes to be realistic and the goals to be exactly as they really were. He has also said that he had to down-grade his skating in order to better impersonate the Finnish referee Carl-Gustav Kaisla.
There are two "bookend" moments in the film. The first is where the audience sees Robbie McClanahan taping his hockey stick in the locker room before the try-outs, and then sees him doing the same thing in the locker room immediately before the Soviet Olympic game. It ties the early, rag-tag hopefuls together with the conditioned, tightly-bonded Olympic team. The second is when Mark Johnson looks nervous and looks away first in the face-off against the Soviet captain in the warm-up game in Madison Square Garden, but in the face-off at the beginning of the Olympic game, Mark out-stares the Soviet captain and forces him to look away first. It shows the confidence and determination of the US team on that fateful evening compared with their insecurity just 13 days previously against the Soviet Union in New York City.
Prior to joining the U.S. Olympic hockey team both Mike Eruzione and Buzz Schneider played in the International Hockey League. Eruzione for the Toledo Goal diggers and Schneider for the Milwaukee Admirals. When the team played the IHL All-Stars it was a reunion with their old teammates and opponents.
At the national team hockey tryouts, one of the main characters, Jack O'Callahan greets another player Jim Craig, by saying, "What's up, you sieve!" In ice hockey slang, a sieve is a goal tender who allows too many shots to go through into his/her net. Jim Craig was the goalie for the American team.
Stand-in goalie for the character of Jim Craig was former Edmonton Oilers' goalie Bill Ranford.
Herb Brooks was a former U.S. Olympic player in 1964 and 1968.
During the actual ABC network broadcast of the game between the USA and Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics, ABC ran two commercials for a made for TV film called Elvis (1979) filmed in 1979 that was to be broadcast on the Monday following the end of the Olympics. Kurt Russell starred as Elvis Presley in the film and is shown in the commercials, in addition to playing Herb Brooks in the main movie.
Phil Verchota and John Harrington played for the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team again at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. The team finished Seventh.
Right before the Soviets score the first goal of the game, Schneider is slashed by Krutov, falls down on the ice and loses control of the puck to a Soviet player. In the real game, however, there is no slash on the play, only a stick check by Krutov which is permitted in ice hockey, and Schneider doesn't fall either.
Scene where Herb talks to Jim Craig about his commitment to the team was filmed on a Friday night at the dorms of the University of British Columbia. Rowdy students placed Canadian flags in windows and cranked the music. Kurt Russell's cast chair was stolen.
Despite the fact that this was filmed in Super 35, "Filmed in Panavision" is listed in the end credits.
The day that Herb has the players skate back and forth over the ice (after the tie with Norway) is known as "Herbie's Day" by the cast.
Although Mike Rich's screenplay was used during production and was substantially different from drafts by the film's first writer, Eric Guggenheim, he lost all claim to screenwriting credit to Guggenheim in an arbitration conducted by the Writers Guild of America.
The news report featured around 54 minutes in discusses the 1980 Tehran hostage crisis which would later become the basis of the successful film Argo.
The national anthem heard at Madison Square Garden is performed by Lauren Hart, who began singing the anthem on a regular basis at Philadelphia Flyers home games in 1997. Hart is also the daughter of late NHL Hall of Fame announcer Gene Hart, who broadcast for the Flyers from 1967-1995.
For the portions filmed in Rossland, British Columbia, several vintage city buses were provided by Selkirk College in Nelson, BC. Of the three buses prepared by the college, only one survived the trip from Nelson to Rossland. One bus burned up its transmission and another bus kept blowing tires. The bus that did make it to Rossland burned excessive amounts of oil and was said to be extremely troublesome to the film crew.
The turquoise projector Coach Brooks uses at home to study film in his den is a Bell & Howell 16mm FILMOSOUND Specialist model 552, which was manufactured from 1962-1971.
The notes for the first film of the Soviets that Coach Brooks is shown watching says, "19 February 1976 Moscow".
Kurt Russell's first hit in 7 years, after years of consecutive flops starting with 1998's Soldier.
Cameo
Patti Brooks: Herb Brooks' wife Patti is in the movie as an extra in the stands during the U.S. vs. Russia game. You can see her positioned up and to the left of the actor who portrayed Jim Craig's dad in the movie, during many of his scenes during the U.S.-vs.-Russia game. She also appears in a couple of scenes with Walter Bush, the director of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Comittee.
Director Cameo
Gavin O'Connor: the fan who drapes the flag on Jim Craig's shoulders at the end.
Kurt Russell stars as coach Herb Brooks in a true story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team winning the gold medal by defeating the powerful Soviet Union and Finland teams at Lake Placid. Brooks has had a dream of coaching the U.S. Olympic team ever since he was cut from the 1960 U.S. Olympic team. Brooks' dream comes true, and he gets the coaching job in 1979. Brooks puts together a team of college kids and begins to get them into shape. Since the Soviet Union is the greatest hockey team in the world, Brooks begins to retrain his team in the European style of playing the game. The Soviet Union team has won four consecutive gold medals and recently defeated a team of National Hockey League all-stars. Brooks said that the all-stars were individual players and not a team. With all his hard training, he finally turns these kids into the U.S. Olympic team, and a family. The team defeats the Soviet Union in the semifinal round by not allowing them a single goal for the last 10 minutes of the game. With the world watching the game on TV, Al Michaels asks his famous question at the end of the game, `Do you believe in miracles? Yes!' The team still had to play Finland in the final round, which they won. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
Kurt Russell took a pay cut so the 800-1000 extras used as the fans at the hockey game could enjoy a full hot meal instead of a brown-bag lunch.
The young men chosen to portray the members of Team USA were chosen primarily for their hockey skills due to the intense nature of the filming; acting ability was secondary. In fact, for most of them, this was their first major film.
Herb Brooks died in a car accident during principal photography of this film. A dedication is made for him before the ending credits.
While Al Michaels joined the film to recreate commentary for the games, Gavin O'Connor decided to use the last 10 seconds of Michaels' original "Do you believe in miracles?" call in the film because he felt he couldn't ask him to recreate the emotion he experienced at that moment. Thus they cleaned up the recording to make the transition to the authentic call as seamlessly as possible.
The World Trade center is shown in 1980, a digital recreation of the Twin Towers was used, being the first time they have been created (instead of just filmed) for a movie since the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001.
The scene where Brooks makes the team skate back and forth on the ice all night, after their 3-3 tie with Norway, was actually done by the real actors over a span of three days - 12 hours a day. The director wanted the moment to be as realistic as possible.
Michael Mantenuto got into a fight with another player who picked on him and other guys on the ice during tryouts. He apologized to director Gavin O'Connor afterwards, to which Gavin responded, "No, that was good." Michael ended up winning the part of Jack O'Callahan, the defenseman dubbed "the first one to drop his gloves".
Buzz Schneider is portrayed by his son, Billy Schneider.
To avoid confusion, during filming Kurt Russell referred to the actors/hockey players cast as Team USA exclusively by their corresponding characters' names or nicknames, not their real names. For the most part, the Team USA actors maintained this policy among themselves also.
Over 4,000 men auditioned for only 20 roles on the US Olympic Ice Hockey Team in the movie.
This film is considered one of the most accurate depictions of true events, including dialogue.
In real life, the "Herbies" after the Norway game did not end with Mike Eruzione saying he played for the United States of America. They instead ended with Mark Johnson's frustration of having to do the Herbies, where he smashed his stick against the glass.
Over 280 miles of film were shot, more than any other Disney movie.
The shots of the NHL-Soviet game on Herb's TV where Mikhailov is seen scoring is real footage.
The game against the Soviets was filmed in Vancouver at the PNE Agrodome - an arena featured in another legendary USA Vs. USSR battle; the Soviet arena where Rocky fought Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985).
During filming at a residence of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, rowdy residents disturbed filming by hanging USSR flags in the residence windows, reporting the shoot to the fire marshal, yelling distracting taunts at the actors, and even stealing Kurt Russell's chair.
Kurt Russell is right-handed, but he used his left hand in the movie because Herb Brooks was a lefty, and this attention to detail shows how deeply Russell got into his role and how closely he studied Brooks to BECOME Herb Brooks for this film rather than just being an actor playing a hockey coach named Herb Brooks for the film.
The referee for the semifinal game is played by Ryan Walter, an ex-NHLer and Vancouver native who finished his career as a Vancouver Canuck and was a technical consultant for the movie. He "choreographed" all the hockey scenes to be realistic and the goals to be exactly as they really were. He has also said that he had to down-grade his skating in order to better impersonate the Finnish referee Carl-Gustav Kaisla.
There are two "bookend" moments in the film. The first is where the audience sees Robbie McClanahan taping his hockey stick in the locker room before the try-outs, and then sees him doing the same thing in the locker room immediately before the Soviet Olympic game. It ties the early, rag-tag hopefuls together with the conditioned, tightly-bonded Olympic team. The second is when Mark Johnson looks nervous and looks away first in the face-off against the Soviet captain in the warm-up game in Madison Square Garden, but in the face-off at the beginning of the Olympic game, Mark out-stares the Soviet captain and forces him to look away first. It shows the confidence and determination of the US team on that fateful evening compared with their insecurity just 13 days previously against the Soviet Union in New York City.
Prior to joining the U.S. Olympic hockey team both Mike Eruzione and Buzz Schneider played in the International Hockey League. Eruzione for the Toledo Goal diggers and Schneider for the Milwaukee Admirals. When the team played the IHL All-Stars it was a reunion with their old teammates and opponents.
At the national team hockey tryouts, one of the main characters, Jack O'Callahan greets another player Jim Craig, by saying, "What's up, you sieve!" In ice hockey slang, a sieve is a goal tender who allows too many shots to go through into his/her net. Jim Craig was the goalie for the American team.
Stand-in goalie for the character of Jim Craig was former Edmonton Oilers' goalie Bill Ranford.
Herb Brooks was a former U.S. Olympic player in 1964 and 1968.
During the actual ABC network broadcast of the game between the USA and Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics, ABC ran two commercials for a made for TV film called Elvis (1979) filmed in 1979 that was to be broadcast on the Monday following the end of the Olympics. Kurt Russell starred as Elvis Presley in the film and is shown in the commercials, in addition to playing Herb Brooks in the main movie.
Phil Verchota and John Harrington played for the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team again at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. The team finished Seventh.
Right before the Soviets score the first goal of the game, Schneider is slashed by Krutov, falls down on the ice and loses control of the puck to a Soviet player. In the real game, however, there is no slash on the play, only a stick check by Krutov which is permitted in ice hockey, and Schneider doesn't fall either.
Scene where Herb talks to Jim Craig about his commitment to the team was filmed on a Friday night at the dorms of the University of British Columbia. Rowdy students placed Canadian flags in windows and cranked the music. Kurt Russell's cast chair was stolen.
Despite the fact that this was filmed in Super 35, "Filmed in Panavision" is listed in the end credits.
The day that Herb has the players skate back and forth over the ice (after the tie with Norway) is known as "Herbie's Day" by the cast.
Although Mike Rich's screenplay was used during production and was substantially different from drafts by the film's first writer, Eric Guggenheim, he lost all claim to screenwriting credit to Guggenheim in an arbitration conducted by the Writers Guild of America.
The news report featured around 54 minutes in discusses the 1980 Tehran hostage crisis which would later become the basis of the successful film Argo.
The national anthem heard at Madison Square Garden is performed by Lauren Hart, who began singing the anthem on a regular basis at Philadelphia Flyers home games in 1997. Hart is also the daughter of late NHL Hall of Fame announcer Gene Hart, who broadcast for the Flyers from 1967-1995.
For the portions filmed in Rossland, British Columbia, several vintage city buses were provided by Selkirk College in Nelson, BC. Of the three buses prepared by the college, only one survived the trip from Nelson to Rossland. One bus burned up its transmission and another bus kept blowing tires. The bus that did make it to Rossland burned excessive amounts of oil and was said to be extremely troublesome to the film crew.
The turquoise projector Coach Brooks uses at home to study film in his den is a Bell & Howell 16mm FILMOSOUND Specialist model 552, which was manufactured from 1962-1971.
The notes for the first film of the Soviets that Coach Brooks is shown watching says, "19 February 1976 Moscow".
Kurt Russell's first hit in 7 years, after years of consecutive flops starting with 1998's Soldier.
Cameo
Patti Brooks: Herb Brooks' wife Patti is in the movie as an extra in the stands during the U.S. vs. Russia game. You can see her positioned up and to the left of the actor who portrayed Jim Craig's dad in the movie, during many of his scenes during the U.S.-vs.-Russia game. She also appears in a couple of scenes with Walter Bush, the director of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Comittee.
Director Cameo
Gavin O'Connor: the fan who drapes the flag on Jim Craig's shoulders at the end.
HERB BROOKS
Herbert Paul Brooks (August 5, 1937 – August 11, 2003) was an American ice hockey coach, best known for coaching the U.S. hockey team to a gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics fondly known as the "Miracle on Ice." in Lake Placid NY 1980. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota To Herbert Brooks Sr. and Pauline Brooks, he played on the Johnson High School hockey team that won the 1955 state hockey championship. Brooks later played hockey at the University of Minnesota and was a member of the 1964 and 1968 United States Olympic teams. He almost made the1960 Olympic team, only to be cut the week before the Olympic games started. He then sat at home and watched the team he almost made win gold. Later, he coached the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers hockey team to three NCAA championships (1974, 1976, and 1979). He coached St. Cloud State University in the mid-1980s. Widely considered the best hockey coach of all time, and was the first to beat the Soviets in 12 years, which spanned three Olympics.
Brooks later coached in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, where he became the fastest coach in Rangers' team history to win 100 games. He also coached the Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils, and Pittsburgh Penguins. He was a long time head scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins from the mid 1990's until the day of his death.He again coached the U.S. hockey team in 2002 at the Winter Olympics, this time winning a silver medal. He also coached France in the 1998 Winter Olympics.
Brooks sadly died in a one-car accident on the afternoon of August 11, 2003, near Forest Lake, Minnesota on Interstate 35, returning from events at the USHHOF in Eveleth, MN. It is believed that Brooks fell asleep behind the wheel before the accident after driving all night, and neither drugs nor alcohol were responsible.
Disney released a film about the 1980 Olympic team in 2004 called Miracle featuring Kurt Russell playing the part of Brooks. Brooks served as a consultant during principal photography, which was completed shortly before his death. At the end of the movie there is a dedication to Brooks. It states at the end, "He never saw it. He lived it." Brooks however, did know Miracle was being made.
Upon the 25th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, the Olympic ice arena in Lake Placid, New York, where the United States won their gold medal, was renamed Herb Brooks Arena. A statue of Brooks depicting his reaction to the victory in the "Miracle" game was erected in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2003.
An award was created in Herb Brooks name, the Herb Brooks Award, is awarded at the conclusion of the Minnesota State High School League's state hockey tournament to "the most qualified hockey player in the state tournament who strongly represents the values, characteristics, and traits that defined Herb Brooks."
In Blaine Minnesota there a training center called Herb Brooks Training Center. It trains hockey players and figure skater skills like Brooks wanted to do.
The road that surrounds the National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota is called Herb Brooks Way.
Herb was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990 and into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006 in the Builders category. "A man of passion and dedication, Herb Brooks inspired a generation of Americans to pursue any and all dreams."
Although much is made of the significant contributions made by Herb Brooks to the 1980 US Olympic gold medal 'Miracle on Ice,' it overshadows the remainder of a remarkable career for this life-long hockey coach. Herb dreamt of a professional hockey career like most young players. His St. Paul Johnson High School collected Minnesota's high school hockey championship in 1955, fuelled in part by two goals from Brooks in the championship contest. Herb later played for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers between 1955 and 1959. His international successes began early. As a player, Herb was a member of the United States National Team during two Olympic Games, and participated in five World Championships.
Brooks then moved into coaching, guiding the Golden Gophers for seven seasons beginning in 1972, collecting three NCAA Division 1 National Championships (1974, 1976 and 1979) and back-to-back WCHA championships in 1974 and 1975. Named WCHA Coach of the Year for 1973-74, Herb finished his collegiate coaching with a record of 175 wins, 101 losses and 20 ties.
After coaching Team USA at the 1979 World Championship, Brooks was named general manager and head coach of Team USA for the 1980 Winter Olympics. The team astonished the hockey world by collecting the gold medal in a triumph that has been heralded by the press as the 'Miracle On Ice.'
Coach Brooks rallied the underdog USA squad to a remarkable gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. Herb coached France at the 1998 Olympics, returning to coach Team USA to a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Games.
After the 1980 Olympics, Herb coached Davos of the Swiss League for one season, then joined the New York Rangers from 1981 to 1985. During his tenure in New York, Brooks earned renown for reaching the 100-win plateau faster than any previous Rangers coach and was named The Sporting News' Coach of the Year in 1981-82.
After a season coaching St. Cloud State University, Herb became the first Minnesota native to coach the Minnesota North Stars when he joined the franchise in 1987-88. He later coached the New Jersey Devils in 1992-93 and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1999-2000.
Through his NHL coaching career, Herb Brooks compiled a record of 219 wins, 221 losses and 66 ties during regular season play, and 19 wins and 21 losses in playoff contests.
As a member of the gold medal-winning United States Olympic Team in 1980, Brooks and his team were awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to American hockey in 1980. He earned the same honour as an individual in 2002. In 1990, Herb was honoured by being inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame, earning election to the International Ice Hockey Federation's Hall of Fame in 1999. Herb Brooks was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006, his life tragically ended in a single car accident in Forest Lake, Minnesota on August 11, 2003.
"You know, Willie Wonka said it best: We are the makers of dreams, the dreamers of dreams," Brooks said. "We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we're too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams. "I'm a dreamer." Herbie