Herb Brooks

The 1958–59 Gopher Hockey Team, including Lou Nanne, Larry Smith, and Herb Brooks (#9, seated bottom left).

Brooks was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota to Pauline and Herbert Brooks Sr. He attended Johnson High School, where his team won the 1955 state hockey championship.[1]

Brooks continued his hockey career with the University of Minnesota Gophers from 1955 to 1959.[2] He was a member of the 1960 Olympic team, only to become the last cut the week before the Games started. Three weeks later, Brooks sat at home with his father and watched the team he almost made win gold in Squaw Valley. Afterwards, Brooks "went up to the coach Jack Riley and said, 'Well, you must have made the right decision—you won'". This humbling moment served as further motivation for Brooks, an already self-driven person.[3]

From 1960 to 1970, Brooks set a record by playing on a total of eight U.S. National and Olympic teams, including the 1964 and 1968 Olympic teams.[4]

Brooks was married to his wife Patti since 1965 and they had two children, Danny and Kelly.[10]

A statue of Brooks outside RiverCentre, in Saint Paul

On the afternoon of August 11, 2003, six days after his 66th birthday, Brooks died in a single-car accident on Interstate 35 near Forest Lake, Minnesota.[11] It is believed that he fell asleep behind the wheel before the accident, and neither drugs nor alcohol were responsible. Brooks was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash, and according to the Minnesota State Patrol it is likely he would have survived the crash if he had been.[12]

In 2004, Disney released a film about the 1980 Olympic team called Miracle featuring Kurt Russell playing the part of Brooks. (Karl Malden had previously played Brooks in a 1981 television film called Miracle on Ice). 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, "He never saw it. He lived it."

On the 25th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, the Olympic ice arena in Lake Placid, New York, where the United States won the gold medal, was renamed Herb Brooks Arena. A statue of Brooks depicting his reaction to the victory in the 'Miracle' game was erected at the entrance to the RiverCentre in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 2003.

Brooks was chosen by President Donald Trump in 2021 to be a member of the National Garden of American Heroes.[13]

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."[14]

The Herb Brooks Training Center is located at Blaine, Minnesota.

The National Hockey Center at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota was renamed for Brooks in April 2013.[15]

The Herb Brooks National Hockey Center was named in honour of Brooks in 2013

In 2006, Brooks was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builders' category. The inscription reads: "A man of passion and dedication, Herb Brooks inspired a generation of Americans to pursue any and all dreams."[8]

Brooks' original expressions were known by his players as "Brooksisms", some of which were included in Miracle. According to Olympians John Harrington, Dave Silk, and Mike Eruzione, these are a few.[16]

• "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." [17]
• "Write your own book instead of reading someone else's book about success." [6]
• "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."

• List of members of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame
• Inspirational/motivational instructors/mentors portrayed in films
• Miracle on Ice
• Miracle

• Biographical information and career statistics from Eliteprospects.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
• The Herb Brooks Foundation
• Herb Brooks at Find a Grave