Do You Still Believe In Miracles?
Brooks To Coach U.S. Olympic Hockey Team In 2002
A bunch of scruffy, skate-clad urchins with a month's worth of peach fuzz on their cherubic faces stunned the world by upsetting the Soviet Union en route to the Olympic ice hockey gold medal at Lake Placid, N.Y.
Their names roll off the tongues of hockey fans like saints at a cathedral -- Eruzione, Broten, Christoff, Johnson, Craig . . . and the leader of them all, coach Herb Brooks.
Now Brooks, the man who led the University of Minnesota to NCAA titles in 1974, 1976 and 1979 before orchestrating the greatest upset in the history of the sport, is back at the helm of the U.S. Olympic team.
USA Hockey announced Wednesday in St. Paul that Brooks would coach the 2002 U.S. Men's Olympic Ice Hockey team.
Brooks, 63, has not been involved with a U.S. Olympic hockey effort since that fateful 1980 team, although he did coach the French Olympic team to an 11th place finish in the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan.
His other coaching feats include stints with four NHL teams (Rangers, North Stars, Devils and last year in Pittsburgh) and bringing the St. Cloud State University program to Division One status in 1986-87.
No matter how much success the 2002 Olympic team has, Brooks will not be able to orchestrate a repeat of the drama of 1980. Olympic rosters are now filled with NHL stars, not young amateurs as was the case 20 years ago, and with the Iron Curtain long since crumbled, there will be no big, bad Red Menace to battle for hockey superiority.
