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Associated PressHerb Brooks led 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to unlikely win over Soviets.
MINNEAPOLIS - Herb Brooks, who coached the U.S. hockey team to the "Miracle on Ice" victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, died Monday in a car accident. He was 66.
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame member lost control of his minivan, veering onto a grassy area at a highway intersection north of the Twin Cities and rolling over.
Brooks apparently was not wearing a seat belt, and his body was found about 40 yards from the vehicle, state patrol Lt. Chuck Walerius said.
Brooks attended a Hall of Fame celebrity golf event and was on his way to the Minneapolis airport to catch a flight to Chicago, USA Hockey spokesman Chuck Menke said.
"It seems like all the great innovators die young," said Ken Morrow, a defenseman on the 1980 team and scout for the New York Islanders. "Coach may have been the greatest innovator the sport has ever had."
Brooks was behind the bench when the Americans pulled off one of the biggest upsets in sports, beating the Soviets with a squad of mostly college players.
That victory, plus beating Finland for the gold medal, assured the team a place in sports immortality.
The young U.S. team was given no chance against a Soviet squad that had dominated international hockey and had routed the Americans 10-3 in an exhibition the week before the Olympics.
On Feb.22, 1980, the U.S. team scored with 10 minutes to play for a 4-3 lead and held on. As the final seconds ticked away, announcer Al Michaels exclaimed, "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"
"He was very single-minded, a person who looked right down the tunnel and knew exactly what he had to do," Michaels said Monday. "He was never caught up in the afterglow. Here's a guy that helped do something that galvanized the entire country and he wasn't interested in parades or any attention."
Brooks' leadership helped turn a ragtag team into champions. He had handpicked each player.
"You're looking for players whose name on the front of the sweater is more important than the one on the back," Brooks once said. "I look for these players to play hard, to play smart and to represent their country."
Players kept a notebook of Brooksisms, sayings the coach used to motivate, such as: "You're playing worse and worse every day, and right now you're playing like it's next month."
"When it came to hockey, he was ahead of his time," Morrow said. "All of his teams overachieved because Herbie understood how to get the best out of each player and make him part of a team. And like everyone who played for him, I became a better person because I played for Herb Brooks."
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said making one of Brooks' teams was an "extraordinary accomplishment."
"It is devastating to all of us in the hockey world that his passion for the game, his insight, his foresight, have been taken away," Bettman said.
Brooks returned to lead the 2002 U.S. Olympic hockey team to a silver medal. When he decided to coach the U.S. team again, Brooks was asked why he would return after writing the most improbable story in hockey.
"Maybe I'm sort of like the players: There's still a lot of little boy in me," Brooks said. "And maybe I'm a little smarter now than I was before for all the stupid things I've done."
After the Lake Placid Games, Brooks coached the New York Rangers (1981-85), where he reached the 100-victory mark faster than any other coach in the franchise. He coached the Minnesota North Stars (1987-88), the New Jersey Devils (1992-93) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (1999-00). He also led the French Olympic team at the 1998 Nagano Games.
Brooks played hockey at the University of Minnesota, where he coached from 1972-79, winning three national titles.