Posted on 02/22/2005 6:05:16 AM PST by Rakkasan1
Herb Brooks never really grasped the magnitude of what he and a collection of college boys accomplished 25 years ago, Patti Brooks said last week, and he most likely never would have wanted to have the arena where it took place named for him.
When the 1980 Olympic hockey team's Miracle on Ice gold-medal performance was selected the sports event of the 20th century, Herb "was almost incredulous," she recalled. "He just kept repeating that he could not believe that. He was really humble about most things, but I remember he was just so shocked at that one. I don't think he ever understood what it meant to people."
Patti Brooks, 63, who will be joined by her two children when the Lake Placid, N.Y., Arena is renamed for Herb on Wednesday, said her husband wasn't much for ceremony or adulation, either.
"I think it's just an honor, but I don't know what Herbie would think of it," she said. "He didn't like all that. Like having a street named for him in St. Cloud, that wasn't his way."
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Herb probably thought it was a hockey game not a proxy battle of the cold war, which is really why it was so meaningful.
Herb Brooks also knew better than anyone else that this "miracle on ice" wasn't nearly the huge upset that people made it out to be. He had spent 18 months putting together a team with the specific intent of having them match up well against the Soviets, and even predicted before the tournament began that the U.S. would win at least a bronze medal.
I get the feeling that all who read this post will remember where and who they were with that morning when the USA beat the USSR. The team picture after that game was priceless. A bunch of 'mutts.' }:^)
you nailed it -Sports Illustated said as much, too.
That win is the most spectatular sporting event I've ever witnessed.
It's funny, most people think they watched the USSR game live. It was actually on tape delay as it was played in the afternoon and then ABC broadcast it later. I remember my brother and I listening to it live on the radio though.
I grew up on the Eastside of St. Paul. Herb Brooks was a legend.
Indeed!
Slippage due to age.
The picture of the team was on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Life and Sports Ill. Only three times before had that happened. Anyone remember those three subjects?
I can still remember how interminably long the last ten minutes of that game were. I thought they had slowed the clock down ala the soviet "win" in basketball. It was slow motion and I expected the soviet team to explode at any momemt. What a game!
The Munich massacre in 1972 must have been one of them, but I'm not sure what the other two were -- maybe Ted Kennedy's gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle at the 1969 Chappaquiddick Olympics?
There is no doubt that the Americans worked their butts off and Herb molded them into a great team. The US was a very good team, but still relied on several comebacks and miraculous goals to pull it off. The Soviets were a far superior team and would have beaten the US 90% of the time. To most observers, the US was only about the 6th best team, but Herb's assessment of being one of the top three was probably closer to the truth. The whole thing was shocking and was hands down the greatest sports moment of the 20th Century.
Some have said it was the beginnning of the end for the Soviet Union.
Nope.
Here's a hint. One was a man, one a woman and one an animal.
JFK
Sally Ride
Monkey in space?
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