Minnesota TV reporting that Herb Brooks was killed earlire today in a car crash in Minnesota...
More here:
http://www.kare11.com/
A tragic loss. Brooks' greatest achievement on the ice overshadows many of his other accomplishments as a coach, including the three NCAA titles (including one two years after taking over a last-place Minnesota team). His stint with the Rangers seemed disappointing but, in my mind, only because it didn't compare with the success on the Olympic level. I thought those "Smurf" teams were fun to watch and he was one of the early advocates of using Europeans in the NHL.
USCHO story at: http://www.uscho.com/news/2003/08/11_006853.php
ESPN Classic has some info at: http://espn.go.com/classic/index.html (I assume this will only work temporarily. From the site: ESPN Classic's Tribute to Herb Brooks will air on Wednesday, August 13, from 5 p.m.-6 a.m. ET.
The article on USCHO says the 1980 game against the Soviet Union was a semifinal. That isn't quite right. The medal round was round robin, not a bracket style single elimination like it is now. The field of 12 was split into two pools of six with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the medal round after round robin play. The US finished the preliminary round tied at the top of its group with Sweden both with records of 4-0-1, the tie being between themselves, 2-2. The Soviets won their group with a record of 5-0-0. Finland was second at 3-2-0. The medal round was also round robin however games from the preliminary round carried over which meant the US tie with Sweden in the preliminary was counted as was the Soviet Union's 4-2 win over Finland. That meant the only games for the US in the medal round were against the Soviet Union and Finland. The US would have had to play Finland regardless of the outcome of the game against the Soviets. The US still needed to beat Finland for the gold and in doing so finished the medal round 2-0-1 (5 pts) while the Soviets finished 2-1-0 (4 pts), losing to the US and then beating Sweden 9-2. Sweden took the bronze with a record of 0-1-2 as they tied with Finland 3-3. Finland finished fourth with a record of 0-2-1. To call the game against Finland a "championship" is wrong because if Finland won, they wouldn't get the gold medal.
from the KARE11 report online:
Police: Brooks Wore No Seatbelt
Brooks died in a single car rollover Monday afternoon on Interstate
35 while returning from a weekend of events sponsored by the U.S.
Hockey Hall of Fame.
Police say Brooks was not using his seat belt. His body was found
more than thirty feet from his wrecked minivan.
"All I can say is that in a lot of these cases, in rollover vehicles," there
is room to live inside those cars," said Minnesota State Patrol
Lieutenant Chuck Walerius. "If the occupants were to stay inside the
vehicles, there is plenty of room to live."
The real tragedy is that this was apparently so preventable. I hope that all you faithful who drive buckle up - every time.
Your Mom
I'm assuming the hockey program will do something during the season to honor Mike Tallman (initials on sweater); I hope TPTB also do something to remember Herb Brooks, as should all NCAA hockey programs. The '80 gold medal did a lot to further the interests of NCAA hockey, showing that colleges can produce good hockey players.
Bill R is exactly correct. That's what happens when editors go on vacation :-) It's been fixed.
On a similar note, the text says (as does the NCAA history) that Minnesota won the national title three times during Brooks' tenure, but the photo caption says twice.
Details, details.
BTW - if you see errors such as that, please e-mail them to uscho's editstaff.