Herb Brooks 1980 Olympic Hockey Team

“Again!” (Miracle) Over and over and over… This line was shouted repeatedly to the young hockey players of the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team. After not doing the most important thing Herb Brooks wants all players to do, work as hard as possible, the team came up short and tied an easy team. Disgusted with his team’s performance, Brooks made his team skate killers, sprints up and down the ice repeatedly, past the point of the rink manager going home, the rink being shut down, and the players throwing up. This significant moment was not just to punish his players but to test them and see who could withstand Brooks’ abuse and keep pushing forward, knowing that having the toughest players in the world would be their only chance of winning. Brooks’

When coaching the Gophers, Brooks benched his star player one game for discipline issues and lost the game because of it but it taught him a lesson and he had the best attitude by the end of the season (Gilbert 79). This example proves that Brooks would stop at nothing to make sure his players follow his own way of giving all possible effort. After a scrimmage against Norway with his Olympic Team, which they tied 3-3 after taking the team lightly, the team skated Herbies to the point of collapsing. Brooks told the team that if they played the same way the next morning they would skate even more; they won 8-0 (Gilbert 154). This shows once again that effort was the most important thing to Brooks because he knew much it mattered and paid

The team comprised of college students from about two different schools that happen to be rivals and hate each other. The team did not bond well at first, but Brooks knew that by being no one's friend and making the team hate him more than each other they would come together and forget their rivalry (Gilbert 144). The game everybody was looking forward to was against the Soviet Union and being in the middle of the Cold War with them, beating them was more than just winning a hockey game to many Americans. That game sent them to the championship versus Finland, and if they didn’t win that game them the Soviet game meant nothing at that point. The United States finished it out and pulled out the victory over Finland, they won gold for the first time in twenty years and Herb Brooks became an American hero. Along with all success of the Olympics, Brooks proved how well his new system that