Brooks to Return as U.S. Olympic Coach

Herb Brooks, who coached the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team to a stunning upset of the Soviet Union and a gold-medal victory over Finland at Lake Placid, will coach the U.S. men’s team at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

His appointment will be announced at a news conference Wednesday in St. Paul, Minn.--Brooks’ hometown and site of this year’s U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Pittsburgh Penguin General Manager Craig Patrick, Brooks’ assistant coach at Lake Placid and his boss when they worked for the New York Rangers and Penguins, will be the Olympic team’s general manager. St. Louis Blues General Manager Larry Pleau, a U.S. hall of fame inductee Wednesday, will be the associate general manager of the 2002 squad.

The U.S. men’s team has not won an Olympic medal since 1980, when Brooks led a group of minor leaguers and college kids to a shocking victory at Lake Placid.

Brooks was considered a radical when he advocated a free-flowing, European-style game as coach of the Rangers in 1981. His teams played an up-tempo game that emphasized play without the puck, and he had considerable success. However, the Rangers could not get past the rival New York Islanders in the playoffs, and Brooks was fired in 1985. He later coached the Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils and the Penguins.

Brooks was a candidate for the 1992 U.S. Olympic job but lost out to Dave Peterson, who was deemed a safer choice by USA Hockey officials. Brooks returned to the Olympics as coach of the French team at Nagano in 1998 and had a 1-3 record.

“I don’t know if he’s changed that much. I’m still deathly afraid of him,” 1980 Olympic captain Mike Eruzione said of Brooks earlier this year. “Herb was always difficult to play for, but there was no one who didn’t respect him.”

The selection of Brooks, 63, as U.S. Olympic coach is intriguing on many levels.

Brooks distanced himself from USA Hockey executives for many years, and he was frustrated when they rejected his plan for a combined national team-developmental program for the quick turnaround between the 1992 and 1994 Winter Games. However, he has returned to their good graces and rebuilt a working relationship with them.

Brooks, after replacing Kevin Constantine as Penguin coach last Dec. 9, had a stint that familiarized him with the pool of NHL players he can draw upon for the Salt Lake City Games. Brooks was 29-23-5, bringing his NHL record to 219-222-66.

Brooks’ appointment may also provide a public relations boost. The trashing of three Nagano Olympic Village dorm rooms by several unidentified members of the U.S. men’s team embarrassed USA Hockey and the NHL, and Brooks’ association with one of the greatest upsets in sports history could erase that bad memory. Ron Wilson, who coached the U.S. to a 1-3 record at Nagano, suffered by association and was not a strong candidate to coach again.

Brooks’ return also represents an about-face. The last man cut from the 1960 gold-medal team at Squaw Valley and an Olympian in 1964 and 1968, Brooks vehemently opposed allowing NHL players to represent their homelands in the Olympics.