Recent books keep spirit of Herb Brooks alive

Originally published on IHWC.NET in 2005

By Lucas Aykroyd

With gold medals at the women’s and U18 IIHF World Championships this month, USA Hockey is riding high once again. But for Americans, probably no triumph will ever top the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” victory, where the USA knocked off the Soviets 4-3 and went on to claim the gold medal in Lake Placid.

New York Daily News writer Wayne Coffey recently published The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream and the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team (Crown Publishers), and this lovingly detailed 272-page book is the literary equivalent of a Wayne Gretzky-Paul Coffey combination.

The author seamlessly integrates biographies of the USA’s stars and role players into a fast-paced, minute-by-minute retelling of how the famous game unfolded. Although the focus rests primarily on the American side, Coffey also documents the background of the Soviets they improbably ousted. He conjures up the agony of veteran defenseman Vladimir Lutchenko, who was cut from the Big Red Machine just before the Games started. He skillfully portrays a moment of human contact, despite the Cold War tensions, between Sergei Makarov and Jim Craig: who would have known that the Russian forward and American goalie played the classic 80’s video game Centipede together in the Olympic Village the night before the big showdown?

It’s all too easy in sports writing to slump into a dry recitation of dates, places, and game statistics. But Coffey manages to bring all of his subjects to life, and there’s no better example than how he treats Herb Brooks. The opening scene of The Boys of Winter details the funeral of the USA head coach, who tragically died in an August 2003 car crash. Yet the book mostly emphasizes the positive effects that his “tough love” approach had and continues to have upon the players he sent into battle. USA captain Mike Eruzione could even joke during his eulogy at the funeral: “Right now, [Herb] is saying to God, ‘I don’t like the style of your team. We should change it.’” Equally memorable are tales of the infamous marathon skate Brooks put his team through after an exhibition tie with Norway and his fierce protectiveness of top forward Mark Johnson.

Ken Morrow, who would go on to win four Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders, is found asking rhetorically: “What if the timing had been different? What if I hadn’t made the Olympic team? What if we hadn’t won the gold medal?” Viktor Tikhonov quips that his little-changed appearance is due to having spent his “whole life in the refrigerator,” that is, a hockey rink. The Boys of Winter is full of such gems.

Non-American readers may detect the odd touch of jingoism in the retelling of what Sports Illustrated and Hollywood have dubbed the “greatest moment in sports history.” But on balance, there has been no finer retelling of this classic matchup than the one Coffey has provided.

For those who admire the up-tempo, creative brand of hockey that Herb Brooks espoused, it’s also worth picking Ross Bernstein’s 2003 title Remembering Herbie: Celebrating the Life and Times of Hockey Legend Herb Brooks.

This prolific Minnesota-based author had a strong personal relationship with Brooks, which began humorously enough with a volume about Bernstein’s experiences as the mascot for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Bernstein, who writes an annual book for the US Hockey Hall of Fame, even named his dog after Brooks.

That personal relationship enabled Bernstein to get quotes about the legendary coach from innumerable friends, relatives, and former hockey colleagues, as well as Brooks’ own thoughts. And quotes make up most of the book after an introductory bio. Readers will relish such typically crusty Brooks assertions as “Don’t dump the puck in, that went out with short pants” or “Winners, in my opinion, are those who are willing to make sacrifices for the unknown, both for themselves and for the team.”

There are more great anecdotes in 160 pages than we could possibly recount here, but throughout, total passion for the game of hockey, blunt honesty, and an amazing work ethic emerge clearly as Brooks’ cardinal qualities. It’s not hard to figure out why this product of St. Paul’s East Side was hired to coach four NHL clubs and also returned behind the bench for the 2002 Olympics.