Herbert Paul Brooks, Jr. (August 5, 1937 – August 11, 2003) was an American
ice hockey player and
coach. His most notable achievement came in
1980 as head coach of the gold medal-winning
U.S. Olympic hockey team at
Lake Placid. At the games, Brooks' US team upset the heavily favored
Soviet team in a match that came to be known as the '
Miracle on Ice'. Brooks would go on to coach multiple
NHL teams, as well as the
French hockey team at the
1998 Winter Olympics, and ultimately returned to coach the US men's team to a silver medal at the
2002 games in
Salt Lake City. Brooks was killed in a 2003 car accident. At the time of his death, Brooks was the Pittsburgh Penguins' director of player personnel.