Welcome to our collection of quotes by Herb Brooks. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Herb Brooks
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 team at Lake Placid. At the Games, Brooks's American team upset the heavily favored Soviet team in a match that came to be known as the "Miracle on Ice."
Brooks coached multiple National Hockey League (NHL) teams, as well as the French team at the 1998 Winter Olympics. He ultimately returned to coach the U.S. men's team to a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Brooks was killed in a 2003 car accident. At the time of his death, he was the director of player personnel for the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins.
You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.
You can't be common, the common man goes nowhere; you have to be uncommon.
Let me start with issuing you a challenge: Be better than you are. Set a goal that seems unattainable, and when you reach that goal, set another one even higher.
Write your own book instead of reading someone else's book about success.
What is courage? Let me tell you what I think it is. An indefinable quality that makes a man put out that extra something, when it seems there is nothing else to give. I dare you to be better than you are. I dare you to be a thoroughbred.
Success is won by those who believe in winning and then prepare for that moment. Many want to win, but how many prepare? That is the big difference. A sound value system held water then, holds water today, and will hold water in the future.
My recruiting key -- I looked for PEOPLE first, athletes second. I wanted people with a sound value system as you cannot buy values. You're only as good as your values. I learned early on that you do not put greatness into people...but somehow try to pull it out.
You win with people, not with talent. So the quality of the people is very important in building your team. I always looked for people with a solid value system. Then I recruited kids from a cross-section of different personalities, talents and styles of play.
When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and your teammates, and the name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back. Get that through your head!
This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it!
The name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back.
Maybe I'm sort of like the players -- there's still a lot of little boy in me.
If I'd have went on the ice when this thing happened, someone would have speared me or something. It's a great feeling of accomplishment and pride. They had to do it; it was their moment.
You know, Willie Wonka said it best: we are the makers of dreams, the dreamers of dreams.
You're playing worse and worse every day and right now you're playing like it's next month.
You're looking for players whose name on the front of the sweater is more important than the one on the back. I look for these players to play hard, to play smart and to represent their country.
We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we're too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams.
And maybe I'm a little smarter now than I was before for all the stupid things I've done.
