Late Hockey Coach Asleep At Wheel

A State Patrol investigation determined that the late Olympic and Minnesota hockey coach Herb Brooks fell asleep before his vehicle went off the interstate, killing him last month, according to his son.

The coach of the "Miracle on Ice" U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal in 1980 was returning from a fund-raiser Aug. 11 in northeastern Minnesota when his minivan went off Interstate 35 outside the Twin Cities.

The State Patrol's report, which has not been released publicly, confirmed Brooks wasn't drinking, speeding, talking on his cell phone or having a health problem before the crash, his son, Dan Brooks, said on Monday.

"It was pretty much what we thought the report would say," Dan Brooks told the Star Tribune. "The State Patrol investigated the scene, and talked to eyewitnesses, the people my dad was with that weekend and the coroner and concluded to the best of their ability that he fell asleep."

The report confirmed Brooks wasn't wearing a seat belt and nothing was mechanically wrong with his vehicle, said State Patrol Lt. Chuck Walerius.

Brooks was best known as the passionate coach of Team USA's "Miracle on Ice" victory over the Soviet Union in 1980 at the Lake Placid Olympics.

Born in St. Paul, he played hockey at the University of Minnesota, where he later coached from 1972-79, winning three national titles.

After the Lake Placid Games, Brooks coached the New York Rangers (1981-85), where he reached the 100-victory mark faster than any other coach in franchise history. He coached the Minnesota North Stars (1987-88), the New Jersey Devils (1992-93) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (1999-00). He also led the French Olympic team at the 1998 Nagano Games.

He was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990.

On the day of the accident, Brooks attended a U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame celebrity golf event in Eveleth in northern Minnesota, leaving around noon to catch a flight from Minneapolis to Chicago.

He veered off the road in a 70-mile-per-hour zone of the freeway near Forest Lake. The Anoka County coroner's office ruled that Brooks was thrown from his vehicle and died of blunt-force chest and abdominal injuries. He was 66.
"We'll probably never know for sure what happened, but the marks on the roadway indicate fatigue was involved," the State Patrol's Walerius said.