> team is that Ralph Cox, UNH '72, didn't make it.  I've never understood how
> the guy who was the leading scorer for most of the team's exhibition
> schedule could get cut.  I felt then, and still feel now, that Herbie
> Brooks had the western bias and Ralph was a victim of it.  But that is a
> small potatoes complaint compared to what really counted.
>
I read the articles Sunday morning and immediately a flood of memories poured
through me.  Things like only doing my paper route between periods and having
the unlucky subscribers ringing the phone off the hook towards the end of the
third period.  Staying up late to watch the tape delays.  etc.
 
Yesterday one of the local (St. Paul, MN) talk shows talked most of the day on
the "Miracle on Ice".  More memories.  Herb Brooks' wife even called in to
share some of her memories.
 
Regarding the west bias:
This is out of one of the articles in the St. Paul Pioneer Press from
February 20, 2000...
 
 ``We didn't set out to say we want Minnesota players,'' said
 Brooks, now the Penguins' coach. ``It just evolved that way
 through the analysis. If anything, I was tougher on the Minnesota
 kids in analysis than I was otherwise, because I didn't want to
 hear that it was all politics or it was fixed or it's all
 regionalized.  I was even more strict on critiquing the Minnesota
 players than the others. We ended up with 12 Minnesota kids that
 year, and it just so happened that they persevered and they rose to the
 top.''
 
 Mike Ramsey, the youngest player at 19 to make the squad, said
 the issue of the team's Minnesota flavor was raised during the
 six-month, 63-game pre-Olympic tour.
 
 ``We took a lot of pride in that and a lot of abuse for that,'' said
 Ramsey, a defenseman from Minneapolis. ``We won the NCAA
 that year (1979), and Herb took half the team. The eastern guys
 said it was regional. That was the big line every time we had a
 disagreement. They always complain about that, but it was part
 of our coming together.''
 
I knew one of the guys cut in the late stages of forming that team.  He was
from MN and went to the U.  I'm sure he'll tell you what he thinks about the
"western bias".
 
Did you know that Steve Janaszak is the only gold medal winner to never
have competed in the olympics???  Janaszak was the starting goalie but
Brooks put Jim Craig in for the first game.  Good time to decide to get
hot between the pipes.
 
--
- Matt Rein
- [log in to unmask]
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.