At the Massaro corporate headquarters, each conference room is named for an individual who exemplifies the company’s core values. This naming convention is coupled with a dimensional display / poster to deepen the connection between employees and the values the company stands for. The “Teamwork” conference room was named after Herb Brooks, the architect and coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey “Miracle on Ice” gold medal team.
In researching this project I had the great fortune to contact the Herb Brooks Foundation as well as speaking directly (and receiving all of the images courtesy of) Kelly Paradise, Brooks’ daughter. She was happy to inform me that her sons (Herb’s only grandsons) are huge Pittsburgh Penguins fans!
(Full body text available below the images)
The complete poster 18" x 24"
Image Detail - Photos Courtesy of Kelly Paradise
Poster detail - work in progress
Type detail - Quote by "Miracle" medalist Ken Morrow
Work in progress detail of images and body copy
Body Copy Detail - Gill Sans
"I became a better person because I played for Herb Brooks."
From his birth in 1937 in Minnesota until his untimely death in 2003, Herb Brooks dedicated his life to the game of hockey. A high school state hockey championship in 1955 would be his first triumph as a player but not nearly his last as he continued on to a successful college career at the University of Minnesota. A record stretch of playing on 8 U.S. National Teams from 1962-1970 including the 1964 and 1968 Olympic teams would follow.
Though successful as a player, it was coaching that would make his name synonymous with what Sports Illustrated called The Greatest Sporting Moment of the 20th Century. His prosperous run as coach at his alma mater, including 3 NCAA championships, led to Brooks being selected to coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team.
Brooks held countless tryout camps looking for in his words, “Players whose name on the front of the sweater is more important than the one on the back.” Brooks emphasized speed, conditioning and discipline in the year and a half of training leading up to the Winter Games and united the team by galvanizing them against himself, challenging them physically as well as mentally and questioning their dedication and skill.
The onset of the tournament saw the U.S. team come from behind to finish in a tie with Sweden. Victories over Norway, Romania, West Germany and Czechoslovakia followed leading up to a USA-Russia match with medal implications. The Red Team was comprised of legends of world ice hockey, had won Olympic Gold in the four previous games and had already defeated the U.S. 10-3 in a pre-Olympic exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Culturally, the United States as a nation was collectively reeling from the situation in Afghanistan, the hostage crisis in Iran, a potential boycott of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Moscow and a down-trending economy.
Sticking to the principles of discipline instilled in them by Brooks, the twenty young Americans upset the Russian juggernaut in what would become one of the most iconic moments in Olympic and American history, dubbed “The Miracle on Ice.” A victory against Sweden followed and secured U.S. gold.
Brooks went on to further successes as a coach in the NHL and Europe and lead the U.S. to silver in the 2002 Winter Games. In 2006 he was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
