Jim Feist Sports history

In January, the Herb Brooks Training Center was dedicated in front of a capacity audience that included Governor Tim Pawlenty, past Governor Wendell Anderson, the Herb Brooks family, and several of Brooks’ players from the 1980 Olympic gold-medal winning U.S Hockey team.

Paul Erickson announced on July 23 that he would retire late in the year from his position as Executive Director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission (MASC), where he has served since its creation in 1987.

In 1990, the original state capital investment was under $15 million, and currently the state has invested just over $40 million.

The NSC was built by the State of Minnesota as part of a statewide building program to improve Minnesota’s amateur sports facilities in preparation for the state's bid to host the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Todd M. Johnson, a board member of the National Sports Center Foundation since 2008, was chosen from a group of two finalists from an original pool of 132 applicants.

Several hundred local fans gave the team a final send-off as the team departed for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

In December, the Herb Brooks Foundation, which has its office at the NSC, announced that John McClellan would be retiring as Executive Director of the Foundation, where he served since 2011.

The NSC plans to hold the event at the new Sport Expo Center on March 8-10, 2013.

There is intense interest in the camp for the older players, as the final Olympic roster for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games was just weeks away from being announced, on January 1.

As of 2016, the total private and non-state public investment on the NSC campus is over $40 million.

The gazebo roofs had been damaged by hail in a severe thunderstorm that hit the Blaine community on June 11, 2017.

The project would continue for a full year, with the winter off, due to be completed before USA CUP in 2018.

The dome was expected to open in November 2019.

Malcolm MacLean, Convenor, NASSH Book Prize Committee 2020 on behalf of Adam Criblez and Cat Ariail, with Rita Liberti and Jason Shurley (Anthologies) and Steve Reiss and Maureen Smith (Monographs)