The team doctor for the University of Minnesota and the American hockey teams, as well as the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” squad that earned the gold medal in Lake Placid, “Doc” Nagobads, passed away at age 101.
Nagobads worked with 25 other U.S. foreign teams in addition to five Olympic teams during his 34 years as the team doctor for the Minnesota Gophers. Along with serving as club physician for the North Stars and Fighting Saints, he also held the position of chief medical officer for USA Hockey, which released the news of his passing on Friday.
In 2010, he was admitted to the American Hockey Hall of Fame.
Born on November 18, 1921, in Riga, Latvia, Visvaldis George Nagobads earned his medical degree at the University of Tubingen in Germany before working for a multinational organization.
In 1958, then-Gophers hockey coach John Mariucci asked Nagobads to be the team’s doctor and also got him involved with national and Olympic teams, which had strong Minnesota connections.
The United States, coached by Herb Brooks, defeated the Soviet Union 4-3 on Feb. 22, 1980, at Lake Placid, N.Y. then clinched the gold medal two days later with a 4-2 victory over Finland. Twelve of the 20 players on the “Miracle on Ice” team were Minnesotans. Nagobads was on the bench beside Brooks, keeping a stopwatch on line shifts in addition to his doctor duties.
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