Christopher John Middlebrook (born August 7, 1957) is an American lawyer, author and Bandy player/coach/leader. He is the current President of the American Bandy Association.
Christopher John Middlebrook (born August 7, 1957) is an American lawyer, author and Bandy player/coach/leader. He is the current President of the American Bandy Association.
Middlebrook was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to John Middlebrook, a physician, and Phyllis Middlebrook. He has four siblings, sisters Joan and Apophia and brothers William and Geoff.
Middlebrook attended Washburn High School, where he was a multi sport athlete. After graduation in 1975, he attended Gustavus Adolphus College, class of 1979, where he majored in Russian, with a triple minor in Business, History and Political Science, and played on the varsity hockey team. [1] Middlebrook then earned his JD from the University of Minnesota in 1983, where he also ran the Appellate Advocacy Program his senior year after finishing first among 180 students in the 1982 competition.
Middlebrook was introduced to the sport of Bandy in December 1980. He played on the first US champion, The Bandolier, in 1980-81, and skated for the first US National Team to compete overseas, October 1981. [2] Middlebrook played Libero (Sweeper) for his entire bandy career.
Middlebrook was inducted into inaugural USA Bandy Hall of Fame in 2014 [3]
Middlebrook authored the book "The Bandy Chronicles-My Pursuit of a Forgotten Sport", a collection of 118 short stories encompassing his life in bandy. [4] The Bandy Chronicles was first published in December 2019. The book is available in the US, the Nordic countries, Russia and other bandy countries. [5] Many of the stories have been translated into Russian and Italian, where they have been featured on the literary website foglieviaggi.cloud
While working for The Rollerblade Company from 1984–85, Middlebrook edited and ghost wrote the book "Rollerblades, Dryland Training For Ice Hockey" in 1985. 25,000 copies were printed and distributed to ice hockey coaches in the US and Canada. Middlebrook has also authored articles on Bandy and Ice Hockey. [6]
In February 2023 Middlebrook's second book , "The Girl Who Played Hockey - A Story of Loss, Triumph and an Indomitable Heart" was published.
Middlebrook has also authored numerous article on Bandy and Ice Hockey" including:
* "A 100 Year Grudge? - Why Bandy is not in the Winter Olympics" * "Is Bandy Too Expensive for the Winter Olympics? - Let's Ask Luge, Skeleton and Bobsled" * "It's True - Charles Darwin Actually Played Bandy" * "Gustavus Men's Hockey 1976-77 - The Forgotten Team"
Middlebrook did not start actively practicing law until March 1988 when he began work with the Weinard/Webb Law Firm. Within two years he was named a Partner. In 1995 he opened his own law firm, Middlebrook Law, where he represented plaintiff's in Workers Compensation and Personal Injury Claims.
In 1999 Middlebrook was first named a Minnesota Super Lawyer and to the Best Lawyers in Minnesota and was annually given these awards until his retirement in 2017. In addition Middlebrook was named to "Who's Who Among North American Lawyers", and "Top Litigators in North America". [7] Middlebrook represented over 5200 clients in his career, many of whom were immigrants. He taught CLE seminars on Elimination of Bias.
Middlebrook is married to Cathryn Young Middlebrook since 1984. They were classmates at the University of Minnesota Law School . Cathryn is the Chief Appellate Public Defender of the State of Minnesota. [8]
The couple have two children, Ian, born 1991 and Delaney born 1993. Middlebrook coached both Ian and Delaney in the 9 years he was a head coach in the Washburn Youth Hockey Association and also coached both in bandy. Ian was a 5 time US bandy champion and played in 2 World Championships for the US. Delaney played four years as a professional hockey player in Sweden, with Djurgården . [9]
Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers of players, apparel and, notably, playing surface, they share broad characteristics of two opposing teams using a stick to propel a ball or disk into a goal.
Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a "puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding sports.
The Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval, formerly the John Rose Minnesota Oval, is an outdoor ice rink in Roseville, Minnesota, United States. It is claimed to be the largest artificial outdoor skating surface in North America. The facility was constructed from June to December 1993.
USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United States and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. Before June 1991, the organization was known as the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS).
Roller inline hockey, or inline hockey is a variant of hockey played on a hard, smooth surface, with players using inline skates to move and ice hockey sticks to shoot a hard, plastic puck into their opponent's goal to score points. The sport is a very fast-paced and free-flowing game and is considered a contact sport, but body checking is prohibited. There are five players including the goalkeeper from each team on the rink at a time, while teams normally consist of 16 players. There are professional leagues, one of which is the National Roller Hockey League (NRHL). While it is not a contact sport, there are exceptions, i.e. the NRHL involves fighting.
Kazakhstan's President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, has challenged sports organizers to engage 30 percent of the country's population in sports. The state has numerous sports clubs where people participate in various types of sports; sport facilities are available to the general public. Kazakhstan currently hosts major international tournaments; Astana and Almaty hosted the VII Asian Winter Games 2011, which drew teams from 27 countries.
Sports in Minnesota include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, especially in the Winter Olympics, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations and active amateur teams and individual sports. The State of Minnesota has a team in all five major professional leagues. Along with professional sports, there are numerous collegiate teams including the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and St. Thomas Tommies in NCAA Division I, as well as many others across the Minnesota public and private colleges and universities.
Robert Thomas Stauber is an American ice hockey coach and former player. He was the head coach of the United States women's national ice hockey team. He played the goaltender position at the University of Minnesota and professionally with the Los Angeles Kings and Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League.
The Canada national bandy team refers to the bandy teams representing Canada. Presently only the national men's senior team competes. There is the men's national team and the women's national team. Both teams are overseen by Canada Bandy which is a member of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB). This article deals chiefly with the national men's team. For the women's team please see Canada women's national bandy team.
Roller hockey, rink hockey or quad hockey is a team sport played on roller skates. It is the only quad skate team sport in existence where two teams face-off against one another at the same time. Two teams try to drive a hard ball with their sticks into the opposing teams' goalnet. Each team has five players on the rink at a time, four of whom are skaters and one who is the goalkeeper. The ball can only be put in motion by a stick, not the skate, otherwise a foul will be stated. The game has two 25-minute halves, with 15-minute halftime intermission, plus up to two 5-minute golden goal periods to settle ties with the clock stopping when the ball becomes dead. If the tie persists, a penalty shootout will determine the winner. Players – including the goalie – use quad skates, whereas inline skates are used in inline hockey. The sticks are similar to those in bandy and shinty. Excessive contact between players is forbidden in rink hockey, unlike inline hockey.
Ringette is a non-contact winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organized team sports created exclusively for female competitors. Ringette is played on ice hockey rinks with markings which are specific to ringette, and its strategic play bears a closer resemblance to basketball than it does to ice hockey.
William G. Selman is a retired head coach of men's college, university and professional ice hockey teams.
Rinkball is a winter team sport played on ice with ice skates and is most popular in Finland, where it is known as kaukalopallo. This ball sport originated in Sweden in the 1960s and from there landed in Finland in the 1970s.
The Super Rink at National Sports Center is a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m2) ice rink facility that features eight sheets of ice and is the largest ice arena complex in the world. It is located on the National Sports Center campus in Blaine, Minnesota, a northern suburb of Minneapolis – Saint Paul.
Edwin Jeffrey Saugestad was an American ice hockey coach. From 1958 to 1996, he was the head hockey coach at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He led the Augsburg hockey team to three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics men's ice hockey championships and six consecutive Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships from 1976 to 1982. At the time of his retirement in 1996, he ranked second in career wins in NCAA Division III history. He received the John MacInnes Award in 2002 for his lifetime of contributions to amateur hockey and the Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award in 2007. As of 2010, he ranks 18th all-time among college men's ice hockey coaches with 503 wins.
Visvaldis George Nagobads is an American physician. He was born in Latvia, earned a medical degree from the University of Tübingen in Germany, then emigrated to the United States in 1951. He served 34 years as the team physician for Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey and was a part of three NCAA Division I championship teams. He also served as the physician for the US men's national team at five Winter Olympics and was on the Miracle on Ice team which won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. His other work has included chief medical officer for USA Hockey, the medical committee for the International Ice Hockey Federation, and team physician for the Minnesota Fighting Saints and Minnesota North Stars. His career was recognized with the Paul Loicq Award for contributions to international hockey, induction into the Golden Gophers Hockey Hall of Fame, and induction into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame as an individual and as a member of the US men's national team.
Canada's women's national bandy team is the women's bandy team representing Canada. Historically the squad has been based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The women's national team has competed in the Women's Bandy World Championship and North American Bandy Championship and made its world debut at the 2004 Women's Bandy World Championship. Team Canada has not competed internationally since the 2016 Women's Bandy World Championship.
The Great Britain Bandy Association (GBBA) is the governing body of the sport of bandy in the United Kingdom. It is based in The Fens part of Cambridgeshire, East Anglia. Formerly, the federation was named Bandy Federation of England. After some years with less activity, the federation was restarted and given the name England Bandy Federation in January 2017. In September 2017 the present name was adopted, as the federation widened its scope to all of the UK.
Bandy in the United States is played mostly in Minnesota. Bandy is a team sport played on ice with ice skates, a ball, and a curved stick on a large sheet of ice called a bandy field. In the United States, the national governing body for bandy is the American Bandy Association (ABA), also called USA Bandy which was established in 1981, the same year it became a member of the Federation of International Bandy (FIB). The USA Bandy Hall of Fame is located in Minnesota.