The Big Ten Network has named Minnesota's Neal Broten as Big Ten Icon number 31. Big Ten Icons, presented by Discover, is the network's most ambitious multi-platform initiative to date. The program is counting down the top 50 student-athletes in Big Ten history on
www.BigTenIcons.com based solely on their collegiate playing careers.
Few people have had a better three-year run in amateur sports than Broten, a native of Roseau, Minn., who played for the Gophers from 1979-81. As a freshman, he tallied a school-record 50 assists to help Minnesota win the 1979 NCAA Frozen Four Championship. In 1980, Broten was a valuable two-way player on the "Miracle on Ice" team that upset the Soviet Union and won a gold medal in the Lake Placid Olympics. Upon his return to Minnesota as a junior, Broten became the inaugural winner of college hockey's top individual prize, the Hobey Baker Award.
Minnesota and Team USA head coach Herb Brooks once described Broten as, "The best player I ever coached at Minnesota." To read an essay or watch a video about Broten, visit his Big Ten Icons locker at
www.BigTenIcons.com.
Broten joins Minnesota football alum Bobby Bell, who was Big Ten Icon number 40, as the only Gophers recognized to date.
Icons 50 through 21 are being unveiled through Sept. 16 at
www.BigTenIcons.com. The website also features essays, video and other key facts about each student-athletes' career. Viewers can also participate in the "Talk of the Locker Room" contest with a chance to win the $10,000 grand prize. Weekly winners will take home a 55-inch Phillips HD television. The television show, hosted by legendary college sports broadcaster Keith Jackson, debuts Sept. 18 following a Big Ten Network football telecast in which Icon No. 20 will be revealed. The countdown continues at 9 p.m. ET every Tuesday night through the end of football season and into the spring. The No. 1 Big Ten Icon will be revealed around the 2011 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament.
