Minor Miracles

Well intended facility investments, demographic changes and a tragic event spells the end of the playground's role in competive athletics on St. Paul's East Side.

March 2024 Update on Minor Miracles Production

July 2020 Update on Minor Miracles Production

A talented hockey player from the other side of town, dominates the competition; The playground model for developing youth hockey on St. Paul’s East Side is challenged by the emergence of Area “All-Star” Teams.

Phalen Playground emerges as the crown jewel of playgrounds on the East Side, becoming a magnet for area hockey players seeking the best facilities and impactful coaching.

Minor Miracles Season 1 focuses on growing up on the East Side of St. Paul MN in the 70s, and 80s – and the hockey community that existed during the time just before and after the East Side’s own Herb Brooks coached team USA to Olympic Gold.  Episode 1 describes the role of community playgrounds, and how childhood lessons learned at those playgrounds impacted the development of so many kids.

Season 1 Teaser:  Minor Miracles

In the 1970’s the hockey rivalry between Hill Murray High School, a growing parochial high school in Maplewood, and public high schools on St. Paul’s East Side was on full display.  This rivalry raised the bar for any aspiring youth hockey player growing up on the East Side.

When Johnson High School’s Herb Brooks coached Team USA to 1980 Olympic Gold, it was a huge source of East Side pride.  But it also raised the bar even higher for all hockey programs on the East Side, and increased the intensity of hockey rivalries between Hill Murray, Johnson and Harding High Schools.

Season 1 captures the stories of these rivalries, which reached its peak in the early 1980s resulting in the first of only two meetings of Hill Murray vs a St. Paul City School (Johnson HS) in the 1984 State High School Hockey Tournament.  We will also explore consequences of this rivalry and how it affected the trajectory of players, coaches & families.