ST. CLOUD, Minn. — In nearly every hockey-playing state, the name Herb Brooks elicits one memory: the Miracle on Ice, in which Brooks coached the United States to a victory over the powerful Soviet Union team at the Lake Placid Olympics in 1980.

But in Minnesota, where Brooks was born and raised, his legacy touches all five of the state’s universities that play Division I hockey.

In 1986, only the University of Minnesota, which Brooks coached to three N.C.A.A. titles, and Minnesota Duluth fielded Division I teams in the state. Brooks and his mentor — the former Minnesota coach John Mariucci, a Hockey Hall of Famer — felt more were needed to accommodate the growing number of skilled Minnesota high school players.

So Brooks, fired by the N.H.L.’s Rangers the year before, took a bold, unconventional step. At Mariucci’s urging, he accepted a coaching job at St. Cloud State, a Division III program 70 miles northwest of Minneapolis.