Request More Info
Print Page
Auto Racing
Baseball
Basketball
Football
Golf
Hockey
Olympians
Soccer
Sports Commentators
|
|
JIM CRAIG
Olympic Gold Medalist
Goalie, 1980 USA “Miracle on Ice” Team
Jim Craig has been called the backbone of a team that accomplished one of the most extraordinary and memorable sports victories of all time. He went on to play professionally and transitioned to become a successful businessman and motivational speaker.
Jim Craig is in demand from coast to coast and internationally as a motivational speaker, spokesperson, marketing and sales strategist, and master storyteller. He is president of Gold Medal Strategies, a Boston-area based promotions and marketing firm that also manages and represents Jim and his appearance business. Over the past 25 years, Jim Craig has inspired, instructed, and provided strategic and winning direction for employees and associates from more than 300 organizations, including but not limited to Allianz, Bayer Corporation, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Coca-Cola, Dunkin' Donuts, Evergreen Financial, GE Access, Gore Medical, John Hancock, Next Financial, Time Inc., Walt Disney, and other companies that hold some of the world's most recognized brands.
An All-American goalie at Boston University and standout for the Terriers' 1978 NCAA championship squad, Jim Craig was selected as the starting goaltender for the U.S. 1980 Olympic hockey team. At the Lake Placid games his performance was indispensable to Team USA's epic upset of the Soviet Union. Many people forget that in their 4-3 win over the Soviets, the Americans were outshot 42-16, but Jim Craig made 39 saves, many of the spectacular variety, and his teammates scored four times. Two days later against Finland, Jim continued his superb play helping Team USA to a 4-2 win and the Olympic Gold Medal.
How incredible was the victory over the Soviets? Consider that as the 20th century came to a close, most major media sports polls selected what happened two decades prior in Lake Placid, as the greatest sports achievement of the previous 100 years.
“It may just be the single most indelible moment in all of U.S. sports history,” said Sports Illustrated of Team USA's win over the Soviet Union. “One that sent an entire nation into frenzy.”
Following the Olympic Games, Jim Craig played in the NHL where he started for the Atlanta Flames, Minnesota North Stars, and Boston Bruins. After just a few seasons, an injury ended his professional hockey career. Jim is enshrined in the Boston University Athletic Hall of Fame, the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame, the United State Hockey Hall of Fame, and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.
When Jim Craig retired from pro hockey, he pursued a marketing and sales career with the same passion, focus, work ethic, and dedication that he put forth on the ice. He signed on as marketing and sales consultant for Valassis Inserts (later Valassis Communications), owned by Australian media magnate Kerry Packer's Consolidated Press Holdings and the largest freestanding newspaper insert company in the U.S. While with Valassis, Jim took an operating unit that had $300,000 in annual sales and over a 10 year period built it to unit that did $50 million in annual sales, the top sales-producing division of the corporation. During these years, Jim Craig received the award for “Salesman of the Year” from the Marketing Corporation of America and Valassis Communications.
Jim Craig left Valassis in 2005 to become the top salesman of Hat Trick Group, a company that creates and produces promotions, incentive marketing, and custom premium programs and products. Under his stewardship and guidance, Hat Trick Group increased sales, added clients, and introduced new products and services.
In 2007, Jim Craig directed his competitive nature and devotion to innovation and teamwork to launch his latest venture, Gold Medal Strategies, a promotions, marketing and speakers' management firm located in Norton, Massachusetts. Although the firm is still in its infancy, Jim is using the same formula for success used in his other endeavors to develop Gold Medal Strategies and a list of satisfied clients.
Jim Craig has volunteered for several years as a youth hockey coach and is active with many philanthropic organizations and causes. He and his wife, Sharlene (Charlie), have been married for 20 years. They have a teenage son and daughter, both of whom are talented hockey players, neither of whom play goalie.
|
865 - 546 - 0000
