Can you name the 60 greatest moments in Minnesota sports?

Twins, Vikings, Minneapolis Lakers (remember them?), Timberwolves, Gophers, North Stars and Wild fans could surely spend hours ruminating over just that question. Fairmont native and sportswriter Ross Bernstein’s newly revised and updated “Sixty Years & Sixty Heroes: A Celebration of Minnesota Sports” tries to help answer it.

It originally appeared a decade ago as “Fifty Years: Fifty Heroes,” but now, instead of just one event and Minnesota athlete per year over 50 years, the book spotlights the top three events in Minnesota sports history each year over 61 years — the Wild’s division win in 2008 just couldn’t be left out as the book was going to press.

Everything big you can think of from 1948 to 2008 is in there, from World Series heroes to NCAA championships, to bowl game wins, to the Vikings’ “Infamous Hail Mary” in 1975. It’s a book that will settle some bets and bring back good memories for Minnesota sports fans, Bernstein said.

The addition of the top three in each year enables the book to mention local heroes, such as Whitey Skoog, a former Laker who invented the jump shot and coached at Gustavus; Rummy Macias, Minnesota State University wrestling coach whose Mavericks won the NCAA Division III National Championship in 1965; and Nancy Baker, whose Gustavus gymnasts won seven Division III National Championships from 1982-92.

For the update, Bernstein spent months researching what happen-ed in each year and countless hours finding and interviewing people for the “where are they now” information — and loving every minute of it. A kid who grew up attending Vikings training camp, for Bernstein to get to interview people such as Fran Tarkenton and Ahmad Rashad as a part of his job is “pinch me” territory, he said.

“I am just very lucky in that I found a way to make my career doing what I love,” he said. “I get to meet so many interesting people and write about the things that really interest me.”

The book also features forewords by Bud Grant, Kent Hrbek, Joe Mauer and Lindsay Whalen.

A self-professed lifelong “sports nut to the core,” Bernstein started out as a sports writer almost by accident. A student at the U of M, he didn’t make the Gopher hockey team, so he became the team’s mascot, Goldy the Gopher, and subsequently published a humorous memoir, “Gopher Hockey by the Hockey Gopher.” Fast-forward to the present, and Bernstein has published 40 sports books (for kids and adults), which are available through his web site, www.bernsteinbooks.com, as well as shops and other online outlets.

A portion of the sales of the “Sixty Years” book will benefit the Herb Brooks Foundation, which supports youth hockey programs and facilities.

He also does regional and national motivational speaking events several times a month.

“I speak about the topics of passions and legacies, through the context of the U.S. Olympic hockey ‘Miracle on Ice’ team that won the gold in 1980,” he said. “I was working on a series of books with the coach of the team, Herb Brooks, when he died back in 2003, and I now get to talk about his amazing legacy.”

Other books he has out now include “Slap Shot Original: The Man, The Foil, The Legend” on former North Star Dave Hanson, and “The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-At-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct.”

Upcoming in 2009 will be the third in his “Code” series, this time covering football (the first features hockey), and a history of U of M football, which will be given out on opening day of the new TCF Bank Stadium. The proceeds will benefit the U of M athletics department.