03/01/2014
St. Clair Shores to dedicate ice rink to Mark Wells
Mark Wells shows off some photos from his days with the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union’s team for the gold medal in the “Miracle on Ice.” On Saturday, St. Clair Shores officials will dedicate a hockey rink in his .
In the weeks following the “Miracle on Ice” -- when the U.S. hockey team scored an upset win over the Soviet Union to capture a gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics -- there was a push to name an ice rink in St. Clair Shores after hometown hero Mark Wells.
But that never happened.
On Saturday, that will change when city officials officially rename the St. Clair Shores Civic Arena’s Olympia Room as the Mark Wells Ice Rink.
“I was very skeptical this would ever happen,” Wells said. “It’s been a black cloud hanging over my head for the past 34 years.”
Wells, 56, who now resides in Harrison Township, grew up in St. Clair Shores where hockey is wildly popular. A 1975 graduate of Lake Shore High School, he attended Bowling Green State University where he was a star forward in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. He joined the Olympic team in 1979.
While still in college, he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens and later became a free agent with the New York Rangers, but his pro career did not progress beyond that.
After retiring from hockey, Wells went on to work as a manager of a Ram’s Horn in Rochester Hills but then was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease that impacted his spinal cord disc. Bed ridden for months, he took a disability retirement.
To pay his medical bills, he was forced to sell his gold medal, which was auctioned off for about $300,000. He received $40,000.
It was a bitter disappointment. “That medal was very important to me. If I had won the Stanley Cup at 22, it wouldn’t have matched the pride I had for the medal,” he said.
It’s not clear why the city’s effort to name the ice rink in his honor never took place. In recent months, St. Clair Shores Mayor Kip Walby was reminded of Wells during the 2014 Winter Olympics. The mayor conducted some research, then set out to correct the oversight.
“It’s quite rare to have an Olympic gold medalist in your community,” Walby said. “The arena was supposed to be renamed in 1980 but they didn’t complete the task. I don’t know why.”
On Saturday, city officials will host the renaming ceremony with Wells at 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and Wells will sign autographs afterward. The ice arena is located at 20000 Stephens between Little Mack and Interstate 94.
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