Mark Wells, a Detroit metropolitan native and member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team best known for his miracles on the ice, has died, according to the Bowling Green athletics department. He was 66 years old.
A native of St. Clair Shores, Wells graduated from Lake Shores High School and played at Bowling Green from 1975 to 1979 before joining the gold medal-winning Olympic team in Lake Placid, New York. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1977 and joined them after the Olympics.
A must-watch player for the United States, Wells had one goal and two assists at the 1980 Olympic Games, where the United States won a famous victory over the Soviet Union in the semifinals and then beat Finland for the gold medal. . He bounced around for several seasons in the minor leagues, including the Flint Generals, before retiring from professional hockey in 1982.
He went on to manage several different restaurants in metro Detroit, until in the mid-'80s he suffered a back injury on the job that exacerbated a genetic condition that eventually allowed him to walk again. He endured nearly 20 years of surgery and pain.
Wells was inducted into the Bowling Green Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992.
St. Clair Shores renamed its Civic Center ice rink after Wells in 2014, nearly 30 years after the City Council first voted to do so.
