Mark Pavelich was one of the most instrumental players in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics in 1980.
Pavelich was a member of the “Miracle on Ice” team, who had an amazing win against the Russians. Their win is still, to this day, considered one of the biggest upsets in the US Winter Olympics history, and led them to win a gold medal.
Now, nearly 25-years later, Pavelich has decided to part with his medal, and will be selling it through Heritage Auctions in Dallas. Pavelich said that he wants to sell the medal to get a head start on his daughter’s future.
“I’m doing a lot for my daughter here. I want her to get a step forward in life. That’s probably the biggest reason,” Pavelich said. “The only thing is you’re limited to what you can do with these things. … You keep it in a vault in the bank somewhere and you take it out once in a while and you look at it and you put it back in. You can’t put them in a house because it could burn or get stolen and it’s just gone and useless. It’s just an impractical thing.”
Pavelich explained that he doesn’t have to have the medal in his possession to know that he won it. “You can’t say that you never did win a medal just because you don’t have it anymore,” he continued. “You always can say that you got it.”
Pavelich is not the first player to sell their medal. Mark Wells sold his, through the same organization, in 2010 to help pay for medical bills. His medal sold for a whopping $310,700.
Image via sports.ha.com