Olympic “Miracle” hockey star and Iron Range sports legend Mark Pavelich was found dead Thursday in a central Minnesota residential treatment center, bringing to an end the life of a man who reached the pinnacle of international sport and hit the depths of legal and psychological distress.
Pavelich, who turned 63 a week ago, died at Eagle’s Healing Nest, according to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office. He had received mental health treatment there for the past several months. At the time of his death he was under civil commitment for a
violent assault on a North Shore neighbor nearly 1½ years ago…His body was taken to the examiner’s office in Anoka, which said it has yet to determine a cause and manner of death…
In recent years, family and friends have said, they watched the public-averse Pavelich become confused, paranoid and borderline threatening. They said they came to believe that he suffers from chronic traumatic encephalopathy — commonly known as CTE — caused by repeated blows to the head while playing hockey as a tenacious, undersized forward.
If you want to see the US vs USSR match:
