MARQUETTE -- Each year hundreds, if not thousands, of young hockey players skate on the Olson rink at Lakeview Arena in Marquette and have no idea where the namesake comes from.

Wednesday, a few youngsters got a lesson after practice when Marquette hockey legend Weldon Olson visited the rink and spoke to some players after practice.

Olson won a silver medal with Team USA in the 1956 Winter Games in Italy, and four years later helped the U.S. to its first hockey gold medal ever in 1960.

Weldy also was the captain of the 1958 U.S. National team that was the first North American squad to play inside of the Soviet Union.

These days Olson says he likes to watch youth hockey and loves to see all the participation in the area when he comes to visit. "Eighteen kids signed up for one hour of (open) hockey," said Olson. "At open hockey time, that's when you really learn new skills."

Compared to when he was growing up, Olson says the U.S. hockey scene is bigger and better than ever. "There's so many players. There's so many well organized programs. The only thing that bothers me a little bit really is that youngsters sometimes get too involved year-round (with hockey) versus the way we played it, during the (hockey) season. We played baseball in the summer and football. We played everything."

Olson is the youngest of nine boys in a hockey-mad family. His older brother Eddie was the first American-born player to lead the American Hockey League in scoring.

Weldon is retired from the ice rink building business and lives in Findlay, Ohio but visits the Marquette area regularly.

He's more on Weldon H. Olson:

Weldy was born 1932 in Marquette, was the ninth born of the 9 Olson brother hockey players. He played four years for the Michigan State Spartans 1951-55, playing every game without injury, he was named MVP, and Co-Captain, and held the school career scoring record with 125 points. In one game he scored 4 goals in a 6-4 loss to Minnesota Feb 9, 1952.

After setting school records, he won a spot on the 1956 US Olympic Team. They played at Cortina, D'Ampezzo, Italy where the US team won a Silver Medal, beating Canada, but losing to Russia. The next three seasons, Olson spent with the US National team. They missed the World Championships in 1957 because of the Hungarian uprising. He was Captain of the 1958 team which captured fourth place at Prague, Czechoslovakia. The 1958 team was the first North American team to visit the Soviet Union in March of 1958. He played with the 1959 US National Team.

The next Olympics were in the United States at Squaw Valley, California. Weldy was on this 1960 US Olympic Team when they captured the Gold Medal; the first won by a U.S. team in the 40 year history of the Winter Olympics.

He went on to be a long time referee, amateur coach, official, board member and league administrator. In 1974, he was the first hockey player named to the Michigan Amateur Sports Hall of Fame, and in 1984, he was inducted into the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame. In 1993, he was given the Michigan State University Distinguished Hockey Alumnus Award.

In 2001, he was inducted into the Michigan State University Athletic Hall of Fame, East Lansing, MI. In 2003, he was inducted into the Hancock county Ohio Sports Hall of Fame in Findlay, Ohio. And, as part of the1960 USA Gold winning Olympic Team; in 1989, he was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame, Colorado Springs, Colo, in 2000, he was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame, and in 2002, he received the Lester Patrick Award from the NHL for outstanding service to hockey in the United States; they are only the 3rd team in the 35 year history of the Award to receive this honor.

Weldon Olson is one of only five players who won Gold and Silver Olympic ice hockey medals during the 20th Century:  Bill Cleary, John Mayasich, Dick Meredith, Dick Rodenhiser, and Olson.