The 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics are quickly approaching, with the opening ceremonies taking place on Feb. 6 and the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament starting on Feb. 11.  

Throughout the history of the Winter Games, multiple BGSU hockey alumni have taken to the ice and represented their respective home nations. 

In total, 10 different players and one coach have represented their home country and Bowling Green on the Olympic stage.  

Bob Dobek, United States, 1976 

Robert Dobek spent three seasons as a forward for the Orange and Brown from 1972-1975. During his time in Bowling Green, Dobek scored 94 goals and 134 assists for 228 career points in 108 career games, which places him as the eighth highest point scorer, the eighth highest assist scorer, and the 10th highest goal scorer all-time in BGSU hockey history.  

During the 1973-74 season, Dobek scored 44 goals and 42 assists and led the nation in goals for the season while setting a school record for most goals in a single season and the third most points (86) in a single season in school history.  

The next season, Dobek served as a captain for the Falcons and scored 58 assists, which is tied with Paul Ysebaert’s 1986-87 season for the most assists in a single season in school history.  

Dobek, a Michigan native, represented the United States at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics in Austria, where he scored three goals and five assists across six games as Team USA finished in fifth place.  

Following the Olympics, the forward would have a brief professional career playing in the Southern Hockey League and the World Hockey Association (WHA) before pursuing a career in golf operations. 

Doug Ross, United States, 1976 

Douglas Ross started his college career at Lake Superior State before transferring to Bowling Green. During his two seasons with the Falcons, Ross appeared in 74 games as a forward and scored 65 goals and 64 assists for a total of 129 career points in the Orange and Brown.  

Ross would join fellow Falcon and Michigan native Bob Dobek on the United States’ roster for the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics, where Ross would skate in six games while scoring one goal and two assists.  

Following the Olympics, Ross would pursue a career in coaching at the collegiate level, making stops at Ohio and Kent State Universities before reaching his final coaching position at the University of Alabama Huntsville. Ross would oversee the (now defunct) program’s transition from the club all the way to the Division I level and would coach in Huntsville from 1982 until his retirement in 2007.  

During his time coaching the Chargers, Ross’ teams went 451-272-45 at the club, Division II, and Division I levels and won two Division II national championships (1996 and 1998) and earned two Division I tournament berths (2007 and 2010).  

In 2022, Ross passed away at age 70.

Ken Morrow, United States, 1980 

Before representing the United States as a member of the infamous Miracle on Ice team at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, Kenneth Morrow spent four seasons at BGSU from 1975 to 1979.  

During his time in the Orange and Brown, Morrow appeared in 154 games and scored a total of 34 goals and 92 assists as a defenseman.  

During the 1977-78 season, Morrow scored eight goals and 18 assists in 39 games and was named to the Titan West All-American First Team to become BGSU hockey’s first All-American. 

The Michigan native appeared in seven games during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, including the Miracle on Ice game against the Soviet Union on Feb. 22, and scored one goal and two assists as he helped Team USA claim the gold medal.  

Following the Olympics, Morrow joined the New York Islanders and helped the Islanders win the 1980 Stanley Cup, which made Morrow the first American to win an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup. 

During his 10-season-long NHL career spent entirely with the Islanders, Morrow scored 17 goals and 88 assists across 550 career NHL games and helped NYI win four straight Stanley Cups in the early 1980s.

After retiring following the 1988-89 season, Morrow had a brief stint in coaching before becoming the Islander’s Director of Professional Scouting starting in the 1992-93 season, a position he still holds today.  

Morrow was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995. 

Mark Wells, United States, 1980 

Mark Wells and Ken Morrow were teammates at Bowling Green for four seasons before becoming teammates on the United States Olympic Team during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.  

During Wells’ four years in the Orange and Brown, the forward scored 231 career points made up of 77 goals and 154 assists, which places Wells as the seventh highest all-time point scorer in school history, while also placing 14th in all-time goals and tying for second place with Brian Hills for all-time assists in school history.  

During his final season (1978-79) in Bowling Green, Wells scored 57 assists and 83 points, which ties him with Brian Hills for the third most assists in a season and ties him with Nelson Emerson for the fifth most points in a single season in school history.  

Similar to Morrow, Wells appeared in seven games during the 1980 Olympics, including the gold medal clinching game against Finland on Feb. 24, and scored two goals and an assist while helping secure a gold medal for Team USA.  

Following the Olympics, the Michigan native had a brief professional career playing in the American Hockey League (AHL), International Hockey League (IHL), and the Central Hockey League (CenHL) before returning to Michigan, where he became a restaurant manager until a rare spinal cord disease forced him into an early retirement.  

Tragically, Wells passed away in 2024 at the age of 66.  

Brian Stankiewicz, Austria, 1984, 1988, and 1994  

Brian Stankiewicz spent two seasons at BGSU during the 1977-78 and 1978-79 seasons.  

Stankiewicz, who was born in Toronto, Ontario, appeared in 35 games during his time in the Orange and Brown while playing as a goalie, including appearing in 30 games and helping lead BG to a CCHA Regular Season Championship and CCHA Tournament Championship during the 1977-78 season while recording a 2.58 goals against average and a .907 save percentage.  

Following his college career at BGSU, Stankiewicz would play for multiple teams in Austria over his professional career that would last from 1980 to 1994 and would feature stops at HC Salzburg, Innsbruck EV, and EC Graz, among others.  

Stankiewicz would make three Austrian Olympic teams during the 1984 Sarajevo Olympic Games, 1988 Calgary Olympic Games, and the Lillehammer 1994 Olympic Games, but would only appear in games during the 1988 and 1994 games.  

Stankiewicz would appear in five games during the 1988 games and would finish with a .855 save percentage, and would also appear in three contests and post a .872 save percentage during the 1994 games.  

Austria would finish 12th in 1994 and ninth in both the 1984 and 1988 games.  

Kevin Dahl, Canada, 1992 

Kevin Dahl would skate on Bowling Green’s blueline for four seasons from 1986 to 1990. During his time as a Falcon, Dahl skated in 165 games and scored 21 goals and 77 assists for a career total of 98 collegiate points. Dahl would serve as the Falcons’ co-captain with Joe Quinn during his senior season of 1989-90.  

Dahl, a Saskatchewan native, would play for Team Canada at the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games and would skate in eight games and score two goals while helping Canada secure a silver medal, the nation’s first Olympic medal since 1968.  

Following Dahl’s college career, both before and after his Olympic performance, Dahl had a 14-year-long professional career that included spending time in the NHL, AHL, IHL, East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), and the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).  

During Dahl’s time in the NHL, the defenseman scored seven goals and 22 assists across 188 career games played with multiple teams, but most notably the Calgary Flames.  

Following his playing career, Dahl would enter the business world, where he currently holds multiple high titles for multiple corporations, including serving as the VP of Hockey players in Business, President of Jobgoal, and Co-founder and CEO of Nexgoal.  

Greg Parks, Canada, 1994 

Greg Parks, an Alberta native, played four seasons at BGSU from 1985 to 1989 and scored 101 goals and 139 assists over his 178 career games as a Falcon. Parks’ 240 career points place him as the fourth most points scored all-time in school history, while also sitting at ninth all-time in goals scored and sixth all-time in assists.  

During his senior season in 1988-89, Parks served as a captain for the Falcons and scored 32 goals and 42 assists during the season.  

Following his college career, Parks started his professional career during the 1989-90 season. The forward’s career, which lasted from 1989-2004, would include playing for professional teams in the United States, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. One of Parks’ stops was in the NHL, where he played parts of three seasons for the New York Islanders. In total, Parks skated in 23 NHL games and scored one goal and two assists.  

In 1994, Parks represented his home country at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Games and helped Canada secure a silver medal by contributing one goal and two assists across the eight games he skated in. 

In 2015, Parks passed away at the age of 48. 

Pierrick Maia, France, 1994  

Pierrick Maia spent four seasons in the Orange and Brown from 1987 to 1991 and appeared in 163 games during his time at BGSU. In his 163 career collegiate games, Maia scored 79 points, made up of 32 goals and 47 assists.  

Following his tenure in Bowling Green, Maia, a Caen, France native, returned to his home country of France to begin his professional career with Rouen of the top French league, Ligue Magnus.  

 Maia would skate in seven games for France during the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Games and would score three goals across the seven games as France finished the tournament in 10th place.  

Following the Olympics, the forward returned to Rouen, where he would play until the 1999-2000 season, when Maia would leave Rouen for Le Havre in the lower divisions of French hockey.  

Rob Blake, Canada, 1998, 2002, and 2006 

Rob Blake, father of current Falcon Jack Blake, spent three seasons at Bowling Green from 1987-1990. Blake would score 39 goals and 65 assists across 131 career games as a Falcon. During his final season in BG, Blake scored 23 goals and 36 assists, which gave him the school record for most goals scored by a defenseman in a season.  

Following his college career, Blake joined the Los Angeles Kings to begin a legendary NHL career. During his 20 seasons in the NHL, Blake played in 1270 games, scored 240 goals, accumulated 537 assists, scored a total of 777 points, won the Norris Trophy (NHL’s best defenseman) in the 1997-98 season, and won the Stanley Cup in 2001.  

Blake, an Ontario native, represented Canada at three different Olympics and won a gold medal with Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.  

During the Nagano 1998 games, Blake skated in six games and scored a goal and an assist, and won the Best Defenseman award as Canada finished fourth. In 2002, Blake contributed one goal and two assists to Canada’s gold medal-winning effort after appearing in six games. In his final Olympic appearance, Blake scored an assist and played in six games during the 2006 Turin Olympics, where Canada would finish seventh.  

Blake has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. 

Ralfs Freibergs, Latvia, 2014, 2022, and 2026  

The only BGSU hockey alumni to represent Bowling Green at this year’s Milano-Cortina Olympics is Riga, Latvia native Ralfs Freibergs. 

Freibergs spent two seasons at BGSU and combined for a total of 45 career games and 29 career points made up of four goals and 25 assists between the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons.  

Freibergs missed two games for BG games during the 2013-2014 season to represent Latvia at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where the defenseman skated in five games and scored an assist as Latvia finished the tournament in eighth place.  

Freibergs would once again represent Latvia at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where he would play in four games as Latvia finished in eleventh.  

Professionally, Freibergs has played in many leagues, including the AHL, ECHL, Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), DEL, and he currently plays for HC Vitkovice of the Czech Extraliga.  

Freibergs and Latvia kick off their 2026 Olympics with a game against Team USA on Feb. 12.  

Dan Bylsma, United States, 2014  

Dan Bylsma currently stands as the only BGSU hockey alumnus to represent their country and BG as a coach at the Olympics.  

Bylsma played for Bowling Green for four seasons between 1988 and 1992. During his time at Bowling Green, Bylsma skated in 157 games and scored 37 goals and 50 assists.  

Following his college career, the forward played in multiple professional leagues, including the AHL, IHL, ECHL, and NHL. During his NHL career split between the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, Bylsma appeared in 429 games and scored 19 goals and 43 assists.  

Following his playing career, the Michigan native began his coaching career and has coached in the AHL and NHL and notably served as the Pittsburgh Penguins head coach during their 2009 Stanley Cup Championship.  

Team USA under Bylsma finished the preliminary round with two wins and an overtime win and defeated the Czech Republic 5-2 in the Quarterfinals before falling to Canada 1-0 in the Semifinals and finishing fourth in the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games after falling to Finland in the bronze medal game 5-0.