Mark rudolph (1976)

 Maryvale class of 1976 graduate Mark Rudolph sprinted his way up the World’s ice hockey officiating ladder. 

Unbeknownst to him at the time, his officiating career started at Holiday Twin Rinks at the age of 11 when he was also an aspiring player with the Buffalo Regals, Depew Saints and the Maryvale Crusaders Club team. At ages 17-22 he was officiating in the American Hockey League, International Hockey League, Atlantic Coast Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League and NCAA Division 1 Hockey. Rudolph became one of the top-rated officials in America and, while finishing his degree in education at Buffalo State, he was close to his opportunity in the NHL. His dream job was in sight. 

Then USA Hockey came calling and everything changed. Not just for Rudolph, but for thousands of American ice hockey officials. The organization was looking to formalize its officiating program and Rudolph seemed a perfect fit with his on-ice background and degree in education.

In 1982, the 22-year-old Cheektowaga native was recruited by USA Hockey and moved to its Colorado Springs headquarters to pioneer USA Hockey’s National Officiating Program. Starting with zero resources or history, Rudolph designed and implemented the nations Officiating Education Program which quickly became the standard for Officiating Programs throughout the World. He wrote officiating manuals and instructional films, designed elite development camps, standardized local instruction programs for officials of all levels, designed “train the trainers” programs and established a clear path to the NHL for many American officials. He literally wrote the book on American ice hockey officiating. 

During his 17-year tenure at USA Hockey, Rudolph was also hired as Supervisor of Officials for the NHL from 1991-97 and for the International Ice Hockey Federation from 1988-97. Finally, Rudolph started USA Hockey InLine as an affiliated program of USA Hockey and introduced InLine Hockey to the World’s ice hockey governing bodies in 1994. 

In 2014 the National Collegiate Hockey Conference honored Rudolph by naming its annual officiating achievement award after him. 

Rudolph also served as the CEO of USA Rugby for 4 years and is currently a residential Real Estate Broker with a successful 19-year career. He is also a co-founder of FlexxCoach VR, a company attempting to introduce first-person Virtual Reality into sports education. He and his Wife, Ronda Ashley, split their time between Colorado Springs and Dillon, Colorado to take full advantage of the great Colorado outdoors by skiing, hiking, cycling and golfing.