Mark Benning (born April 19, 1964) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player.

Early life

Benning was born in Edmonton as the son of NHL scout Elmer Benning for the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

, and brother of former NHL players Jim Benning and

Brian Benning Brian Anthony Benning (born June 10, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman who played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the St. Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings, Philadelphia Flyers, Edmonton Oilers, and ...

, and uncle of Brian's current NHL playing sons, Matthew Benning and Mike Benning.

Junior and NCAA

Benning played for the St. Albert Saints

AJHL The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. There are currently 16 teams in the league. The reg ...

junior hockey team. He was recruited by the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

, Benning played for two years with the Fighting Irish and then transferred to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

in 1984. Benning graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics in 1987, and excelled with the Crimson . He was named a first-team All-American, an Academic All-American, All-Ivy League, All-ECAC and as of 2014 still holds the record for career assists by a defenseman at Harvard with 102. A three-year letter winner, Benning was also the 1987 Tudor Cup winner for Most Valuable Player at Harvard and the 1987 Bingham Award winner for most valuable athlete in the Harvard senior class.

West Germany

After college, Benning played for

EC Bad Nauheim Rote Teufel Bad Nauheim, also known as EC Bad Nauheim, is an ice hockey team in Bad Nauheim, Germany. They currently play in DEL2 DEL2 (also known as DEL II) is the second tier ice hockey league in Germany, below the '' Deutsche Eishockey Li ...

in the West German Hockey League for two seasons before retiring from hockey in 1989.

Later experience

He then went to

Stanford Business School The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the graduate business school of Stanford University, a private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective business schoo ...

and is now an options trader in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

Honours

He was inducted into the Harvard Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

Awards and honors

References

External links

* https://www.harvardvarsityclub.org/article.html?aid=573 * http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1985/1/10/mark-benning-pthey-value-defense-in/ * http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=23258 * http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=275938 * http://www.ahcahockey.com/allamer/1987.php * http://www.ivy50.com/story.aspx?sid=4/10/2007 * http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/history/honors/academic_all-america/harvard * http://www.cosida.com/documents/2010/4/19/alltimeaaaindividualbyschool-1.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Benning, Mark 1964 births Living people Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players Ice hockey people from Edmonton Stanford University alumni University of Notre Dame alumni Canadian ice hockey defencemen AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans