1941: Skiing

The sport of skiing has progressed a long way since it was introduced in North America by the Norwegians about 100 years ago. When enthusiasm for the sport became general, hundreds of ski clubs were established in cities and towns in the states along the Canadian border and in Canada, from the East to the West coast. One of the largest clubs is the Toronto Ski Club now having a membership of 5,000 men and women. Excellent ski runs near large cities and in national parks are set in superb scenic beauty, from Quebec to New England and New York State, west to Jasper and Banff National Parks, Sun Valley, to the long steep slopes of Oregon and Washington.

The Norwegians still retain their native skill for skiing, and a few of them hold all of the United States jumping records and titles. Torger Tokle, who dazzled many thousands of spectators on Olympian Hill, near Seattle, when he soared to a new national record at 288 feet, also broke distance ski marks at Lake Placid, Brattleboro, Bear Mountain, Duluth and Laconia-Gilford. He also took the National and Central titles and the Eastern crown for three successive years, another feat never before accomplished. Alf Engen, another young son of Norway, who was dethroned by Tokle, leaped 267 feet off the huge Pine Mountain slide, in Michigan, and won the national classic combined.

Toni Matt, a Norwegian professional, won the national downhill and combined downhill-slalom in the open divisions, defeating the defending champion, Dick Dorrance, the famous Dartmouth alumnus, who in turn won the national open slalom. Bill Redlin, of the University of Washington, romped off with the amateur laurels in the downhill, slalom and combined events at Aspen, Col. George Gustavson, of Auburn, Calif., returned as the national cross-country ruler. Dartmouth retained the Collegiate Ski Union title, but lost the thirty-first annual Dartmouth carnival to the University of New Hampshire team.

Women skiers also performed thrilling feats, headed by Miss Gretchen Fraser, of the Sun Valley S. C., who dominated the championships, winning the open class national downhill and combined downhill-slalom. Miss Nancy Reynolds, of Montclair, N. J., won two amateur titles, the national downhill and combined national championship. Miss Marilyn Shaw annexed both the open and restricted slalom titles with great finesse.

1940: Skiing

Skiing and skiers took advantage of abundant snows last season to give this popular sport the greatest play it has ever seen in the United States. Not only in New England and the north border states, but in Canada as well the sport attracted many millions of followers among new and old enthusiasts. Many hikers have also taken up the sport. Competitive skiing has also made great strides, although experts agree that downhill racing is too dangerous and recommend in its place slalom racing on cross-country courses marked by small flags. The sport is being well governed and supervised by the National Skiing Association.

There were some 4,000 skiers in various competitions during the busy 1940 season. Even with the presence of many foreign stars, America carried off most of the laurels. Top American was Dick Durrance, former Dartmouth intercollegiate ace, who captured three major downhill and slalom titles in the national championships at Sun Valley, where Peter Fosseide sped to the combined and cross-country titles. Alf Engen won the national class A jumping title and the American Ski trophy for his sportsmanship. Eddie Gignac, of Middlebury College, won against the college skiers, and Dartmouth repulsed McGill in a dual meet for the North American intercollegiate ski title. Torger Tokle, the young Norwegian star, won eleven of twelve meets, including the international jump, and established six new hill records. The national open title went to Friedl Pfeifer, professional at Sun Valley.

Among women, Miss Marilyn Shaw, a high school girl, enjoyed a successful season, topped off by winning the women's open and closed combined downhill and slalom title. Other champion women skiers were Miss Nancy Reynolds and Mrs. Grace Carter Lindley, both capturing two titles. The performances of women, as with men, showed marked improvement in the various competitions and over difficult courses.

1939: Skiing

Skiing, in 1939, enjoyed its best season in two years in the United States, with an abundance of snow from Thanksgiving Day until late in the Spring at many of the popular resorts. Likewise, many more people became enthusiastic about the sport (there are nearly 500,000 skiers in the U. S.) and there are a few added luxuries such as ski tows, chair tramways, modern funiculars and cableways to tow skiers up to the top of ski runs. Week-end skiers had their fun and competitive skiers engaged in the busiest program in the history of the National Ski Association, in tournaments from coast to coast, attended by many foreign stars.

The nationals comprised the most interesting of the year's events, held at Timberline Lodge, on the slopes of Mt. Hood, Portland, Ore. It was here that Dick Durrance, of Dartmouth, made a clean sweep of the three 'restricted amateur' downhill and slalom titles, as well as winning the Federation Internationale de Ski combined downhill and slalom tryout. The national open downhill went to Toni Matt, youthful protegé of the Austrian ski instructor, Hannes Schneider. Reidar Andersen, of Norway, led the ski jumpers, besting the Rudd brothers who dominated the jumping events during the previous two winters. Andersen won more than a dozen important events in North America, including open class jumping, and Class A jumping.

Another sensation from Norway was 19-year-old Torger Tokle, in the Eastern meet at Laconia-Gilford, N. H. Competing in Class B, he outjumped and outscored the Class A fields in the eight events he won, winding up a season that was nothing short of phenomenal. Warren and Howard Chivers, of Dartmouth, won every event of note in cross-country skiing except the nationals which they passed up, as well as combined langlauf and jumping, two of the most difficult phases of the sport. They were supreme in the intercollegiates, at Lake Placid, and in the Eastern and F. I. S. national try-outs.

1938: Skiing

In the leading ski event of the year, World Ski Championships, held at Engelberg, Switzerland, March 5, the German team ranked first in number of points, with the French team second, and the Swiss team third. The United States placed last. The All-around Ski Champion of the Year was Emile Allais of France who was also all-around champion in 1937, the first person ever to hold the title two years in succession. In 1938 Allais won second in both the downhill and the slalom. James Couttet of France won the downhill championship over the two and one-half mile course, dropping 2,800 feet in the extraordinary speed of 3 min. 17 4/5 sec., the fastest time in the Federation's records. In the slalom run, Rudolph Rominger of Switzerland captured the title with the fast times of 1 min. 32.2 sec. and 1 min. 31.2 sec. in the two trials.

The World Jumping crown was won by Asbjorn Ruud of Norway with a score of 226.4 points in the events held Feb. 27 at Helsingfors, while Olaf Hoffsbrakken of Norway captured the combined downhill and jumping competition with a score of 432.6 points. On Feb. 28, Kalle Jalkanen of Finland won the world 50-kilometer title over the Helsingfors course with the time of 4 hr. 10 min. 44 sec. In the women's events, Miss Christel Cranz of Germany captured the world all-around skiing title.

In the International Open Skiing tournament held March 12-13 at Sun Valley, Idaho, Richard Durrance of Dartmouth placed second in the three and one-half mile downhill and the slalom runs, totaling 422 points to capture the International All-around ski title. Walter Prager of Switzerland who won the slalom race ranked second in point total, and Ulrich Beutter of Germany who won the three and one-half-mile 4,000-foot downhill drop placed third in point total.

The United States National Open Championships held at Stowe, Vt., March 5-6, were won by Ulrich Beutter who broke the record in the one and one-fourth mile with a 2,010 foot downhill run in the remarkable time of 2 min. 35 sec. Beutter also placed third in the slalom run giving him a 233 point total and the all-around National Championship. Richard Durrance of Dartmouth ranked second with a 250 point total. Walter Prager of Switzerland ranked third, and Richard Meservey of Dartmouth, who won the five-sixth of a mile with a 600 foot downhill run in the time of 55.8 sec. placed fourth. In the jumping events, held Feb. 19-20 at Brattleboro, Vt., Birger Ruud of Norway, famous the world over for his jumping, broke the hill record with a leap of 216 feet in perfect form. Ruud captured the United States National Open Jumping championship (based upon the best distance and form in two jumps) with a score of 229.8 points.

The Intercollegiate Union's twenty-eighth annual ski tournament, held at Dartmouth, Hanover, N. H., Feb. 12, was completely dominated by Dartmouth skiers. The Dartmouth team registered a perfect score of 500 points and captured every event except the ski-jump, winning the carnival for the fourth successive year. Richard Durrance of Dartmouth took first place in both the slalom and downhill runs, Howard Chivers of Dartmouth scored the highest in the combined jumping and langlauf events, and Nils Eie of Oslo, Norway won the jumping competition. The Munich team ranked second to Dartmouth with 451 points, and McGill placed third in the team competitions with 430.5 points.