Sixty years ago, the Canadian Alpine Ski Association and Notre Dame University embarked on what was dubbed the “Education Plus Competition Experiment.” More plainly, it meant Olympic-bound athletes going to school and training in Nelson.
In May 1964, retired ski team member Dave Jacobs and the ski association’s Don Sturgess and John Platte met with Notre Dame president Father Aquinas Thomas and athletic director Ernie Gare. Thomas and Gare had pioneered the first university athletic scholarship program in Canada to bolster the school’s hockey team. Now the question was whether they could do the same for skiing.
National ski team at an unknown location, possibly in the Rockies, circa 1965. From left: Dave Jacobs, coach; Roddy Hebron, Gerry Rinaldi, Mrs. Jacobs, Vicki Rutledge, Judy Young, Andre Crepeau, Gerrie Matheson, Ron Williams, Dan Irwin, Eva Kuchar, Currie Chapman, Karen Dokka, driver George Paris, Michel Lehman, Barb Walker, Bob Calladine, Nancy Greene, Scott Henderson, Bob Swan, Heather Quipp, and Peter Duncan. (Tony Koelink/Notre Dame Camera Club)
Jacobs had written to the ski association, recommending “the need to develop a national team program, in which skiers could attend university on scholarship and train year-round with a full-time coaching staff.” Sturgess, the Montreal-based chair of the association’s alpine competition committee and Pratt, the BC-based vice-president, had already concluded the national program needed major changes.
Until now, Canada’s national ski team had only been notional. Individual athletes were selected to compete at European competitions but didn’t train together. Outside of Anne Heggtveit, who won Olympic gold in 1960, and Lucille Wheeler, a world champion in 1958, success had been limited. “During this period, the Canadian people began to take for granted that Canadian representatives were bound to finish out of the running,” Jacobs said.
So in a major departure, a national team would be established whose members would attend Notre Dame on flexible timetables. While it was a small school, it had an established scholarship program and was near Kokanee Glacier, which was skiable in the summer. Plus there were nearby hills at Rossland’s Red Mountain and Nelson’s Silver King (Whitewater didn’t exist yet) and the team could attend American events around the Pacific Northwest.
The goal was to prepare the athletes for the 1966 World Championship in Chile and the 1968 Olympics in France and “build the most powerful national ski machine that this country has ever seen.” Potential competitors would no longer have to choose between athletics or education. They could do both.
Jacobs was appointed head coach and was also to be on the university’s staff as a math teacher. His philosophy was “eat, sleep, think, and work skiing in a group situation.”
Peter Webster became team manager and men’s residence supervisor. The program consisted of daily off-hill training, weight training with Larry Nelles, table training with Vernon Anderson and his mother, who served as nutrient supervisor, plus studies and living in residence to establish a true team environment. (In addition to the 11 team members who attended Notre Dame, four attended L.V. Rogers Secondary, and one enrolled at the Kootenay School of the Arts. A few other team members trained in other parts of the country.)
Skiers who signed on the first year included Nancy Greene, who was raised in Rossland, and Gary Battistella, Gerry Rinaldi, and Emily Ringheim, all from Kimberley, who were already well known in the Kootenays, having skied at the national championships. Greene, Battistella, and Scott Henderson of Banff had all competed in Europe as well, lending the Notre Dame program legitimacy. Greene also turned down an offer to train at a US resort and squelched rumors about turning professional.
“When I made up my mind [to attend NDU] I felt we were really taking a bold step forward as a national team,” said Rinaldi, the first scholarship recipient, many years later. “This was a very unique program, but one that would really develop good athletes. I feel it was a large part of the reason for Nancy Greene’s success.”
Dryland training, fall 1965. Front row: Anne Rowley, Nancy Mason, Heather Quippe, Gary Matheson. Back row: Karen Dokka, Verne Anderson, Nancy Greene, Stephanie Townsend. (Courtesy Bill McDonnell)
In intercollegiate races at Rossland and Kimberley, Notre Dame dominated the standings against seven other schools from BC, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Greene led the way for the women in the downhill and Rinaldi for the men. They followed it up by taking every major event at a couple of meets in Rossland and McCall, Idaho.
When Greene won the Roch Cup in Aspen in February 1965 and other team members finished in the top 20, the ski world started to notice. According to a dispatch in the Nelson Daily News, “Experts … connected with the US Nationals were unanimous in their opinion that at the Canadian team’s current rate of improvement, it will be a formidable opponent at the 1966 Worlds.”
Competitors were also full of praise: “The amazing drive and spirit of the Canadians so impressed the Americans that proposals were voiced as to a possible combination of the two countries’ training program. The European team was also awed by the almost flawless technique displayed by the national team after only one year of training.”
After the first year there was little doubt Canada could compete on the world stage against Americans and Europeans. “Studying and training in a group atmosphere has produced surprising results both academically and competitively,” coach Jacobs said.
However, finances were a challenge. Lack of funds threatened to end the experiment early. Tuition, housing, and living expenses for eight months of training ran to $40,000 for the entire team (the equivalent of about $384,000 today). Scholarships were provided to some skiers while other costs were shared by the national association, the skiers themselves, and their families or clubs.
The burden was partially offset when the federal government put up $18,000 and a trust fund was established. Sponsors offered supplies including a fire-engine red travel van (provided courtesy of Ontario ski operators) and iconic sweaters.
The ski van at the corner of Hall and Vernon streets in Nelson, with the Civic Hotel at right. (Courtesy Nelson Museum and Archives)
Year two saw 11 skiers off to Europe on a training mission. With them went a tutor, making them the only team with an educational component. Notre Dame president Aquinas said the program had been a success so far academically as well as athletically, with none of the students failing.
“They have made great sacrifices to maintain their academic and athletic standards,” he said. “We have let Canada know the program of athletics-academics is working out, producing first-class, top-notch students and athletes.”
Overseas and back home, Nancy Greene continued to impress while other team members also racked up excellent finishes. Hopes were high when 13 team members headed to Santiago in July 1966 for the World Championship — but they returned “empty-handed and dejected.”
Luck was not on their side. Greene fell in the slalom and downhill and injured her arm. Rod Hebron missed a gate in the slalom and was disqualified. Peter Duncan was going through the second gate on his first run when he lost his skis from under him. No one finished any higher than seventh. To add insult to injury, about $1,000 worth of the team’s equipment was stolen.
Greene did her hometown proud in February 1967 as Rossland hosted the first of two duMaurier Cups, a major international ski meet. She continued to chalk up podium finishes, winning seven of 16 events, including the downhill title at the 1967 US alpine championships. She was named Canadian Athlete of the Year.
1967-68 Canadian national ski team. Front row: Dan McKim, Scott Henderson, Jacques Roux, Bert Irwin, Michel Lehmann, Dave Bruneau, John Ritchie. Second row: Garrie Matheson, Emily Ringheim, Nancy Greene, Stephanie Townsend, Gary Batistella, Chuck Peacock, Judi Leinbweber, Marilyn Kelly, Karen Dokka, Sue Clift, Ann Rowley. Back row: Dan Irwin, Gerry Rinaldi, Rod Hebron, Currie Chapman, John Platt, Vern Anderson, Peter Duncan, Keith Shepherd, Bill McKay, Robert Swan. Photo taken at the Totem Ski Shop in Jasper.
The program’s fourth year was the big one. You probably know what happened in Grenoble in 1968. Greene won gold in the giant slalom by one of the biggest margins in Olympic history and silver in the slalom. She followed it up with two gold and a silver at the World Championships. Again she was named Canada’s Athlete of the Year.
It looked like the national program, which had transformed Canada’s ski team from also-ran to serious contender within a few years, would go on producing champions.
“A look at the … team is evidence that the program is working and gives reason to believe that within five years Canada will be challenging the French for the overall ski supremacy … with stronger team strength,” wrote Nelson Daily News sports editor John Korobanik.
In fact, the program did not much outlast its terrific high.
What happened? There were several factors. By the spring of 1969, despite a series of fundraisers, the team was $80,000 in debt ($686,000 today). It was also in upheaval. Five members resigned, critical of what they felt was a high-pressure approach by new coach Al Raine. However, the Canadian Alpine Ski Association gave Raine a vote of confidence with a three-year contract renewal and in the same breath announced the ski headquarters would move to Montreal.
Rumours the program would leave Nelson had already been circulating for 10 months. In Visionary: The Ernie Gare Story, Korobanik writes that despite the team’s success, the ski association wasn’t happy it was in Nelson. The “eastern establishment” wanted more direct control over the athletes and rationalized the move would also make travel to Europe easier.
According to former coach John Platt, the team was further concerned about a lack of facilities and the extra years it was taking for members to complete their education. “The skiers had reached the point where they were getting tired of giving everything and receiving little,” he said. While Notre Dame granted more training space and extended the school year, “things were not good enough to produce world champions in Nelson.”
While a few ski team members stayed, after less than five years the grand experiment was over.
Nevertheless, in the end, in addition to success on the slopes, the program could point to many Notre Dame honour roll students. Ninety per cent of skiers who attended completed at least one degree while some did two and others obtained a second from a different university.
Dan Irwin at his Notre Dame graduation ceremony in 1969. (Courtesy Bill McDonnell)
The first true national ski team also served as a forerunner for the next generation of Canadian alpine skiers, leading to the Crazy Canucks era. Several skiers went on to become national-level coaches including Currie Chapman, Scott Henderson, and Rod Hebron.
Nine members of the Notre Dame ski experiment have been inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame as either athletes, coaches, or builders: Peter Duncan (1986), Dave Jacobs (1988), Scott Henderson (1989), Verne Anderson (1990), Nancy Greene-Raine (1992), Currie Chapman (1993), Peter Webster (2003), Bob Swan (2018), and Rod Hebron (2022).
Bill McDonnell provided all of the material for this post.
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