ROGER DION
Lebanon Outing Club
Lebanon, NH
This past summer my wife and I decided to go on a trip west. It started in Colorado then through Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Washington, including a stop at Leavenworth which has a few memories for me. In fact, the picture of me jumping was taken in Leavenworth in 1959 when the USEASA (Eastern Division) sent five of us easterners out to compete in their tournament. Besides me, the crew included Art Devlin, Art Tokle, Roy Sherwood, and Earl Murphy. I was 19 years old, just a kid. Traveling to Washington was exciting! Imagine a four-engine prop job spitting fire at 300 miles per hour! By today’s standards, that’s scary!
When we arrived in Leavenworth and checked in we were given a cabin with 4 beds. Being the kid, I didn’t get one so I had to bounce from one bed to another each night sleeping with each of my roommates. The first night was with Murphy and the firstthing he did was open the window. He liked a cold bedroom… great!
The next night was with Sherwood, he was normal but talked in his sleep.
Then came Devlin. He liked it cold and pulled the sheets up because he slept with his feet out.
Finally, it was my turn with Art Tokle. Art was the only one of us who smoked. We entered the bedroom, and I noticed a clean ashtray on the nightstand next to his side of the bed. Well, Art didn’t like a cold bedroom or pull the sheets out but he did like smoking. We slept about 6 hours before we had to get up to start our day of training. I counted 6 cigarette butts in the ashtray. Being a non-smoker, I couldn’t get over it.
l loved those guys and count this as one of the best experiences I ever had. The picture below is how the Leavenworth jump looks today. Sad!
From Leavenworth we headed to Squaw Valley for a pre-Olympic tournament. I had my own bed there! It was exciting, taking part in a tournament on an Olympic hill . The picture with snow shows how the jump looked in 1959, and the picture with me pointing to the hill in the background is how it looks today. Again- sad!
I have many stories about my life as a ski jumper back in the 50s -60s etc. but this one was fun for me, and I was with the legends of that time! Hard to beat it!
CURATOR’S NOTE:
Just to give a little perspective to the company that young Roger was keeping on that trip to Leavenworth. Both Art Tokle and Art Devlin would have been 36 years old (basically twice Dion’s age!). Devlin had served in World War II and been on the ’48, ’52’ and ’56 Olympic Teams before becoming the ABC Wide World of Sports commentator for ski jumping. Tokle would go on to make the ’60 Olympic Team and coach the ’64 and ’68 Teams. Both Devlin and Tokle are in the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Roy Sherwood was 7 years older than Dion so would have been 26 at the time and had been on the 1956 Olympic Team.
in Leavenworth, WA in 1959.
ski jump during a visit this summer.
