Curator’s note- the “story” below originated with an email and photo from Terry Morgan, a former ski jumper, football and rugby player, and slider from Lake Placid. From there, Tom Oddy, his neighborhood buddy back in the day, jumped in with more backstory and photos. Not to be outdone, Terry followed up with one more delightful tidbit at the bottom.
TERRY MORGAN
Lake Placid, NY
Did my good buddy Tom Oddy ever share this picture of the Lake Placid Jr. Ski Jumping Banquet with WW II singing star Kate Smith who had a summer home in Lake Placid? You may recognize some of the names. Joe Lamb 1972 Sapporo, Jay Rand’s brother and other now well known Placid citizens……I was a jumper of course until high school when my big football body got too cumbersome to jump the big hills and then switched to bobsled and luge.
TOM ODDY
Lake Placid, NY
A little side note, Terry and I grew up next door to each other, 11 Morgan children and 7 Oddy’s, if there was a ball in the front yard, there was a game. We all played multiple sports and always supported each other throughout the years. Terry and I remain best friends!
Regarding the photo, great memories and days of being a junior ski jumper in Lake Placid. We would travel as a team throughout the winter on a school bus and sometimes two buses with 30-40 ski jumpers and our coaches John Viscome, Bud Colby and his wife Alice to competitions in Brattleboro, Vt; Mt. Beacon, NY; Bear Mt., NY; Rosendale, NY; Salisbury, CT; Rumford, Maine; Great Gorge, NJ; Three Rivers, Quebec; Mont St. Anne, Quebec and Camp Fortune in Gatineau, Quebec. There was also a little stipulation that we could not travel if we didn’t keep our grades up, monitored by our parents.
Our coaches instilled the values of respect, working hard as athletes, sportsmanship and being a team! We practiced three nights a week under the lights on jumps behind the high school. In addition to the high school jumps we made neighborhood jumps in my family’s back field, Hillcrest Avenue Park where we spent hours into the dark of the day! Yes, we had really sharp looking red sweaters and hats piped in blue & white that we wore for competitions. Remember this was in the era before jump suits and helmets.
There also was tremendous social and fitness value in that we all pitched in to snow the hills when necessary and pack the hills before and after every practice. Thirty to forty junior jumpers all discussing the best jumps of the week, the upcoming trip, sleepovers, girlfriends, college search/interest and other sports participation to name a few topics.
At the end of each season, we would have a banquet at the Majestic Restaurant or Swiss Chalet to celebrate our season with honored guests like Kate Smith and of course our parents. Note in the photo we are all dressed up for the end of the season banquet. And as is the case with any ski jumping friend, we are all lifelong friends!
FOLLOW-ON STORY FROM TERRY
In the late 70’s I played rugby for the Saranac Lake Mountaineers. Were well known internationally because we host America’s biggest summer rugby tournament each August. Anyway, one of our key players was Leo Demong. Leo played hooker and looked like a leprechaun and played really tough. Anway, I remember the 1979 tournament and Leo’s wife, Helen, on the sidelines pregnant with some young fella they would name Billy. She said to me before a game “I want my son to grow up and be a bobsledder like all the Morgans.” I immediately chimed back saying, “No, don’t do that. Get the kid into skiing. More money in it.” The rest is history.
