1971 History
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How long have the Airline Teams been racing?
Back in 1970 a major snow sport publication sent a cartoonist to an airline week. The write-up was in the November 1971 issue. It's copyrighted, but Google has a copy posted online. If you click on the following link to Google's Archive you will find the article on Page 110.
The year 2018 marks a milestone in the history of the American Airlines Ski and Snowboard Team.
One of the original and probably one of oue most endeared members, John "Tuck" Keleher passed away at the ripe old age of 97. His involvement with the Team lasted for decades, and he was loved my so many of the participants that we named our annual award for the "Spirit of American" to be the "Tuck Keleher Award".Many Team members attended his memorial service, and at the end Tuck's caretaker handed us a handwritten letter written earlier in the year that reflected Tuck's memories of the beginning of the Team. I have carefully gone over all 8 pages and translated the words he wrote (The best I could) and have included them here below for your review. (They are unedited) Long live the memory of Tuck, and may the Team go on continuing a proud tradition.
TUCK’S MEMORY LETTER​
I’d like to say something about the beginning of the Ski Team. As a tribute to its founder John Hindrum. I personally started racing in NASTAR, and in 1970 I saw a notice of a March Airline race in Alyeska, Alaska. So I decided to go. That year three people from American showed up. At that time the local people invited ski racers to stay in their homes. A Bill Hanson stayed with me in the Hill managers home. Our racing wasn’t too good, but we enjoyed ourselves. Bill said he was going to start a team the following year, but I never heard from him again.
The following year 1971 in March they again had the international Airline ski race in Alyeska, so I again decided to go and that is when I met John Hindrum. He was a husky built guy who would have made a good football player. He was a take charge sort of guy and wanted me to share a room in the main lodge, but I had already checked into the Crow Creek Lodge dormitory which was about a mile away from the hill next to the Double Musky bar. My choice of lodging wasn’t too good. In the middle of the night one of the guys jumped out of be and ran down to the end of the room and I heard water running. The next day I moved in with John and spent the rest of my stay sleeping on the floor.
John was a fine skier and raced in 17th in the “B’s” combined. The “B’s” in the international were like our “A’s” today. Won’t mention where I came in. By the end of the week we had become good friends and John told be he was bringing a team to Alaska the following year. I told him I’d see him there.
In March 1972 we (5) met again in Alaska for the 13th annual Intl. Airline ski race. John brought a great bunch of people. At the Pre Race meeting he told me he had already picked his team for the “B” races, so I said fine I’ll just race “A’s”. Was I Nervous? I was a pretty good stem skier at the time.
In 1973 we went to more meets, even one in Japan and performed creditably. After John died, Dave Rosol took over for about a year, then Bill Clark was Captain until a ski accident made him stop. Then along came Brooks Dyer and then Uncle Bob Powers. (We had other names for him.) But Seriously that is when the team relly started to build up. The news letter by our first Secretary Cheryl Anderson had a lot to do with it.
Plank Holders in picture above:
173 John Hindrum
159 Greg Gaudet
097 Bill Clark051 John Sutor
014 Nick Snyder
069 Fletch Ingals
096 Pete Zawacki
005 Bill Meny
101 John (Tuck) Keleher
141 Dave Rosol
—- Dave Tosier
—- Bud Calia (Claudia Vianello)
028 Bill Both
003 Cristie Clark
033 Tina Craig
053 Georgiana (Snookie) Sutor