The U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum announced their inductees for the Class of 2007: Eric Bergoust,
Donna and Jake Burton Carpenter, Mitch Cubberly, Tom Jacobs, Everett Kircher and Doug Lewis.
The class will be honored at a ceremony at the SIA.08 SnowSports Trade Show on Thursday, January 31. To attend, please contact the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame at 906.485.6323 or by email: administrator@skihall.com.
Below are the bios of each inductee:
Eric Bergoust: Growing up just outside Missoula, MT with a trampoline in his backyard, Eric began working on his own tricks and after watching a World Cup event in 1985 was hooked on aerial skiing. Joining the U.S. Freestyle Teams aerial squad in 1990, he became a two-time World Champion, three-time U.S. Champion, and four-time Olympian. Eric retired from the sport in 2006 after the Torino Olympic Games.
Jake and Donna Burton: The first honorees from snowboarding to be elected into the Hall of Fame, it is the vision, determination and business savvy from Jake and Donna that brought snowboarding from the backyard snow banks to resort slopes around the world. The Burton Snowboard Company was started in 1977 out of a Vermont barn with Jake Burton Carpenter loading up his station wagon driving door-to-door convincing shops to buy his boards. Now, in 2007, the Carpenters are still the sole owners of Burton Snowboards, the worlds leading snowboard company.
Mitch Cubberly: With an education in mechanical engineering, Mitch Cubberly created a safer ski experience for thousands of American skiers with his invention of the first multi-angle release ski binding, called the Cubco, in the early 1950s. The first step-in binding, the first anti-friction binding plate (the Cubco Skidder), the Cubco ski brake, mounting tools and other ski shop supplies were invented/developed and marketed by his company. Many products went unpatented and were made available to the ski industry. The only pieces he co-patented with Gordon Lipe were the Cubco toe and heel binding, and the Skidder.
Tom Jacobs: After competing in cross-country and Nordic combined at the Oslo Olympic Games in 1952, Tom Jacobs went on to a successful career as coach for Colorado Universitys ski team. He served as the Executive Director of the National Ski Association, todays U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, in 1956-1957. After moving back to the East in the 60s, Jacobs and his wife started Reliable Racing Supply, founding the first mail order ski race equipment distributor of its kind. The company became an international supplier of cutting-edge race products that raised the level of the racing environment for thousands of competitive skiers and organizations.
Everett Kircher: Everett Kircher was the developer and visionary of Boyne USA Resorts. In 1947, he bought a “useless piece of farmland” in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan for one dollar and started Boyne Mountain Ski Resort. Developing state of- the-art snowmaking equipment, the first double and triple chairlifts in the world and a ski resort management model, he created the most successful family-owned ski resort corporation in the United States. Using his keen business sense, mechanical ingenuity and tenacious drive Kircher kept on the cutting edge of the ski resort industry.
Doug Lewis: Doug Lewis is a two time Olympian going to the Sarajevo Olympic Games in 1984 and Calgary Olympic Games in 1988. He won two U.S. National Champion Downhill titles and was considered a fierce competitor during his solid career with the U.S. Alpine Ski Team. His bronze medal at the Bormio, Italy World Championship race in 1985 was the first won by an American male skier at any World Championships in the downhill event. After his race career he went on to co-found Eliteam, a summer program aimed at improving conditioning for young ski racers and other athletes through sport psychology, physiology and good nutrition.
