The Colorado Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame elected four outstanding sport builders and athletes and one pioneer of the ski industry to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in October.

Elected April 22 from a list of 15 finalists, the Class of 2015 includes sport builders and athletes Dr. Jack Eck, Ceil Folz, George “Bud” Marolt, Kent Myers, and as well as pioneer Bob Singley. The other finalists were Pam Conklin, Shannon Dunn, Cheryl Jensen, Scott Kennett, John Lovett, Paul Major, Mike and Steve Marolt, John McBride, Casey Puckett, Chris Puckett and Charles Smith.

The five new inductees join a prestigious roster of Hall of Fame
athletes, sport builders and visionaries who have made major
contributions to Colorado’s ski industry over many decades. They’ll be
formally inducted during the 39th annual Colorado Ski & Snowboard
Hall of Fame Gala at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort on Friday, Oct.
2.

“We are pleased to honor this incredible class of Hall of Fame
inductees selected from an inspiring list of richly deserving
nominees,” said Susie Tjossem, executive director of the Colorado Ski
& Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame. “The voting panel truly had a tough
task in selecting only 5 from among so many great candidates.”

The Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum and Hall of Fame is located on the third level of the Vail Village parking structure. It is a rich treasure trove of ski and snowboard history with themed galleries displaying artifacts, narratives and film documentaries including the prominently featured story of famed 10th Mountain Division training at Colorado’s Camp Hale. For more information about the Museum and Hall of Fame schedule, call 970-476-1876 or go to www.skimuseum.net.

  • DR. JACK ECK-Sport Builder: Jack Eck, since 1971, has been on the ground floor of many of the life-saving techniques used on-hill to treat injured skiers.  He applied his experience as a Vietnam medic to shape advanced orthopedic and medical first responder techniques used by the Ski Patrol.  His practices influenced the U.S. Ski Team and, were adopted by resorts nationwide. He played a lead role in gaining acceptance of ski brakes to replace injury prone safety straps. He established an Emergency Medical Services System into place; the Professional Ski Patrol basic qualification requirements, and did annual training for new patrollers. He was the course Medical Director for the 1989 and 1999 FIS Alpine World Championships and is the Medical Committee Chairman for the 2015 FIS Alpine World Championships.
  • CEIL FOLZ-Sport Builder: Ceil Folz has been working for the Vail Valley Foundation since 1989 President of the Vail Valley Foundation since 1999. Her leadership has brought huge support for the annual World Cup alpine event s to Colorado.  As President of the Vail Valley Foundation she was responsible for executing the successful bid and subsequently the 2015 FIS World Alpine Ski Championships which this winter stunned the sport by reaching a new height.  Ceil and her staff deserves credit for taking Colorado to a new standard i.e. over 2,200 volunteers, huge crowds watching the races, TV coverage around the world reaching 800 million, all in a major ski sport “happening”.  Ceil has provided the leadership to support skiing. 
  • GEORGE “BUD” MAROLT-Athlete-Sport Builder: Bud Marolt is the eldest of the Marolt brothers from Aspen.  An accomplished ski racer he won the 1950 R.M. Downhill, Slalom and Combined Championships and was a forerunner in the 1950 FIS World Championships in Aspen.  By age 20 he was a ski instructor and certified National Ski Patrolman. He was a member of the 1952 National team and qualified for the 1952 Olympic team but was unable to participate because of family obligations.  He continued to patrol and teach in Aspen through 1953.   After moving to Denver he became involved with Gordie Wren at Loveland Ski School.  He started kids ski programs that brought 2,500 kids from Denver to ski each winter.  Founded the Loveland Basin Ski club and established the Loveland Derby the oldest amateur ski race in the U.S.  He served as President of RMSIA helping build the organization. He brought Clif Taylor to Loveland to introduce the Graduated Length Method (GLM).   All at the same time, his “day job” was a hard goods buyer for Denver Dry Goods and consultant for Rosemont boots. 
  • KENT MYERS-Sport Builder: Kent Myers had a career in ski resort marketing that has spanned 5 Colorado ski resorts; Copper Mountain, Winter Park, Steamboat, Vail and Beaver Creek before starting,  Airplanners LLC which is best known for direct air service programs to ski resorts. At Winter Park Kent started its transformation to a destination resort, at Steamboat he created the first Kids Ski Free promotion and non-stop air service to Yampa Regional Airport, at Vail he started the successful Fly Vail campaign, and at Beaver Creek he shepherd development of Strawberry Park, redevelopment of Beaver Creek Village and ski connection to Arrowhead.  His next venture, Airplanners, LLC, develops and manages commercial air service for resort communities through alliances between the local airports, communities and airlines.  Through airline guarantees resort community airports have attracted new direct flights saving the desirable destination skiers valuable time and reduction of travel hassle.  Direct flights have resulted in increased skier days.  
  • BOB SINGLEY-Athlete-Pioneer: Bob Singley is a humble man yet colorful character credited with being the visionary and innovator of freestyle and extreme skiing.  A legendary Winter Park ski patroller in the 1960’s whose enthusiastic and infectious joy for skiing and unbelievable skills pushed the boundaries and expanded the sport of skiing from the beautifully executed parallel turns of the 1940’s into the unimaginable feats of freestyle and extremely skiing that we see today.  This pioneer of fun-style skiing helped found Fraser’s Tirebitter Ski Club, which he still runs today. The club is based on fun-first instead of serious ski racing which aligns with Singley’s rule-eschewing ethos.  The club’s signature ski race, The Singley Epworth Cup, is one of the nation’s longest running summer ski races; a tribute to grassroots fun-first ski competitions.  Singley’s audacious skiing lead him to be a skiing stuntman in pal Robert Redford’s “Downhill Racer” as well as the James Bond movie “On Her Majesties Secret Service”.   New hips and knees are lingering evidence of his skiing escapades that made him one of the most memorable ski patrollers in Colorado history.