Bob Beattie, founding coach of the U.S. Ski Team and one of the originators of the Alpine Ski World Cup, has passed away at the age of 85.
Known often as ‘Beats’ or simply “Coach,” Beattie later in life became well-known as a commentator for ABC Sports and ESPN, working for ABC at four Olympic Winter Games.
“He was a driving force for ski racing his entire life and among sport leaders who built alpine ski racing into one of the pillar events at the Olympic Winter Games,” stated an obituary written on Team USA’s website.
Beattie attended Middlebury College in Vermont, where he lettered in tennis, skiing, football and cross-country running. He became the ski coach following his graduation, where the team finished third at the NCAA championships in 1956.
Soon after, he went to Boulder, CO, to be an assistant football coach before taking over the ski program and turning it into a national power. The Buffaloes won the title in 1959 and again in ’60.
In 1961 the National Ski Association named Beattie as its first national team coach. He embraced that role, providing the formative direction to organize the first true national team with heavy promotion leading up to the 1964 Olympics at Innsbruck. The USA won an unprecedented four alpine medals, including silver and bronze by the late Jean Saubert, as well as the first men’s alpine medals in Olympic history for the USA, with Billy Kidd taking silver in slalom and the late Jimmie Heuga bronze.
He also pioneered a new era of promotion and fundraising for the fledgling U.S. Ski Team. He partnered with the U.S. ski industry to raise funds and engaged with corporate America to support its national team at previously unheard-of levels. In the mid-1960s, Beattie partnered with journalist Serge Lang and French coach Honore Bonnet to create the World Cup.
After leaving his coaching career, Beattie started World Wide Ski Corp., pioneering the World Pro Ski Tour in 1970.
At the same time, Beattie also took over promotion of the relatively new NASTAR recreational racing program that had been started by SKI Magazine editor John Fry in 1969. NASTAR continues today, now under the leadership of the U.S. Ski Team, bringing the sport to thousands of new participants at resorts coast-to-coast.
Beattie made his debut as a television commentator in 1969 working for Roone Arledge at ABC. He was later paired with NFL football star Frank Gifford. Their call of Austrian Franz Klammer’s gold medal downhill run became legendary. He went on to work Winter Olympics in 1976, 1980, 1984 and 1988, as well as the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The then U.S. Ski Association awarded Beattie its highest honor, the Julius Blegen Award, in 1964 for his leadership in forming the U.S. Ski Team. He was awarded the AT&T Skiing Award in 1983 for his lifetime contributions to the sport. He was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1984 and the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1986. The U.S. Ski Team and International Ski Federation presented Beattie the FIS Journalist Award in 1997. He was honored with the U.S. Ski Association’s Russell Wilder Award in 2000 for his contribution to youth through NASTAR.
Beattie married four times. He had a son, Zeno Beattie; a daughter, Susan; six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Among Beattie’s credits are several books, including My Ten Secrets of Skiing (Viking Press, 1968) and Bob Beattie’s Learn to Ski (Bantam Books, 1967). He also had a cameo role as a German skier in the television series Combat with Vic Morrow in 1964, as well as in the 1987 Sylvester Stallone film Over the Top.
Details on a celebration of Bob Beattie’s life are pending, but will likely be this fall in Aspen.
