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Legends of Showdown · The Ski Club years, 1936–1956
1951 Cliff Rumford — Racing by a gate
1951 Cliff Rumford — Racing by a gateThrockmorton Collection · The History Museum, Great Falls, MT

Cliff Rumford

Class B slalom winner in 1939, a founding patroller, and co-head of the 1946 lodge committee

Legend of Showdown
Born
1916, Hutchinson, Kansas
First skied at Showdown
racing at Kings Hill by 2 April 1939, when he won the Class B slalom at the club's first championships
First worked here
on the Great Falls Ski Patrol when it was formed, February 1940, and on the club's lift committee that season
Years at Showdown
Positions
  • Collections and Lift Committee, Great Falls Ski Club, 1940 season
  • Great Falls Ski Patrol — from its formation in February 1940; on the 1941-42 patrol under Richard Voorhees (named 6 December 1941)
  • Great Falls Ski Patrol — signed on again when it was rebuilt under Joe Taylor, January 1946
  • Chairman, the committee that kept the hill clean on the club's weekly outings, January 1946
  • Co-head of the club's special lodge committee, with Dan Moran, February 1946
  • Director, Great Falls Ski Club, elected 2 April 1965 (the board of 1965-66)

What they did

20 entries
  1. 2 April 1939Won the Class B slalom at the Great Falls Ski Club's first annual championships, at Kings Hill
  2. 15 April 1939Pictured in the paper with Dan Thorson as the club's junior and senior champions of the season, both to receive their trophies that night at the club's first annual dinner dance
  3. 1940 seasonOn the club's Collections and Lift Committee, under Roscoe Rowe
  4. January 1940Named to the five-man Great Falls team for the Sun Valley tryouts at Anaconda
  5. February 1940On the Great Falls Ski Patrol when it was formed, under Robert Selzer
  6. 17 March 1940Second in the club downhill, from the top of Porphyry Peak to the bottom of Bovey Slope, in 1:38.9, behind Dan Thorson
  7. 31 March 1940Raced in the ten-man class A of the club slalom championship on the power line run
  8. March 1941On the committee readying the course for spectators, with parking and coffee at the warming house, with Jack Throckmorton, Duke Albrecht and Merrill Moran
  9. 9 March 1941Listed as a judge for the club downhill, and placed third in it, in 2:07.8
  10. 23 March 1941Fourth in the men's class A slalom at the club championships
  11. 6 December 1941Named to the club's ski patrol for 1941-42, under Richard Voorhees
  12. 23 January 1946Signed on again when the club rebuilt its ski patrol under Joe Taylor, and was made chairman of the committee that kept the hill clean on the weekly outings
  13. 3 February 1946Pictured in the Great Falls Tribune taking a somersault on skis for the photographer and the admiring novices
  14. 6 February 1946Named, with Dan Moran, to head the club's special lodge committee; the lodge opened on 7 December 1947
  15. 6 March 1946Nominated to the Great Falls Ski Club's board of directors
  16. 14 March 1948Put on a comic act as “Prof. Sitzmark” at the club races, the day about a hundred people came up to look over the new lodge
  17. Bought a share in Ski Tow Incorporated, the club's stock drive for a lift
  18. 5 April 1964At 47, won the men-over-40 class at the club's championship races at Kings Hill, in 1:44.6
  19. 2 April 1965Elected a director of the Great Falls Ski Club, on its board for 1965-66
  20. 7 March 1971His wife, Barbara Rumford, won the women-over-50 class at the club's annual races

Photographs

2 in the archive
1951 Cliff Rumford — Racing by a gate
1952 Cliff Rumford Somersault

All photographs of Cliff Rumford in the search →

In the papers

4 documents

Search the papers for Cliff Rumford →

Added by the people who were there