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A Brief History of Snow Sports
Jennifer Martinez, Archivist

 

“The outdoor winter life at Holderness appeals greatly to every real American boy and helps him to love the outdoors. The excellent athletic facilities of the school provide every boy an opportunity to engage in some form of competitive sport” (The Witness 1930, 9).

 

The Beginning of Snow Sports - Hockey

The geographical location of Holderness School in the White Mountains of New Hampshire has allowed snow sports to develop organically throughout the school’s history. By 1930, The Witness, an Episcopal magazine, emphasized the importance of outdoor activities in the education of young students. Among the photographs of the building’s exteriors and interiors, the magazine included a photo of boys playing hockey on what was, at the time, the varsity ice rink.

 

Winter sports have always been present in the history of the school, albeit not always as a formal sport. Solberg states that traditionally, campus winter sports were mainly for recreation and a way to appreciate the beauty of nature. One went skiing to enjoy the outdoors, not to compete. The competitive nature we would recognize today did not appear on our campus until the 1930s when Head of School Edric Weld led the school and, under his charge, began developing skiing trails in the surrounding land (2004, 83).

Hockey is one of our earliest recorded winter sports in the Archives. By 1902, the school began competing “successfully against outside teams” and, by 1916, the school had its first hockey team (Solberg 2004, 19 and 83). Games were played against Plymouth High School. Students were inventive when the need for an ice hockey rink was present in the 1920s. The Dial issue of March 1927 records that they flooded the gym to make such space:

“To flood the gym was more of a problem as the water had to be
carried in pails from the main building” (15).

Hockey–alongside Alpine and Nordic skiing–was also one of the first sports available to girls once the school was made coeducational in the late 1970s under Headmaster Pete Woodward.

Olympic Roots

The first recorded instance of skiing at Holderness School dates back to a graduate from the class of 1918. However, it was not until Olympic coach Don Henderson joined the school that skiing truly flourished in the form we would recognize today (Solberg 2004). By the 1920s, there are records of skiing, hockey, snowshoeing, and tobogganing at winter events on Saturdays (The Dial 1924, 14). Then, in 1932, under past Head of School Edric Weld, Anton Kelb of Munich, and Walter Braun of Austria joined the school to teach German and coach skiing, making the sport official in the school with few numbers of athletes. By 1936, Holderness had its first official ski team.

“Through the 1940s, the school produced two Olympians – alpine racers Steve Knowlton ’41 and Bill Beck ‘47” (Carey 2016, 7). 

Don and Pat Henderson

In addition to developing the skiing program, Don Henderson (b. 1924- d. 2018) taught history at Holderness School, enhancing and crafting a strong curriculum. He believed that an athlete should excel in both academics and sports. Henderson led a full life, and his accomplishments are far too many to detail here but some worthy of mentioning are that he received a Purple Heart for his war efforts during WWII in the Apennine Mountains, he was the head alpine coach for the U.S. Ski Team at the 1964 Olympics, the head men’s alpine coach for the 1970 World Championships, and he was inducted into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame posthumously.

In a 1988 interview with Patricia Cowdery, Don Henderson explained how, in the beginning, only eight students were interested in skiing, and it was not until 1952 that he built Holderness School’s first jump on what was the property of Jay Crafts on Route 175 that the sport gained popularity. This was followed by a multi-year clearing of the first ski slope with the help of students. The school started competing in national races, and after some challenges, Holderness won the Prep School Championship in 1958. Holderness School student-athletes were now on the winter sports radar. One interesting piece of local history is that when Don Henderson arrived at the school, the current advisor for winter sports was a fellow math and science teacher who came to Holderness in 1942: Wendell Stephenson. He was on the team of three observers who recorded the strongest winds at Mt. Washington and helped Don set up meets hosted by the school (Cowdery 1988).

Nordic Coach Jim Page demonstrates technique on the Holderness campus (1971-1972)

 

Nordic Skiing becomes Official

Nordic skiing was another sport that developed similarly under James (Jim) Warner Page when he arrived at Holderness School in 1965. Page taught history at Holderness and was a member of the 1964 US Olympic Ski Team. He left Holderness in 1972 to become the Dartmouth skiing coach. Before Page, however, Holderness had its fair share of Nordic skiers. The photographs below show Holderness students working on their Nordic skills as early as 1939.

Nordic skiers on February 4, 1939.
Photographic Collection, Holderness School Archives (PH.3.2)

The landscape of winter sports has evolved from its early days, and today, sports continue to make an impact on the lives of our students at Holderness School. Snow sports not only connect students with nature, but they also promote physical activity and foster students’ sense of community.

 

Learn more about Snow Sports at Holderness

 

Interested in learning more?

Solberg, J.B. (2004) This Tender Vine: Holderness School at 125 Years. iUniverse.

Learn more from Rick Carey, who wrote a good article about snow sports and their history at Holderness School in the 2016 winter edition of Holderness School Today (online here).

Read a NYT article on Holderness School skiing by Michael Strauss.

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