Forty Flashback: Bob Beattie

In Ski Racing’s 40th season, we’ll take a look at the personalities — and the events — that have shaped the sport since 1968. In this installment of Forty Flashback, SR tunes in with Bob Beattie, former head of the U.S. alpine team, a driving force behind the pro circuit and later a longtime ski racing television commentator.

His vision helped kick-start the World Cup. What would Bob Beattie change now?

Editor’s Note: A portion of this interview appears in the Nov. 7 issue of Ski Racing magazine.

In Ski Racing’s 40th season, we’ll take a look at the personalities — and the events — that have shaped the sport since 1968. In this installment of Forty Flashback, SR tunes in with Bob Beattie, former head of the U.S. alpine team, a driving force behind the pro circuit and later a longtime ski racing television commentator. Beattie now calls Aspen, Colorado, home, and still attends a batch of racing events each season.

Ski Racing: What is the biggest change in ski racing in the last 40 years?
Bob Beattie: The biggest change is that the organization of the U.S. Ski Team, the U.S. Skiing Association, has changed tremendously. It was not very professionally run, and now it’s very professionally run. I think that’s the biggest difference. Bill Marolt has total control. The way he runs it, nobody really gets in the middle of what he does, and that’s the biggest thing. And I think that’s very strong. People sometimes chip in with ideas, but he runs the ship. That’s the main difference. We never had a president who really knew much about ski racing — or athletics in general.

SR: Keeping kids involved in racing is always a challenge. How can USSA improve on that?
BB: We need to keep kids in the programs obviously. Keeping them involved is difficult. First of all, there’s an injury factor, and there’s a cost factor, before you can get to the ski team. Also, the FIS has to do something. I’m not very favorable with the FIS people. They need to do a lot, and I don’t think they’ve done much in the last 20 years to increase their sport.

SR: Is some of that related to lack of television?
BB: Let’s put it this way — there’s not much [ski racing] on television in the U.S. There’s been a huge downfall. You can’t find much ski racing on U.S. television, and I think that’s terrible. If we’re not going to find it on television, we’re not going to see kids want to be in ski racing. … When I was coaching the ski team, one of the biggest things that I worried about was television. And I spent a lot of time trying to get television involved. It saddens me that this is a problem. And it’s not just in the U.S. It’s the same in Europe. There isn’t much television, as an example, in France, where you’d think there’d be a lot of it. Obviously it’s huge in Austria. Austria is a very small country.

SR: The famous Portillo, Chile, dinner with you and Serge Lang and others was said to have really started the World Cup. What are your memories of that?
BB: Well, that was just the final step as far as the World Cup is concerned, putting the World Cup together. We had had a lot of meetings before that. The real putting the World Cup together was really having races here in the United States. We had a lot of European racers over here in the U.S. Getting the American International Team Races here in the U.S. in 1965 was really the key to the World Cup I think. … There was a Europa Cup, but there was no World Cup. You couldn’t have a World Cup without races here in the U.S. Getting those competitions over here in the U.S. was the key. Once you got that going, then it was a fait accompli. Serge and I had talked about it over and over and over and over. [Honore] Bonnet was a huge supporter too.

SR: Why were people against races in the United States back then?
BB: There were a lot of them who didn’t want to have races here in the U.S. It was typically the way ski racing is now — they don’t want to travel much, they want to be home. But I think that’s pretty shortsighted. That’s not the way the world works.

SR: After you left the U.S. Ski Team, you spearheaded the professional circuit. Was that a natural decision for you?
BB: After I left the ski team, the pro tour was an obvious thing to do if I wanted to stay in ski racing. It was really fun because we were able to get all the racers together from all over the world and I said, ‘Guys, this is your tour.’ And we had a meeting every week, and they had their own board of directors. I said, ‘You know, hopefully you’ll listen to me and what I want to do with it, but it’s yours.’ And we did it that way. When we see each other these days, they all come up and say, ‘You know what, Bob, those were the best days of my life as far as ski racing.’ For some reason, they felt the same way. The reason was because they were running it. And there’s a lot to be said for that … the World Cup people should think about that.

SR: What were the highlights of the pro tour from those days?
BB: The final days, when [Jean-Claude] Killy and Spider Sabich were fighting it out for the title, was a big deal. There were so many people coming to watch. It was a no-brainer, because they could understand it. Nobody understands ski racing because they don’t understand the clock … this was a simple way of doing it. I’m not so sure we’d be running it different now. I hope we would. I hope we’d be moving on to a different type of format. I think we’d be running it somewhat different, not much different. I think in any event, you have to change a little bit all the time. As an example, in ski racing, they only thing they’ve come up with for change is super G. I think that was a good thing.

SR: What are your thoughts on skiercross?
BB: I think it’s pretty good, but I’m a little worried that there’s not going to be anybody alive anymore. I think they need to change some of their format. Last winter, everybody was hurt. They need to work on that. I don’t know what they should do, because I don’t know much about it, but I think they can change some things about it. Otherwise it’s a good thing. Anything that makes ski racing more interesting … I watch races all the time. We go to Kitzbühel every year … and it gets boring, the same thing. If there’s enough snow in Europe, some of the downhills are pretty interesting, particularly the Hahnenkamm, but otherwise it’s not very exciting. So I think they need to change some things. And they’re trying to. I think they’re trying, but they need to change more.

SR: The equipment has changed a lot. How much of a factor is that?
BB: I think that’s one of the big things in skiing — the equipment has changed a lot. If you have to say what’s the biggest change, it’s the equipment, and along with the equipment, the preparation of the courses. In our day it was nothing like it is now. It was unbelievable. And we’d be out foot packing. That would be unheard of today. If you were to have these kids today out foot packing, they’d look at you like, ‘You’re
crazy.’
    The one thing that disappoints me a lot … I was over at Steadman-Hawkins in Vail because my wife is having a problem with her knee, and I see all these kids coming in all the time, and it seems that most of these kids somewhere down the line get hurt. That seems to have an effect on the sport.

SR: Did the racers in the 1960s have the same gung-ho mentality as kids today?
BB: Oh absolutely, absolutely. They were crazy. They were really crazy. They didn’t have any equipment, the courses weren’t in very good shape. They didn’t go as fast, but if they went as fast, no one would be alive. They were really crazy, but they were very interested in their sport, and they’re still all very close today. We had a little party last year in Boulder and 56 kids showed up. Mostly the 1964 year.

SR: Who are the characters you remember the most?
BB: As you can probably imagine, being a coach in the ’60s was an experience by itself. I was pretty tough. In the early ’60s, one beer and you were out, no recourse. And you would never come back. But we still loved each other. It was very interesting. They all had different ideas. Now it’s a little different in the ways teams are put together. These kids they get more money, because we had no money then. We weren’t allowed to have any money then. They’re getting a fair amount of money now, and I think that probably makes for some degree of independence for them. Maybe down the road that will build ski racing just like tennis. I don’t know that it really does yet, but I think it will.

SR: Who were the top racers in your mind?
BB: For Americans, Jean Saubert was one of the best. She was a tremendous athlete and a very, very tough competitor. She wasn’t given her due I don’t think. But she was great. And Buddy Werner was sensational. After he got hurt in 1958 in training, he never came back completely, because he was severely hurt. But he was still a big part of the ski team. He went to school at [the University of Colorado]. He really never had a coach, just for a few weeks in the Olympics and stuff. He was terrific with me, was really a big help, and with all the other kids. He’s the only American to this day who has won the Hahnenkamm from the top to the bottom. He was fabulous as far as I’m concerned.
    Of course Jimmie Heuga and Billy Kidd. They were very young when they won their medals — only 20. … And Chuck Ferries, the only American to win the Hahnenkamm slalom. Chuck Ferris was a hell of a slalom skier. Every time I talked about him, people say, ‘Who?’ He’s the most unknown great ski racer in U.S. history. But he was a hell of a skier, and a really good athlete.
    Back then, no one hung along that long, which is too bad, because they could have gotten better and better and better.

SR: What made Buddy Werner so special?
BB: He was a great athlete and he was fearless — he was also a good ski jumper, coming out of Steamboat. As an example, before my day, in Europe when he was training with the Austrians, he would be out training, testing skis, and he would be able to ride skis so well in flat sections of the downhill, that they would all test skis and he would be the fastest. Then they would switch skis, and he would STILL be the fastest. It would drive them crazy.

SR: Any other racers stand out?
BB: Phil Mahre was one of the best, maybe the best of the U.S. ski racers. Him and his brother were their own team. They were on the ski team in that the ski team paid their way, but they never really had coaches. It was very interesting. I was working for ESPN and ABC then. They were their own people, and they were really tough. If Phil had raced downhill, he would have been one of the best of all time, of any nation. Now he’s trying to qualify for nationals again. He’s a hell of an athlete, mentally and physically.

SR: Do you have any regrets about the way you left the national team?
BB: I don’t have any regrets — I knew I had things pretty hard and with a volunteer organization, you’re going to rub some people the wrong way. It really was volunteer in those days. But I was there nine years, and it was going to run out of breathe. When I left — in the fall of 1968 I announced I was going to be leaving that spring —I knew that the time was up. They had a president that never was on skis and most of board was never on skis.

SR: What would you change about the World Cup today?
BB: In many ways — though the World Cup did a lot for ski racing overall — in some ways it hurt us. We thought the World Cup would have more races here in the U.S. It’s very disappointing that it doesn’t, the fact that we only have a couple of races here. That hurts us. We need more races here in the U.S. That was our goal back in the ’60s. We have such a big continent.

SR: What was one of the keys to the success of the American team in the 1960s?
BB: I think a big thing is Bonnet. We had a great relationship with the French. We went over there to train in ’61 not knowing what we were going to do. We went to Val d’Isere. They were a lot bigger and faster. That’s where we met Killy and all the French guys. We traveled to races, not with them, but on different vehicles. We were all together, so we got to be friendly there, too. We trained downhill with them. At night, we were with them a lot.
    I think Bonnet was one of the best coaches I’ve ever seen. He was the greatest organizer ever. He was married to a British girl, so he spoke good English. We were very close to them.
    That was really good because we had huge seeding problems. That was really the basis of the whole Olympic year. It was a key factor, so our relationship with the French and Bonnet was great.
    Bonnet was a captain in the Swiss army before [joining the French ski team]. He was a very good disciplinarian. He just was a great organizer training-wise and everything else. He wasn’t a great skier, but he was a great organizer. He had great assistant coaches, for men and women. I thought he was terrific, and a lot of people agree with me.
    It was interesting. After the French were so good and won so many races, we’d go to a race and at the finish line they’d all be bad-mouthing Bonnet. He’d said to me, ‘Bob, that is the French way.’ Not only the French way, it was also the American way, as I found out later. He later quit, and the French have never been the same.

SR: Talk about those seeding problems your team faced.
BB: Billy Kidd, his start number was like 54, and it was a terrible snow year and there was zero chance you could do well from that far back. I didn’t want him to take a top spot, I just wanted him to start 16th or something like that and they would just separate us into two different groups. But Bonnet was always on my side. Finally the next year I developed a system that they called the Bob System. Until a couple of years ago they still called it the Bob System, and I’m an idiot as far as arithmetic goes. Shows you about the FIS … but that’s how Europeans worked. They did not want the U.S. to do well. It was just a European world. Now it’s a different world. The United States has arrived. And for a long time.

SR: What are your memories of Marc Hodler?
BB: He would never say anything, but afterward he would chime in and ge
t things done. He never told you he was going to do something, but then he did. He was a very interesting man. He was one of the few FIS guys that knew it was going to work. He was a partner of the World Cup. But that first year, the World Cup was not part of the FIS, and in the second year it became part of FIS. Serge didn’t want to have it part of the FIS, but I worked for a member organization so I had to have it part of the FIS. … Serge was always the president of the World Cup and I was secretary general. That was pretty good, because I made up the notes. Whatever we discussed in the meetings didn’t really matter because I made up the notes.

SR: You went to Cortina with your wife last year and met many of the current U.S. women’s racers. How was that?
BB: It was great. We stayed at the same hotel and on the same floor, and we got to know them fairly well. They’re terrific, they’re a lot of fun. In addition to that, they’re really great athletes. And their head coach [Patrick Riml] is dynamite. I send the women little notes over time when they do well. I think he’s terrific. I hope we keep him for a long time, and I know Bill [Marolt] thinks the same about him.