STORY No. 30
JERRY BORGEN
Age 83
Redwing, MN
Aurora Ski Club 1935-1950. President of Friends of American Ski Jumping and the American Ski Hall of Fame
 |
| Jerry & Tom Borgen in 1935- heading out to their first jumping tournament with Grandpa Anderson. |
Our first ski jumping tournament- Grandpa Harris Anderson, President of the National Ski Association in 1927 and inducted into the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame in 2008, organized a neighborhood ski jumping tournament in his backyard for kids 4 to 10 years old in 1935. The tourney included my brother Tom and I … (Yep Tom and Jerry, no relation to the cat and mouse). We had a queen, a nurse, an official judge, several hill construction men (my dad), and the PA announcer of course was Grandpa Harris … The longest leap was 4 feet, which may be stretching a little. Ducky Dubois (age 6) won the tournament with a jump of 4 feet. But after the tourney we all received hot dogs, hot chocolate, and a ribbon with a small medal, at my Dad’s store and restaurant. Receiving the medals from Grandpa Harris was like receiving an Oscar from Bob Hope. The newspaper account the next day, said … “Thousands of ski jumping fans turned out for the Second Annual National Tournament held on the corner of 7th and West Avenue in Red Wing as ski flyers soared with record breaking jumps far exceeding the jumps at Charlson Hill in the recently held National Tournament. Donald DuBois broke the hill record and came in first with a perfect jump of 254 feet, but Tommy Borgen stole the show with a jump of 200 feet showing perfect form and a Red Wing style finish.” Grandpa Harris wrote the story for the paper.
 |
| Borgen’s grandfather- Harris Anderson |
