Stories from Our Past

The “Suicide Five” – Bruce “Juicer” Morser ’76, Jim “Tarbs” Tarbell ’75, John “Birkie” Birk ’74, John Danehy ’76, and Bill McClearn ’75. (Don’t ask me why we thought it would be cool to pose the way we did.)

During our freshman year, we formed a ski team and enrolled and competed in the ECAC Division II West Conference in the Slalom, Giant Slalom and Cross Country events. We received a letter from the Conference during the summer before our sophomore year saying unless we also fielded a ski jumping team and competed in all four events at each meet we would be kicked out of the Conference. We had to track down jumping skis, jumping boots, etc. Naturally, we still procrastinated when it came to actually learning how to ski jump. Finally, the week before the first meet of the season, five of us grabbed two cases of Genessee from the Grand Union and hit the road in the Outing Club Chevy Suburban to the closest ski jumping hill which was in Syracuse. I think I was the first one off and, thankfully, I didn’t kill myself. One by one the other four guys successfully launched themselves into the Central New York atmosphere. Eventually we all really got into it and started marking the length of each other’s jumps with empty beer cans, much to the chagrin of the Syracuse ski coach.

The picture was probably taken a year or two after that day in Syracuse when someone thought to record a photo to commemorate the five of us. We raced in form-fitting ski pants and sweaters. (I don’t think spandex or lycra or any other high-tech fabrics had been invented 50 years ago.) Here’s a story about one of the strangest pieces of racing gear (at least to a kid from Colorado) that we ever competed in. At one of our ski meets it was raining steadily with no improvement in the forecast. One of us grabbed the Outing Club Chevy Suburban and ran into the nearest town and bought a couple boxes of the largest garbage can liners they could find. We cut holes in the plastic liners for our head and arms, tied our racing bib numbers on over the garbage bags and sped down the hill in the giant slalom event in the pouring rain. The idea of anyone skiing in the rain, much less racing, still boggles the mind of this kid from Colorado.

One piece of ski racing gear that no one wore back in the early 1970s: helmets, even while ski jumping. That may explain a few things that occurred later on.

I’m looking forward to getting caught up with everyone in May.