Several days a week this past winter, Duluth’s George Hovland would get in his car and drive to Spirit Mountain to downhill ski for a few hours. He was 94.
Nobody who knows Hovland would be surprised by this. For the kid who grew up within walking distance of Chester Bowl, downhill skiing, ski-jumping and cross-country skiing, moving about on skis seemed as natural to him as walking.
Hovland died May 9 at St. Luke’s from complications that arose after a recent fall and surgery. He was surrounded by family and friends.
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George Hovland, who fostered skiing in Duluth, dies at 94
I came to know Hovland soon after I became outdoors writer at the News Tribune in 1980. He considered it his personal mission to acquaint me with every cross-country ski trail in Duluth — in about two days. To that end, he hauled me from trail to trail on March mornings, smeared sticky klister wax on my wooden skis and disappeared ahead of me down the trails. No, I could not keep up with this former Olympian, though he was more than 20 years my senior. He seemed to enjoy that.
You may recall that Hovland was part of a team of U.S. skiers who competed in nordic combined events (cross-country skiing and ski-jumping) in the 1952 Olympics in Oslo, Norway. I never got to watch Hovland ski-jump, but I watched him skiing on a lot of cross-country ski trails.
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Watching Hovland move across snow on cross-country skis was like watching a dance. He didn’t seem to glide so much as flit. He seemed weightless. Every move he made on skis, even into his 80s, seemed to be without resistance.
He never stopped skiing, and he wanted to see all skiers become better skiers. If he came upon a fellow skier on the trail, whether the skier was 10 or 50 years old, he would often stop and offer an unsolicited technique session on pole placement, proper body angle or weight shift. Then he would disappear down the trail, often leaving the just-schooled skier wondering, “Who was that guy?”
For all his personal skiing accomplishments, perhaps Hovland’s greatest contribution to skiing in Duluth was his Snowflake Nordic Ski Center. He built a cute little chalet up the hill in Duluth — where more snow fell — and a series of trails. He plastered the walls of Snowflake with photos of Olympians, including several of Duluth’s own.
On winter Sundays, the stadium area and trails were abuzz with tiny KidSki skiers buzzing about with their instructors. In the broad stadium area, beginning skiers — wearing just one ski — would scoot around chasing a soccer ball. They didn’t know it, but they were learning the fundamentals of balance and propulsion on skis.
Looking on, you’d think maybe you had time-traveled to a small village in Norway.
Older kids — high school skiers — loved Snowflake. Most importantly, it offered a warm place to change into or out of ski gear. High school coaches posted training schedules on the walls. The ping-pong table in the center of the room was rarely idle. Coaches held team dinners at Snowflake the night before upcoming ski meets.
Again, you could imagine the same kind of thing happening at some tiny villages in a Scandinavian country.
Hovland was an athlete and a competitor to the end. He skied NASTAR downhill ski races into his 90s. He last won his NASTAR age-group championship when he was 91. He skied his last American Birkebeiner cross-country ski marathon at age 85. He finished in 8 hours and 25 minutes. Asked how the race had gone, he told the News Tribune, “It was a beautiful sunset.”
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One of the last times I saw Hovland was on a November day at the Grand Avenue Nordic Center. A couple friends and I were doing some pre-season brush clearing. Here came Hovland, striding up the grassy trail in his cross-country ski gear -- minus the skis -- putting himself through a pre-season hill workout. He stopped just long enough to say hello and chat a bit. He thanked us for what we were doing.
Then he was off, striding up the hill at a brisk pace, getting in one more workout.
Sam Cook is a freelance writer for the News Tribune. Reach him at cooksam48@gmail.com or find his Facebook page at facebook.com/sam.cook.5249 .
