Colorado University Athletics
Bob Beattie "The Lombardi" Of Colorado Coaches
October 30, 2014 | General, Skiing
The first of nine CU Athletic Hall of Fame profiles as CUBuffs.com celebrates this year's class which will be inducted at the Coors Events Center's George Boedecker, Jr., Court, Thursday, Oct. 30. The reception begins at 6 p.m. followed by the ceremony at 7 p.m.
Conditioning. That was the name of the game for the University of Colorado's men's ski team during the tenure of former coach Bob Beattie, who will enter the CU Athletic Hall of Fame later this week.
"I would consider myself a Lombardi type coach," Beattie said. "During my time here we had a little place down below the stadium. We called it the pits, and the coaches of other programs at the university would come down to watch us practice. They would tell me that they couldn't believe what we put the kids through. But the kids, they loved the hard work and conditioning."
Beattie coached the ski team from 1957-65, during which he would coach 13 individual national champions, 13 first team All-Americans and lead the team to the school's first two team national championships, claiming them consecutively in 1959 and 1960.
During those nine years he would go on to coach not only some of the greatest skiers in CU history but also in U.S. Olympic history. Those skiers included the likes of Billy Kidd and Jimmie Heuga who would go on to win the first two U.S. Olympic skiing medals under Beattie, who coached the U.S National Team from 1961-69.
 |
| Bob Beattie led Colorado to the 1959 & '60 NCAA Ski Championship |
But his fondest memories are from his time at the University of Colorado.
"Winning the NCAA National Championship in 1959 was the highlight of my life," Beattie said. "I cried tears of joy the entire night afterwards, and think about it almost every day."
Those two national championship teams were by no means a fluke, in fact during his time as head coach, the Buffaloes were one of the best programs in the nation, finishing as the national runner-up three different times. CU would also win four Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association titles and finish second three different times.
Beattie was only 23 when he was hired away from his alma mater Middlebury College, were he served as the ski coach for one season and was on the football staff. He served on the football staff here at CU (1956-61) during his time coaching the ski team. Beattie resigned his position as head coach in 1965 so he could dedicate himself fully to the U.S. ski team.
As the head coach of the National Ski Team he took the team to the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, where he would coach Kidd and Heuga to the first medals in United States ski history. Kidd would win the silver and Heuga the bronze both in the men's slalom. In 1969 Beattie would step down as head coach of the national team to pursue other ventures in the sport of skiing.
Beattie spent his time after coaching running and founding several different ski foundations, including serving as the President of World Wide Ski Corporation, and founding the World Pro Racing Tour were he also served as Executive Director. Beattie also served as the Executive Director of the International Ski Racers Association, Commissioner of NASTAR (National Standard Race), he also founded Bob Beattie Summer Racing camps at Mt. Bachelor, and organized national ski racing programs such as the Michelob Light Town Challenge and Appleton Rum Runs.
Along with those programs Beattie helped run and start, he also worked as a ski commentator for ABC during the 1976, GÇÿ80, and GÇÿ84 Winter Olympics. He now runs a program out of Vail, Colo., called the Base Camp Program, helping to teach underprivileged children to ski and snowboard.
Beattie is a member of the National Ski Hall of Fame becoming a member in 1984. He was inducted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 1986 and in 1993 was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
Beattie will be inducted into the CU Athletic Hall of Fame along with eight other distinguished individuals on Thursday, Oct. 30, at the Coors Events Center, Boedecker Gym.