Skimeisters: Bill Marolt Is A CU Legend As Skier, Coach and Administrator

Note: This is the first of what will be an on-going series of stories on those who have impacted the Colorado Ski program. A skimeister is an award that was presented to the best overall skier in a meet in both alpine and Nordic events. As skiers became specialized throughout the 1960s, the award died out of college skiing in 1970. For this series, we're using it to describe CU legends in their own right, regardless of if they actually participated in both Nordic and alpine.

BOULDER—Few sports programs in the United States have had as big an impact on their sport as the Colorado Ski Team has had on skiing. And few people have had as great an impact on their program as Bill Marolt has had on the Colorado Ski Team.

A four-time Individual National Champion and 1964 Olympian, Marolt's exploits when he was at CU as a student-athlete would be enough to qualify as a CU Ski Legend, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.

As head coach, he took over a program that had lost its way just two years after graduating from CU and immediately started building a program that would eventually win eight straight championships, seven of which he coached. Legend status.

As athletic director, he hired two coaches, Richard Rokos (skiing) and Mark Wetmore (cross country and track & field), who would surpass his own total of seven national championships while also extending the contract of Bill McCartney as football coach, who won another national championship. Legend status.

Looking beyond CU, he also had three stints with skiing at the national level. His sophomore season at CU in 1964, he was an Olympian, part of the 1964 team coached by Bob Beattie where the USA saw its first success on the world level. In 1978, he left his coaching position at CU to become the head coach of the national team, leading the USA team in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. He returned to CU to become Athletic Director in 1984, and in 1996 returned as President of the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, where he led the United States to unprecedented success, retiring in 2014.

When he had retired from the USSA as a coach and administrator, he was responsible for 70 of the 95 Olympic Medals that Team USA had secured since 1924. At CU, he is part of 24 of the Buffs' 29 National Championships. That's not counting Tim Hinderman, who skied for Marolt and replaced him in 1979 and led the Buffs to three more National Championships before 1983, meaning his finger prints are in 27 of CU's 29 titles.

That leaves two national championships that Marolt didn't have some kind of tie into, 18 of 20 for the ski team and 27 of 29 for the University. It was those two championships, the school's first two under Beattie in 1959 and '60, that put CU on the map and perhaps attracted Marolt to CU.

"Skiing is so ingrained at the University of Colorado," he said. "You go back to the original coaches who really got the sport going and established that core of the tradition, and it's just been part of the fabric of the school. The leadership we had — whether it was Coach (Eddie) Crowder or (Fred) Casotti — was a big part of the success because they made sure there was always a strong focus on skiing."

As a student-athlete, Marolt joined the Buffs in 1963, to say the alpine team was loaded would be an understatement. His freshman season, the team was captained by Buddy Werner, considered at the time the best alpine skier in the United States, if not the world. Another legend, Jimmy Heuga, was also on the team.

Werner was considered the first world class ski racer from the United States. After the NCAA Championships in 1963, when he won the downhill and alpine combined titles, he was the second skier in NCAA history to win four or more individual championships. Marolt, who won his first in 1963 in that same downhill race, became the third skier to accomplish the feat by the end of his career in 1966. Missing most of 1964 prepping for the Olympics, Marolt came back in 1965 and won in the downhill for the second time, and then in 1966 won both the slalom and alpine combined titles.

Note: That 1963 downhill race was actually a three-way tie for the individual crown. It's the only individual NCAA Championship in skiing history that ended in a tie and it was the last season that alpine races were timed to a tenth of a second, as in 1964 the International Ski Federation mandated timing to the hundredth of a second.

"The thing about skiing at Colorado is that it is kind of in the core of the entire student body," Marolt said. "A lot of kids come to Colorado in part because of the outdoor opportunities, and skiing and snowboarding are part of those. It's a big part of the community."

By the end of Marolt's career, however, Beattie had moved on to coach the national team full time. CU went through a four-year stretch of not qualifying a full team for the NCAA Championships (the only three times in the 67-year history of the event the Buffs didn't qualify as a team, although individuals still competed if they qualified). After Marolt retired from competitive skiing in 1968, Crowder and Casotti revitalized the program by bringing Marolt back to coach just two years after he graduated from CU.

It wasn't easy at first. The University of Denver was the national power, having won 14 NCAA titles in the first 18 years of the championship under legendary coach Willy Schaeffler. But a lesson that Marolt likely learned in 1963 enabled him to build his program to not only match the Pioneers, but surpass them. In that run of 14 titles in 18 years was a string of seven straight championships. And in 1963, DU was in the midst of winning its third straight title. That same 1963 Colorado team saw Marolt, Werner and Heuga on the same alpine team.

The Buffs entered the NCAA Championships as heavy favorites. The Buffs had beaten the Pioneers both at CU's home meet and at the RMISA Championships. At the NCAA Championships, CU held the lead entering the final day and had beat the Pioneers in the slalom, downhill and cross country competitions. But in jumping, DU came back on the final day to pull the championship away from the Buffs.

Eight years later and five years into his coaching career, Marolt had built the Buffs differently than Beattie had. He knew the key to success was in a well-rounded team that was strong in all areas, but particularly jumping. He recruited Jay Rand and when Vidar Nilsgaard came to Boulder from Norway, it opened up a pipeline of Norwegian jumpers that were key to the Buffs eight titles that decade.

It all came full circle in 1977, when the NCAA title came down to the final jump. The Buffs had finished second every meet to Wyoming that season, and despite leading entering the final day, Wyoming placed all three of its jumpers in the top nine. CU's Tom Kristiansen, one of the nation's best, dragged his hand on his first jump and was in the lower third of the field entering the final jump. He needed to finish in the top nine. Of three jumps, the lowest is thrown out. Kristansen had the best jump of the final round and moved all the way up to sixth place, helping the Buffs secure the team title on the final jump of the final competition of the meet.

"Each generation through the years has been part of the building blocks of the program and that foundation just kept growing," Marold said. "As new generations came on board, we just kept carrying it forward."

That was the Buffs sixth straight title, and Marolt left the program a year later after winning No. 7 to become the director of the national team. By the time he came back as Athletic Director, Hinderman, who extended the streak to eight straight and then helped both the men and women win in 1982, was gone and skiing had become a coed sport. Marolt brought in Tim LaVallee as coach in 1988 and LaVallee hired an assistant coach by the name of Richard Rokos. LaVallee left three years later and Marolt appointed Rokos to the full time position.

Rokos won his first title in his first season in 1991, ending a nine-year drought and earning the program's first coed title. Much as Marolt had done, Rokos changed the culture of the program, bringing the alpine and Nordic teams, both men and women, together as often as possible to build a family atmosphere. That atmosphere has led to Rokos claiming eight championships in his now 30-year tenure.

"It was obviously a big part of what I did as an athlete and coach, but also as the AD," Marolt said. "I know Dick (Tharp) felt the same way, and now Rick (George) is right there supporting Richard. It's been this steady thread for CU now for literally decades, and I'm just proud to have had the chance to play a part in it."

In an era when dynasties no longer exist in college skiing (after Denver won seven straight and 14 of the first 18 titles and CU responded with eight straight in the 1970s, no team has won more than three straight championships in the last 40 years), Rokos has been a mainstay and dynasty in his own right.

"Honestly, I can't imagine the University of Colorado without a ski team," Marolt said. "All the people who have been such a big part of the success and continue to give back and support the program have made it something very special. One of the things that has always been impressive is the tremendous alumni group that has been part of CU skiing for so many years. It's been one of those consistent threads, part of the fabric of the athletic department, for the last 50 or 60 years."

Indeed, that consistent thread is epitomized by the annual CU Ski Ball fundraiser.

"This will be the 50th anniversary of the Ski Ball," Marolt said. "If you think about all the events on a campus, all the events that come and go, and then consider Ski Ball has been around for 50 years, it's amazing. Not many events survive for even 15 years, especially fundraisers, but that speaks to the passion of the alumni of the program and how they want to give back. It's a special program that's a big part of the University of Colorado."

There are no doubt challenges ahead, but one thing is for sure. Bill Marolt is a legend. Several times over.

Colorado University Athletics

Skimeisters: Bill Marolt Is A CU Legend As Skier, Coach and Administrator

Related Videos