On January 24, 1915, the New York Times Published the following announcement:
The Outing Club of Dartmouth has prepared the schedule of ski and snowshoe events for the intercollegiate competition which will be a part of the Winter Carnival at Hanover, the dates allotted to these events being Feb. 12 and 31. Thus far there are eight colleges entered — Dartmouth, Yale, Colgate, University of Vermont Massachusetts State, Colby, New Hampshire State, and McGill.
This might seem innocuous enough in 2025, but 110 years ago, the idea was novel: an intercollegiate ski meet with multiple events and contenders from a range of colleges and universities. It had been dabbled with internationally a year prior: in 1914, Dartmouth sent a team to Canada to square off in a duel on skis against McGill in the Lauratian mountains. In this first collegiate meet the rugged conditions of the Lauratians didn’t fare well for Dartmouth, but they got a taste for the competition and vowed a rematch in Hanover.
The opportunity to rematch McGill took on greater proportions when Rev. John E. Johnson (Dartmouth 1866) donated the funds to build a ski jump and toboggan slide in Hanover the following year. The vision grew to what is recognized today as the first intercollegiate ski meet. With the NCAA Ski Championships coming to town this week, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take a trip down the slopes, 110 years back in time.
The Ski Jump, Winter Carnival 1915 (Rauner Library)
There were other entrants after the Times announcement was published: Williams College joined the challenge, as did Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bishop College sent a hockey team as a separate winter contest that same weekend.
From Rolf C. Syvertsen, remembering the occasion for Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in March 1929:
On Friday morning the contestants from McGill, Vermont, Williams, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Yale, Technology and Colgate had all arrived. Their brilliant costumes, new to snow-sports in New England, caught the eye on every hill and distant prospect. The scarlet of McGill with its coat of arms in white aroused the envy of feminine eyes. At three o’clock a thousand spectators were gathered in the wet snow on the Golf Links to watch this first intercollegiate meet. The realization that here were contestants from another nation lining up under the American and Canadian flags brought a spontaneous roar of welcome from the crowd.
The cross-country showshoers were soon away on a three-mile course out through the Vale in deep snow that made it a real snowshoe contest. Trick racing shoes were barred and all runners wore a 12-inch practical shoe. Three Dartmouth men came back first, W.D. Kipp ‘17, C. B. Thompson ‘17, and M. G. Sherburne ‘17, and M. G. Sherburne ‘17. The cross-country ski race over a short course was won by C. H. Paulsen, New Hampshire State ‘15, who romped in minutes ahead of Birks of McGill and Bowler of Dartmouth. He followed this success by an exhibition of somersaults from a jump on the links which thrilled the crowd and threw the movie men into a frenzy of attempts to follow through with the camera without forgetting to crank.
The “Lone Star from New Hampshire”, Paulsen, doing a somersault for the crowd, February 1915 (A. R. Tout ‘18 Mem Book, Rauner Library)
A day of Hanover weather ushered in the second part of the competition and made fast going for all races. During the morning Bache-Wiig started with a lead of 2.43 minutes over McLeod of McGill won the duel eight-mile ski-relay. The dashes on skis were won by Dartmouth with five out of six places. In the hundred N. Williamson, McGill, C. D. Horton ‘15 and J. P. Bowler ‘15 placed in the furlong Opie Horton was first followed by Hulberts, C. P. ‘15 and W. C. ‘18. In the snowshoeing L. D. Pelton ‘18, W. D. Kipp ‘17, and M. G. Sherburne ‘17 in the first race, with Kipp, Sherburne and D. H. Norton ‘17 in the second, shut out all of the Vermont runners.
The crowd, now doubled in numbers, adjourned to the then new ski jump for what was considered the cream of the sport. The duel meet between Dartmouth and McGill was the bone of contention, for no other team could even threaten that pair save the lone star from New Hampshire. In this contest McGill won the distance jumps by 219-214.5, although Bache-Wiig jumped 63 feet, King 62 feet and McLeod, McGill, 58 feet in individual jumps. In the style jumping Dartmouth won 556.3-492, with individual high ratings of 161.3 for W. T. King ‘17, 149.3 for G. Birks, McGill, and Bache-Wiig ‘15 145. In the distance open, Fisher of McGill was first with 61 feet, Bache-Wiig 59.8 and Paulsen of New Hampshire 58. In the style open, C. E. Frost ‘18, W. T. King ‘17 and J. Bache-Wiig ‘15 took all places for Dartmouth. Reddie of McGill received a special prize from Rev. John E. Johnson for the longest jump of 87 feet which was off the slope and beyond the landing hill. At the conclusion of the contest, Paulsen made a perfect somersault from the ski jump in the Vale, and landed successfully. This as the crowing event of the day for the onlookers and severed as the goal for many subsequent strivings on the part of many ski jumpers, little and big. Dartmouth had won the duel meet with McGill, and the intercollegiate meet. McGill was second and New Hampshire with her one man team was third.
The Cross-Country Ski Race, February 1915 (Rauner Library
Dartmouth won the meet, but by all accounts Carl Paulsen from University of New Hampshire was the star of the weekend, wowing crowds with his abilities on the jump and on the trails, impressively earning UNH a second place finish at the meet, single-handedly. Paulsen’s jumps are memorialized in many of the images we uncovered from the event in the Dartmouth College archives at the Rauner Library.
The headline in The Dartmouth the following week stated: INTERCOLLEGIATE OUTDOOR MEET A DECIDED SUCCESS, and with that, a new breed of intercollegiate competition was born here on the hills of Hanover. As the sport and the league has evolved over the following 110 years one thing has remained the same, Dartmouth skiers are still at the top of the pack in intercollegiate winter sports contests. We look forward to welcoming the NCAA back this month to host the 2025 Ski Championships and cheering on the Big Green, here in Hanover where it all began.
Paulsen and his acclaimed jump, February 1915 (Rauner Library)
