HISTORY IS COOL: 100 years ago
March 9, 1923

Winter sports future
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The Sno Bird flag will be furled on Friday, March 9 at 2:30 p.m.
This does not mean that there will be no skating, skiing or other forms of winter recreation. As long as there is ice or snow, enthusiasts will squeeze out every hour of enjoyment of them possible. But the formal program of the winter, which has proven such a success, will come to an end.
Marquis Nicholas degli Albizzi will leave for Denver on the 10th, and Ornulf Poulsen of New York will leave on or about March 15.
The Club owes much to these two men. Both are masters of skiing and both have extraordinary appreciation of the place of outdoor recreation in the winter for the business and professional men and women of the country. Both have proven inspiring leaders of the purest amateur type. The Club has never had leadership so acceptable from every viewpoint.
The big events of the year have proven notable among the many organized at the Club in recent years. The course jumping records were broken by Bing Anderson of Berlin, New Hampshire. The Sno Birds have been instrumental along with other winter sports clubs in organizing the U.S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association. The Sno Birds have affiliation also with the U.S. Figure Skating Association and the Grand National Curling Association of America.
Correspondence with over 40 American colleges in the snow belt and with skating, curling and skiing winter sports clubs throughout North America has kept the Club in touch with the finest leadership in the amateur sports world. These affiliations have had much to do with the success of the program and have added greatly to the enjoyment of Club members in the events of the season.
A great increase has been noted in skiing, especially in cross-country. Plans are under consideration for multiplication of the mileage of good ski runs, which involves wider trails than for tramping and long grades. It is hoped also that more winter camps can be built as stations where small parties may remain with comfort over night, thus extending the trips over two or more days. Plans are also being studied for a coast for use of bobs and single sleds, but these probably cannot be matured in the near future.
The officers of the Club and the Sno Birds have observed a rapid growth of interest in winter sports. Lake Placid as a community has an unparalleled opportunity to make winter sports popular throughout the country. What it has done in training a generation of national speedskating champions it can do, with equally intelligent and forceful leadership, in producing skiing champions.
A winter sports leader working under the direction of the chamber of commerce, with one or two ski jumps, a coast and a toboggan run, if freely placed at the disposal of the boys and girls, and young men and women, in the village, would in a few years place Lake Placid at the front of skiing and similar activities. It is earnestly to be hoped that at least a few men of vision may take hold of this matter and thus broaden the winter sports program of the village as many other communities throughout New England have begun to do with marked success.
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