Alf Engen newspaper clippings, photographs, and telegrams, 1934 - 1942

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THE CENTRAL- SKI SPORT Published by the Central U. S. Ski Association VOLUMEV TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1940 Ellsworth Mitchell, Melvin Hoiem Cop National Class B and C Titles Alf Engen Wins A Hpnors by Good Margin I 11-- BIDRLIN, N . H., Feb. 25. - Two young Central skiers of the Ishpem-ing Ski Club won National Champion­IO< hips today in their r espective classes a<gainst the best competition the new comers to big time jumping have met to date. "Pinky" M1tchell, who has set a firey pace in Central class B jumping, took the National title ·by almost four points over Bjorn Lei the Easterner of New York City. Mitchell had the -ectg:e in distance with jumps of 186 and 200 feet. His margin of distance was n ot what car ried him through to the wide victory for he only had five f eet on his nearest r ival. Mitchell's form was tops today and ill was on this score that he g ained con.! .siderable in the totals. The next c eJrtral class B skier was Jim Running who ran ou!t on the Cen­tral Championships at Ishpeming to get in some practice on the Berlin hill. He finished four th, thirteen points be-\ h ind the winner. Melvin Hoiem proved to the dubious \ that he was all tha t had been said about him and won the a .title over .wome very fine young skiers. Hoiem came out of the Ishpeming hills last J anuary 20 to take part in the Beloit , , Wisconsin, ski meet. He literally ; floored the skiers and spectators a t the meet with his spectacular style and fine landing which he held through his remarkable dista nce. F.a~-a.bJ,e~mmen t in The ~Pn.t5al Ski Sport is understood to have in­o; pired the Ishpeming Club to keep this unknown youngster on the tour­nament road this season. He estab­lished himself on strange hills and was named t o t he National Tourna­ment t eam from 'the Central and he cam.e through beautifully today. Arthur Devlin, the very classy Lake Placid young man, finished s econd in class C a safe distance ahead of the Central's second entry in t ha t class, Ralph Bietila, also of Ishpeming. Be­cause of odd Eastern r egula tions for .wki jumpers Devlin ordinarily com­petes in class A, today's National rest rictions placed him in class G as he is not yet eigh teen years of age. Alf Engen Dominates Class A By FRANK ELKINS B~IN, N. H., Feb. 25.-The Friday, November 22, 1940 Engen Wins Title Alf Engen, of Sun Valley, natio_n~l jumping champion, won the Pacific Northwest indoor t it le at the Indoor Show in Seattle last Saturday night, point score being based on his stand­ing at the thr ee performances. He made two 64-foot jumps at t he f inal show. His points were 662, exceeding his near : est r ival, Howar d Da lsbo, Seat t le, Ski club, by 36. In Class B, Adolph Dahl was f irst with 614:9 and Jack Schneider second. Both are of Seattle. March 6, 1940 Iron Mountain, January 15, 1941.­Alf Eingen of Salt C'ity, Utah, the 1940 national ski-jumping champion 1 and f ormer holder of the American distance jumping record which was broken 'by Bob Roecker of Duluth on t'lae 'Pine Mountain s lide in 1939, wilf oe ."the f eature attraction in the eighth a nnual tournament here F 'eb­ruary 9, ihas been a nnounced by the Kiwanis Ski Club. The entry of the great Americ~ ki111g1 of the "wooden · wings," the first r eceived for the 1941 tourna­J71Cn t, was •confirmed by wire yester­l'!. ay afternoon to Gui\nard Be11glund, ~ecretary of the ski club. EI!Igen's entry gives the February 9 m,eet potentialities of developing into the greatest '!battle for ski-jumping honors ever staged in the United States. With Erijgen, a g a laxy of stars, p robably t he most .br illiant group of uumping aces ever to com­pete in one t ournament, are expected to t a ke part in the assault on Roeck­er's American record of 257 feet. Chance to- Regain Reoord The meet h ere will be a golden op­portunity for Engen to recapture the· America n r ecord he held until the opening of the world's lal'lgest artifici­a'J. slide here in 1939. The Pine Mountain jump is the orily one in the United •Sta t es capable of producing .leaps · approximaJting the 3QO-foot mark. Las.t year, Ted Zoberski, Iron­wood rider, jumped 273 feet in an "" exhi'bition following t he close of the tournament . . E ngen, 31 years old, came into prominence in 1930, breaking r ecords at 20 l}lears of a g e, and was sing led . owt as one of the most promisiii@ youthful riders in tJhe nation. In 1937, the Salt Lake C'it:y ace soared 242.42 feet on the Bilg Pines, Cali­fornia , slide for a new American r ecord. In 11939, on ·the s ame slide, he bett ered the recoDd with a 251- fos t leap and in the same year sailed 257 feet in an exhibition at Big Pines. RQec1J:er took over the honors later in 19'3'S,.with a 25•7-foot tournament jump on ine Mou ntain, which is recognized By tlhe U. S. Ski Associa­tion as the offi!Cial American distance r ecord. Denver, Colorado ENGEN AND Mll(I\..ELSON NRMSA CHA1\fPIONS Leading c. large field for the Northern RMSA championships in Anaconda Sunday, Roy Mikkelson and Sverre Engen walked off with tcp honors in evw y event. Engen won the downhill, and placed sec~ ond behind Mikkelson in the Class A slalom and the Class A jump. Karl Hinderman came in second in th e downhill, five seconds behin.Q Engen. A close third in , both jump and downhill was Roy T egarden of Lake Tahoe, California. Alice Riley of Helena tcck the women's open with 1:10, a good nine seconds ahead of Ethel Beaudry and (Con tinued on Page 7) NUMBER 14o -i I~ ~.S.A. RI£0RDJ:R FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 1941 No. 10 Engen Again Nation's Champion Four-way Sun Valley's husky pride, Alf E ngen, won the tit le again in the National Four-Event tournament on t he Valley hills during the week-end of March 24. Alf, who, it will be r ecalled, fir st won t his title at Mount Ba ker and Sno­qualmie Pass last year, this season was f ifth in t he downhill, fourth in slalom, t hird in cr oss-country and f irst in the jumping, scoring 374.9 points. Gor don Wr en was second, but quite far behind with 340.4 points. Third pl :;>p~went tD Leon C::oot1man, 0£ 8•ln Valley and McCall, Ida.; Ba rney Mc­Lean, Hot Sulphur Springs, Colo., fourth; Bert Irwin, Princeton, B.C., fifth; Dave Bradley, Madison, Wis., sixth; Olav Rodegar d, Cascade, Port­land, seventh and Hjalmar Hvam, Cas­cade, eight h. 1 I In the jumping Engen went 136 and 134 feet , distances shor tened by a soft hill; I rwin was second, Wren third, Bradley fourth a nd Bill I rwin, Bert's brother , fifth. Rodegard jumped 107 feet t wice to place seventh in this event. Rodegard won f irst in t he cr oss­country, opening event of the t ourney. ---.::....---~_,!