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

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!nkt Wribun.e-----------------..,---------Fehruary 10, 1941 13 ]Tokle Breaks Ski Jump Mark '===================::;:::::;::~~~G~~NG;;-E! ~s"'Y;;-s. h~ills-:;can~~ot~"' -==JE2 6n 7geFn Leaps I Th B budt safer than Pme moun tam, pro- I eet vided you stay in the limit of its 1 n e ag ~~i~nfn t~~p~.it~: there is !s~rl~ I In MI.Chi·gan that can compete With those _in l -------1 with BUCK ERICKSON Europe, Alf answered: "You .> have it here in Iron Mountain." • • • · Engen says Pine mountain has po- N elv york Ac.e RUDE AWAKENING - Iron ten tiali ties of being developed in to ~ Mountain went to bed Sunday n ight 1 happy over a ski meet as thrilling 1 as one could ask for. • • • A classic ~ that saw a national record broken dined to believe if Engen had in­surance of not over-leaping the ·hill, you would have seen much longer jumps Sunday • • . Engen is the greatest ski-jumper in America and we are including Tokle, whom En­gen out-leaped twice in competition last year • • • He is the greatest jumper that ever performed and probably will ever perform here a hill that will compete with · Soars .273 1 Europe's best. • , • By excavating by the mightiest of skiers, Alf Engen, who soared 267 feet. • • • With the dawn came a winter sports hangover that will go down in the the lower portion, using ·standard l ! specifications of course, Alf says the ' In Washington I hill capacity can ·be increased to jumps as long as 330 feet. • • • Not 1 that you'd need that' much distance · local books as the No. 1 disappoint­ment of the year. • • . During the night news sifted from the west that one Tor-ger TokJ.e had le.aped six feet further on a Washington slide to break the new record two hours after it was set here . ••• A d•irty Norwegian trick we calls it. COMPETITION-Needless to say, big Pine mountain has competition. . • • Iron Mountain still has the highest artificial slide in the world, but without the American record to back it up, the edge of such a boast is duUed. • • • There's only one thing to do-go right back after it next year. • • • And there's only one solution-excavation work on the bottom of the hiH to enable safe landing at distances of 300 feet. , • , Such improvement is not just work, it's a project and a cos'tly one, but the handwriting is on the wall • • • It should be done. CAN PINE mountain be over­jumped? , , -. Alf Engen thinks so and held that fear Sunday on the fast hill , , • The safe jumping capac! ty of the hill is reported to - be 290 to 300 feet, but has not passed an official test • • • Engen says a jump of 290 feet is beyond the transition mark, or where the abrupt change in the land•ing hill i begins and a jump that far is 1 gambling against injury • . • En- 1 gen did not stretch out all the way in his 267-foot leap Sunday for that reason , •• The national champion says he would be leery of jumping anything over the 275-280 foot mark on Pine mountain ••• We are in- • • • He has leaped further than any man· in America-296 feet in an unofficial ride in an unsanc­tioned meet ••• We s•pent enough > time with the ace over the week­end to admire him 'as one of the ' most sincere men we know 1 He should know something about jumping hills; SATURDAY NIGHT, we v<isited Engen in his hotel room with Russ Lynch, of the Milwaukee Journal. • • • When we came, Alf was busy working on his skis for Sunday'·s meet. • • • He had the hickories stretched out across two chairs coating them with liquid of his own preparation. • • • He took great care in coating, occasionally stoop­ing to squint over the entire length of the ski to see if the liquid was evenly spread. • • • The three of us talked for a good hour. • . • Engen carried a great deal of the conversation, not about himself, but about skiing-a sport you can see he loves • • • During the time we hit u'pon the Pine mountain hill and Sunday's meet. ENGEN MENTIONED the fact he was the last -rider in the meet and had some mighty fine competi­tion ahead of him to set the pace. • • • He indicated that if one of the boys leaped around the 275-foot mark ahead of him, he probably would not try to beat it, even though it cost him the meet .••• With ringing sincerity in his voice, the Scandinavian said: "Anything over that would be taking a chance. You might be lucky and might not, ·but I've looked over that hill and to compete with the best in the U. S., but the landing space would be available and a jumper could stretch ' out with the "works" and have con· r-----­fidence and security, knowing that , he wouldn't be risking his life by over-jumping the hill. • • • Com- 1------­menting further, Engen says, the [ scaffold is plenty high as it is now, too high for the present landing on a "fast" day. :----- IRON MOUNTAIN MAY as well I face the music. • • • The hill will have to be improved if the record .· is expected back to stay 1 • • • Increased landing space and --­a duel for the ·American rec;ord be-tween · Engen and. Tokle would be the last. word 'in ski-jumping attrac-tion . ••• You'd never see either Tokle or Engen at their best under the present conditions. • .• • Im­provement on the hill is inevitable; and the sooner the better. • • • Ish­peming, incidentally, spent $4,000 on "Suicide hill" this summer in ex­cavating the bottom and adding to the scaffold-they're out to- beat Iron Mountain and won't be satis- ~ fied until they do .••• Reports we hear say Ishpeming's hill is good for close to 250 feet now. • • • And ' then in a few years you'll have that new slide in the Porcupine moun-tains, which reports say will boast a hill that will top anything in the business. Char ley Larson, Escanaba Press sports scribe, 1 stopped in yesterday £rom a trip [ which took him through the Porcu-pine mountains .••• He viewed the site where the slide will be built and commented that he's seen nothing in the U. P. that will com- ~ pare with it. believe you can't letout in shooting AND THAT, folks, is a frank ver­at 275 feet without a dangerous sion of the problem Iron Mountain risk. Jumpers are human too. A faces to regain national supremacy rider that gives everyt•hing he's got in ski-jumping. • • • Take it or in every meet .doesn't last long. !leave it .••• But, remember that What if you do lose a meet? There's old bromide. • • • "If you can write l always tomorrow and another meet. a better book, preach a better ser- 1 IAlfEngen !Wins, Loses \Jumping Titl~ _ _, Your best example of a fellow who mon, or build a better mouse trap 1· gave everything he had in every than your neighbor, the world wil-l . meet was Paul Bietila, a great bea.t a p_a.th tQ ~OJ.U' door," / The jinx that has pursued All Engen of Salt Lake City and the Sun Valley, Ski club -every time he has attempted to establish an official North American ski jwnping record-worked again Sunday. A few ho,urs after Alf had leaped 267 feet at Iron Mountain, Mi.ch., Toger Tokle of the Nor­way Ski club, competing at Leav­enworth, Wash., in an official tournament, jumped 273 feet, ac­cording to wire dispatches, LEAVENWORTH, W~h., Feb. 9 . (JP) - Toger Tokle of New York leaped 273 feet to a: new American amateur comp\)titive .ski jumping - record Sunday in winning the an­nual Leavenworth winter sports 4 carnival competition .. Tokle, representing · the Norway Ski club, made a second leap of . 266 feet, also exceeding the pre­' viou.s record of 257 feet, established by Bob RoecKer of Duluth, Minn., at 'Iron Mountain, Mich., last year. Sig Ulland, skiing for Lake Taqoe, Cal., was second in the class A jumping Sunday, leaping 250 and 245 feet for a point total of 218.55. J Tokle was credited with 231.79 points . . Adolph Dahl of Seattle topped the class B jumpers with 127 and 132 foot leaps for 214.8 points. 22~000 Watc.h j~~~NJ:::~AIN, Mich., Feb. 9 (JP)-Alf Engen of Salt Lake City, national class A ski champion, bet­tered the amateur American jump­ing record Sunday by leaping 267 feet on the Pine mountain .slide here before 22,000 people. However, Engen's record was ·short lived. A few hours later, Tager Tokle of New York's Nor­way Ski club leaped 273 feet at e'avenworth, . W11'S'h. IRON MOUNTAIN, · MICh.; Feb, jumper----<but ·he paid with his life." 10.-(AP)-For a couple of hours 1 ••• Ted Zoberski walked in about Engen's jump broke the mark of anyhow, Alf Engen of Sun Val·- . 257 feet set here in 1939 by Bob ley, Idaho, 1.2ld a new American !hat time and he, . a man w~o Roecker ·of Duluth, Minn. amateur competitive ski jumping JUmped 273 feet on Pme mountam, Walter Bietila of Madison, Wis., record. said: "Yes, 270 feet is ·plenty far. on 1----'-------------------1 placed first in class A and re- While a crowd of 22,000 watched that hili." ceived a special award as the the national ski champion leaped most graceful rider in the tourna- 267 feet yesterday from the f'ine ~ F09D ¥.9~ THOUGIJT-UnJess_ ment, which drew an entry of Mountain jumping · platform here. yOU re<fuse to . take the word of a 95 of the nation's outstanding highest artificial slide in the world,_ man who hils forgotten more about __ riders. AlJDS 10 l<'EE~.r ski-jumping than most of us know, That outstnpped by ten feet there's sound judgment in the Bietila scored 144.56 points on ~he . prevwus natwn~l. record set~ words or Engen. :, •• Did you ever jumps ·of 236 and 256 feet . m sa!lctwned competition-the 257· stop and think that ski-jumpers Engen made 228 feet on his foot JUmp made by Bob Roecker of . . . first ride for 143.43 points and Dulllth; Minn., from the same scaf. - are amateurs and nsk their necks second place · in class A. George fold in 1939. for nothing 'but peanuts? • • • And Kotlarek of Duluth, Minn., and But almost as Engen was soar. that· only the best of them get Zoberski tied for third place with ing to the new limit, 'rorger Tokle traveling ' expenses and prizes-not - 143.06 points. Their longest ot New York was warming up for cash? ••• And that virtually all jumps were 254 and 252 feet, th~ a~nual winter sports festival _ of the best riders have responsibil- respectively. sk1 JUmpmg event at Leaven- ities-wife and family? ••. Then worth, Wa~h . . . . don't question Engen's judgment. Goes 219 Feet And ~hile me~t officials here - • • • Over-jumping Pine mountain Roecker, whose mark was shat-were st11l thumbmg through the . · b record books, Tokle sailed 273 means. sp_lmter~d skis, broken ones tered by Engen's long jump, feet from the Leavenworth take• and fl!rtmg With death. achieved 219 feet on his best try off. and finished tenth in class A. MISSES F'IR.ST PLACE Jim Running of Beloit, Wis., Tokle's leap was good enough topped class B riders with 222 and to win him his event, but Engen 220 feet for 135.36 points, while did not have even that satisfac• Raiph Bietila of Ishpeming, Mich., tion. won the class• C event with 221 First place in the Pine Moun- and 212 feet flights . for 129.24 tain competition went to Walter _, points. Bietila of Madison, Wis., whose Ernie Jacobson of Chicago, Ill., jumps of 236 and 256 feet, com• bjned with superior form, > gave took the senior class title on him 144.56 points to 143.43 for the leaps of 171 and 179 feet and "un Valley ace, who reached only 118.45 points. ' feet on his first try. The Pine Mountain scaffold i:s the highest artificial slide in the world.