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| Dodds doing it the hard way at the '79 Williams Winter Carnival. Note ski in upper left corner of photo. |
STORY No. 52
TOM DODDS
Age 55
Hanover, NH
Ford Sayre/Hanover High
School/Williams College
John Fulton already told the
tale of three apprehensive Hanover High athletes taking their first rides on
the Dartmouth College jump. I will tell you how I suffered my worst ski jumping
injury on the very same hill. Dartmouth Winter Carnival sometime in the early
1970's. Though my memory is fading with time (and never was much good to begin
with!) I do recall the typical several thousand strong boisterous (and drunk)
winter carnival crowd. I was a distance marker on the side of the hill. I
turned to watch Dartmouth's very own Don Cutter floating majestically through
the air pressing out over ONE ski. Quite remarkably I followed his flight and
witnessed a beautiful one foot landing. Though I felt a sharp blow to the top
of my head (from Cutter's missing ski!) I believe I saw him make it past the fall line. At first I had no
idea what had happened, was feeling no pain and then had the sensation of a
curtain of warmth enveloping my head. The people around me became very excited.
Ultimately I was stitched up suffering no ill consequences (though I am not
sure we acknowledged concussions back in those days!).
Turn the dial forward to the
1979 Williams Winter Carnival. My senior year. My swan song. One of the last
years of NCAA ski jumping! There I was at the top of the hill strapping on my
skis for that final jump before the hometown crowd. I noticed a piece missing
from my binding and I turned to my good buddy John Fulton (skiing for the
University of New Hampshire) to get his opinion on the importance of that
piece. He was not an engineering major. Together we decided the piece was
nonessential. My teammate Jeff Hastings was nowhere to be found. The
accompanying picture (with one ski above and behind me) made the local
newspaper and suggests that the missing piece was perhaps of some structural
importance. Needless to say I did NOT make it to the fall line!
I have many fond memories of
that eastern college carnival circuit. How I wish we could have preserved that circuit
for today’s young athletes.
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| Doing it the easy way with both skis at Junior Nationals in '75 |
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