USASJ Story Project 19-DEC-2014 JERRY BORGEN

ALL ROADS LEAD TO RED WING! (ON THE SNUS BOX TRAIL)- Harris Anderson and Bill Ward concocted a great marketing campaign that used 2,500 Copenhagen tobacco tins to lure 25,000 spectators to the 1928 National Ski Jumping Tournament, hosted on Charlson Hill in Red Wing, MN.

JERRY BORGEN
Age 85
Red Wing, MN
Aurora Ski Club 1935-1950. President of Friends of American Ski Jumping and the American Ski Hall of Fame

jerryborgen1@gmail.com

A Story About Harris F. Andersen- My Grandfather, My Mentor, My Friend

Harris F. Andersen, was one of the All American ski jumpers in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  The All Americans were a group of 10 young men, all born in America, but all with Norwegian blood, except one with German ancestry.   They were taught to ski jump by the Hemmestvedt brothers and were the premier jumpers in that era.  They would go to tournaments and come back with 5 out of the top 10 trophies time and time again.

Harris was the instigator that got the Kiwanis Club to build a toboggan slide down College Hill and build cement steps up Barn Bluff in Red Wing, Minnesota.   He was also the President of the National Ski Association in 1927 and with his influence, got the National Ski Jumping tournament to come to Red Wing in 1928 and again in 1936. 

He promoted the National with the Snus Box Trail.  He and Bill Ward contacted the Copenhagen Tobacco Co. and got them to send 2500 empty boxes of Snus, a chewing tobacco.   They attached them to a 4 foot lathe and got the Red Wing Shoe Salesman to put them on telephone poles, snow banks, and bulletin boards all over the 5 state area.  The marketing scheme worked as there were 25,000 people in attendance in a town of 6,000.   Marketing 101!

He sold real estate, but was a great public speaker and kept audiences in stiches with his jokes.

A great golfer, several times club champion at the Red Wing Golf Club.   He was a hunter and fisherman.   A baseball player that played for the Red Wing Pickets in the late 1800's.

My brother Tom and I learned to ski jump because of Grandpa.   Our first tournament was in his backyard, and after the tourney we all headed for my parents grocery and restaurant for hot dogs and cocoa, followed by awards from Grandpa Harris.  It was like getting an Oscar from Bob Hope.    He had several neighborhood tournaments while Tom and I grew up, but it got bigger than our neighborhood.  He went to the City Council and got them to build two scaffolds at the Athletic Field and from then on it was a City Wide Pee Wee tournament. 

He died in 1940 from a massive heart attack and the city wept.  He died before seeing his two grandsons jump at Coon Hill, Theodore Wirth, Winona, or Duluth.   Our scaffold blew down in 1950, but to preserve the history of the wonderful sport of ski jumping Bryan Sanders and I started the All American Ski Jumping Museum and Hall of Fame located in the St. James Hotel and Grandpa Harris was inducted into our Hall of Fame in 2008.  Red Wing staged one of the first tournaments in the nation and claims to be the birthplace of ski jumping in the USA.

There is movement for a feasibility study to build another Olympic size ski jump in Red Wing.  There are plenty of hills and the history of the sport is fabulous, thanks to Grandpa.

Editor's Note-

To learn more about the American Ski Jumping Hall of Fame and Museum founded by Jerry Borgen and Bryan Sanders, click here

For more information on Charlson Hill, click here

Grandpa Harris was natural leader and quick with a joke.  He started and promoted 

just about everything good that happened in Red Wing from 1900 to 1940.

The poster advertising the National Ski Jumping Tournament hosted by the Aurora 

Ski Club in Red Wing in 1928.   Note that in 1928 skiing was ski jumping!

 

Construction of the Charlson Hill around 1925.  Before OSHA.  Anyone want to set tracks?