Maine Ski Hall of Fame to induct 9 Columbia group to celebrate National Hunting and Fishing Day Sept. 22

The Maine Ski Hall of Fame will induct nine new members during the fifth annual awards banquet at Lost Valley Ski Area in Auburn on Oct. 26.

The MSHF was founded in 2003 and is a division of the Ski Museum of Maine. It seeks to honor instructors, competitors and other men and women who have brought distinction to the sport of skiing in Maine.

This year’s inductees:

. Jim Miller was one of a long string of Nordic skiers to come out of the Rumford-Mexico area. After excelling in high school, he was an All-American at Fort Lewis College and was on the U.S. Nordic combined team in the 1972 Olympics.

. Winston “Win” Robbins skied for the University of Maine while earning an engineering degree. After serving with the Army Corps of Engineers he began building T-bars at Black Mountain and Sugarloaf. In 1952 he designed, built and erected a double chair lift at Cranmore Mountain in New Hampshire. He also served on the original task force that developed the American National Standard Safety Code for aerial passenger tramways.

. Galen Sayward was a competitor and coach and has taken his interest in skiing to the highest levels of officiating. Sayward was certified as a FIS technical delegate and has served as an official at national and international events around the world. He has been recognized with the Fritz Mittlestadt Award as outstanding ski jumping official in the U.S., and with the Al Merrill Award for excellence in Nordic officiating.

. Murray “Mike” Thurston was the driving force in the building of the Sunday River resort, leading a small group of businessmen who came up with the idea, located the land, and started the business in 1959. During his 10 years with Sunday River it grew to three T-bars and a 5,000-foot chair lift.

. Tom Upham was a four-event skier on four state championship ski teams at Edward Little High School in Auburn. He was a Nordic skier at the University of Colorado and competed on the U.S. Nordic combined team in the 1968 Olympics. He also coached at the high school, college and national levels.

. Richard “Dick” Bell was among the founders of the Sugarloaf Ski Club, and the ski patrol now operates out of the Dick Bell Chapel. He also contributed greatly to Titcomb Mountain in Farmington and was a director for the Maine Ski Council and the Eastern Amateur Ski Association.

. Charles Broomhall was an outstanding Nordic competitor at the state and national levels, winning the National Four Event Championship at Lake Placid, N.Y. In 1964 he won the Russell Wilder Trophy for his contribution to junior skiing.

. Bob Flynn is being inducted to his third hall of fame. He is also a member of the Lewiston-Auburn Sports Hall of Fame and the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Flynn excelled in baseball and skiing at Bates College and served on numerous committees for NCAA skiing. In 1976 he brought the NCAA Championships to Maine with Alpine events held at Sunday River and Nordic events at Black Mountain in Rumford.

. Dave Irons is recognized as the state’s most prolific ski journalist, having broadcast his first ski report on the radio in 1960. Since that time he has achieved at the highest level of ski patrolling and has promoted the sport through the printed and spoken word. Irons is a past president of the Eastern Ski Writers Association and North American Snowsports Journalists Association.

Group marks national event

The Pleasant River Fish & Game Conservation Association in Columbia will hold its annual celebration of National Hunting and Fishing Day on Sept. 22.

The event will be held at the clubhouse on Tibbettstown Road beginning at 9 a.m. and running through 2 p.m.

There will be shooting events for rifles, shotguns and rimfire handguns, as well as .22 shooting for youths. Lunch choices will include barbecued pork sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs. Raffle tickets for a custom-made knife will benefit the club’s Greenland Point Conservation Camp scholarship fund.

For more information go to www.prfgca.org.

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