The 2019 Hall of Fame Inductees
Jeff Hastings
Jeff grew up in Norwich, skiing with his brothers and Holland brothers. Coached by Bud Fisher at Williams College, Jeff made the national ski jumping team and began traveling the world. At the World Cup in Lake Placid in December 1983, he tied for third on the Normal Hill and came back the next day to finish first on the Large Hill. He headed to the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia in February 1984. At 24 years old, Jeff’s fourth place – a mere 1.7 points from bronze – has remained the best American Olympic ski jumping finish since Anders Haugen at the inaugural games, sixty years earlier. Jeff finished the 1984 World Cup season fourth overall and retired from competitive jumping. In 1985, he started coaching. In 1988, he led the U.S. Nordic Combined Team at the Olympics in Calgary, Canada.
Jeff’s experience and knowledge have also made him a sought after commentator for almost three decades. He has served as a ski jumping TV analyst for eight Olympics. His 26 year tenure includes every Winter Games since 1988.
In an effort to ensure other athletes would have the same opportunities as he did, in 2009 he worked with Alan Johnson and Rex Bell, Jim Holland and other jumpers to found USA Ski Jumping, now USA Nordic Sports.Jeff also started the “Story Project” which solicits stories from jumpers past, present and future.
John Brodhead
John skied four events at Vermont Academy (class of 1962) - slalom, downhill, cross country and jumping - under the tutelage of legendary Vermont coaches Warren Chivers and Angus Black and raced at Middlebury College. John was teaching at the Center for Northern Studies in Wolcott VT in 1979 when he was asked by the then owner of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center (COC) Russell Spring to direct the COC’s ski program. He developed an incredible trail system in the Northeast Kingdom, started numerous ski programs for youth and adults, and in his remaining time, organized and ran the very successful Craftsbury Marathon. Through tireless hours of improving the trail, working with landowners, marketing the event, he made the Marathon one of the most popular ski marathons in the country. The John Brodhead award is now given to the male and female winners of the Craftsbury Marathon. John founded the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club in 1997, modeled on the Scandinavian multi-generational ski training design. He recruited five families from the area, whose children were racing in the Bill Koch program, and instituted a summer training program under Coach Pepa Miloucheva, former Bulgarian World Ski Orienteering Champion. For 38 years as Director of the COC, John touched the lives of countless skiers.
Doug Lewis
Doug, encouraged by his mother who was a ski instructor at Middlebury Snowbowl in Vermont, was on skis by the age of three. By age ten he was hooked on ski racing and had already set his sights on the Olympics. He went on to become a two-time U.S. National Champion, a two-time member the U.S. World Championship team, and a two-time Olympian. After moving from the Middlebury Ski Club to the Green Mountain Valley School ski academy, he won the Junior Olympics as a 16 year-old in 1980. He raced his first World Cup event in 1981 in Aspen, Colorado. Unfortunately, he crashed in that debut and broke his back, but worked his way back into form and returned to the World Cup circuit the following year. Just twenty years old, he raced in his first Olympics in Sarajevo in 1984. In 1985, he became the first American male ever to win a medal in the downhill at the World Championships with his Bronze Medal finish in Bormio, Italy. In the first World Cup race of 1986 he grabbed a World Cup Downhill Podium in Las Lenas, Argentina. He won his first of two U.S. National titles in 1986 as well. He competed in Calgary at the Olympic Games in 1988 and retired from ski racing at the end of that season. He has continued as a tireless advocate for skiing and ski racing and is actively involved in every level of the ski industry as a broadcaster, TV host, ski celebrity, motivational speaker, product consultant, spokesperson, journalist, coach and fitness trainer. For over 25 years, he has run ELITEAM camps and clinics, designed to inspire and educate young ski racers. With its unique focus on teaching the concepts of sports physiology, sports psychology and sports nutrition, ELITEAM builds “complete athletes” and gives them the tools to maximize their performance on the slopes.
John “JG” Gerndt
JG’s roots run as deep as any in the New England snowboard scene, but his branches reach farther than most. After thirty-plus years in Vermont, serving a key role on Burton’s hardgoods development team, JG’s experience, impact, and influence have earned him an affectionate nickname among his peers: “Yoda.” His passion and hard work have planted seeds of innovation that have changed the way people enjoy snowboards around the globe.
His earliest claim to fame (which he’ll be the first to point out as arguable) is that he was the first Burton dealer in the state of New Hampshire, selling boards out of his living room while attending Plymouth State College. He was among the first generations of riders in the region, helping to define the culture and customs of this new approach to sliding on snow.
In 1983 he landed a spot on the Burton team, competing and testing the latest tech. In 1987 he moved to Vermont and started working at Burton full time. Jake Burton Carpenter quickly took advantage of the value that JG brought to product development, sending him across the pond to help guide the first Burton factories in Europe, and then all over the world with the Burton Team as a tester and designer.
He played a preeminent role in designing revolutionary surf-inspired boards like the Fish, Malolo, Nug, and Resonator. He’s built boards for legendary riders like Terje Haakonsen, Kelly Clark, Danny Davis, Red Gerard, Chloe Kim, along with fellow hall-of-famers Jake and Donna Carpenter, Jeff Brushie, and Ross Powers (to name a few).
Today, JG lives in Stowe, Vermont with his wife Maddy and their son Zaine. He still plays a leading role in Burton’s product development, rides an average of 100 boards a year, and does all he can to keep the fire burning for the younger generations. Look for him weaving through the trees on Mt. Mansfield or skating the bowl behind Burton HQ every day around lunchtime.
Ann “Nosedive Annie” Bonfoey Taylor (1910-2007)
Ever the sportswoman, Ann competed at Wimbledon before starting her ski racing career. While racing in Stowe, she acquired the nickname, “Nosedive Annie” and became an alternate to the 1940 Olympic Ski Team. During World War II, she became one of 25 women flight instructors for Army and Navy Pilots about which she wrote a book. She was married to ski pioneer J. Negley Cooke before marrying Vernon “Moose” Taylor in 1947. As one of the founders of Vail, the couple built one of the first ski chalets in the new town. She had a colorful and illustrious life in skiing and fashion. She was featured in SlopeStyle for the ski clothing she designed for Lord & Taylor, and sold in her shop in Stowe, and was featured in Life, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Her clothing collection was donated to the Phoenix Museum of Art when she passed away. Suzy Chaffee described her as a “pioneer of women’s US Olympic skiing” and “Olympic role models of a magnificent life.”