Western Colorado University Athletics

A legendary Alaskan ski coach who was a member of the national championship cross country ski team in 1956, was the recipient of the Lifetime Athletic Achievement Award during the 2010 Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet Oct. 8 at the Fred Field Western Heritage Center in Gunnison.

“Jim Mahaffey was, and is, a man of hard work, ethics, discipline and empathy; whether coaching, teaching or building ski trails and ski programs,” said Tom Corbin in his nomination letter. “I have been fortunate enough to be allowed the opportunity to attempt to pass on to subsequent generations what Jim gave us.”

Jim graduated from Williamsport Technical High School in Williamsport, Pa., in 1947 and began competitive skiing in the Air Force at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska. He enrolled at Western State in 1952 and was a four-way skier for Head Coach Seven Wiik.

Jim competed in the inaugural NCAA ski championships in 1955 at Reno, Nev., and won the 1956 U.S. Biathlon Race at Camp Hale, Colo. He helped lead the Mountaineers to the national cross country ski championship in 1956 at Winter Park, Colo.

Jim joined the Ski Patrol at Sun Valley, Idaho, after graduation in 1957 and coached junior skiers. He was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Biathlon Team at the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif., where fellow Mountaineer and 2009 Lifetime Athletic Achievement winner John Burritt finished No. 14.

Jim returned to Western State in 1962 to earn his master’s degree and assisted by Wiik by coaching the Alpine skiers. He also coached several local junior skiers. Jim co-authored a book with Coach Wiik titled “Cross Country Skiing Training and Racing”, and helped produce a 16-millimeter film to supplement the training manual.

After the 1962 ski season, Jim took the position as ski coach and Assistant Professor in Physical Education at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.  He coached the Alpine and Nordic teams, and founded the Equinox Marathon in 1963 that continues today in Fairbanks.

Jim accepted a position as Associate Professor of Physical Education and Outdoor Education at Alaska Methodist University – later Alaska Pacific University – in 1967. He served as the ski coach and developed the first women’s intercollegiate cross country ski team in the United States.

“During this time, many of his athletes were selected were selected as members of the U.S. National Team and U.S. Olympic Teams,” said 1994 Olympian Adam Verrier in his nomination letter. “The effects of Jim Mahaffey’s influence on Alaska and United States skiing are still obvious today.”

Skiers like Gene Morgan, Barbara Britch, Margie Mahoney, Alison Owen, Lynn Spencer and Bill Spencer each competed in the Olympics for cross country skiing through the 1960s and 1970s. Jim’s collegiate teams dominated the Northwest Collegiate Ski Conference during the same time, and his teams were often asked to design courses at out-of-state meets to raise the quality at the different venues.

Jim coach the Alaska Junior National Ski Teams from 1963 through 1971, when he transitioned to the Regional U.S.  Ski Team Coach. Jim served as a technical delegate for Alaska Junior National meets and U.S. Junior National meets, the 1992 World Masters Cross Country Championships and as the Assistant Chief of Course for the men’s cross country courses at the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games.

In 1968, Jim developed and built a lighted trail system around the Alaska Pacific Student Union. When he retired in 1992, the trail system was renamed in his honor.

The athletics program was eliminated when Alaska Methodist reorganized to Alaska Pacific in 1977, but Jim stayed on the faculty and introduced Wilderness Skills classes to the curriculum. Today, the Alaska Pacific Outdoor Studies and Environmental Science program is one of the largest programs on campus.

Jim was named the Faculty of the Year in 1974, the Faculty of the Year from the AMU/APU Alumni Association in 1984, an honorary membership at the APU Nordic Ski Center in 2006 and was named Pioneer of Cross Country Skiing in Anchorage in 2003. He was a member of the Western State 1956 and 1957 ski teams that were inducted into the Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

“The value of dedication to produce results is what Jim Mahaffey taught me,” said two-time Olympian Alison Owen Bradley in her nomination letter. “He gave me the opportunity to develop my potential in skiing by having an organized and well run ski program. By believe in me he showed me the way to believe in myself.”