A Flathead Olympian

The Olympics have dominated the news as London hosts the 2012 Summer Games. The Brits have done this twice before, and I vividly recall the last time in 1948 because I was serving in the German occupation and our Army newspaper,

The Stars and Stripes, carried reports supposedly written from England by a young soldier from Kalispell; however, that authorship wasn’t exactly correct. Therein lies a fine story.

Friend and classmate Wilbur “Burr” Martin went to Flathead High his freshman year before heading to Alaska to earn money. Returning home about 1945, he stayed around for a short time, then enlisted in the Army. Probably lied about his age, but anyway he disappeared from my life until the winter of 1948 when he got his name in The Stars and Stripes by breaking the world record time in the one-man bobsled Olympic trials at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

He established a close friendship with a “rich millionaire” who sponsored the American bobsled teams. (One-man bobs, where riders rode headfirst, were replaced by feet-first luge in the 1952 Olympics.)

In the actual Olympics, Burr was leading for a gold medal after the first two runs, but on the third and last day down the treacherous Cresta Run, he was trying to break his own world record but hit a curve too fast and catapulted off the course.

“Somewhat shaken up,” he managed to get back on track and finished out of the top three; however, because of his outstanding performance, he was put on the winners stand before closing ceremonies and awarded a “special medal” amidst wild applause.

His picture was front-paged in a leading European magazine. Later, a noted Swiss guide helped Burr climb the Matterhorn.

When it was time for Summer Olympics in London, Burr was asked by a Stars and Stripes editor to cover them. We’ll never know how he pulled it off, but he got another GI to do his assignment while he went back to Switzerland to practice water skiing on Lake Geneva.

“Reporter Martin” got the London Olympics reported and, yes, he won the World Water Skiing Championship. (Water skiing has never been an Olympic sport).

Back in the U.S.A., we both went to the University of Montana, and one day he showed up in my speech class with four elementary school boys.

He explained he was helping them to overcome stuttering. Speech Professor Herb Carlson was backing his ambitious program, and it became a common sight to see Burr’s old car with several young passengers around campus.

Carlson later helped Burr get a scholarship for an advanced speech pathology degree at a noted Midwest university, and Burr went on to make great contributions to that new science.

Epilogue: Friend Burr augmented his GI Bill during college by heading up a spectacular water ski show on Chicago’s Lake Michigan in summers.

He would leave the U each spring to train his team in Sarasota, Fla.

It was frightening to watch his primary 1950 snow-ski run on Big Mountain. He had instant reflexes coupled to no fear, but also no knowledge of how to stop. He zoomed over the high bottom bank and completely through the parking lot on the first run. Luckily, no cars were damaged.

Burr Martin was one of the most intelligent, wittiest, well-coordinated and strongest men I ever knew, Although I spent long wonderful hours over the years in deep, sometimes personal, but mostly humorous conversations with him, I never really understood what drove him to do the things he did.

Our last conversation was at dinner in my home in Kalispell, perhaps 30 years ago while he was still a college professor. Burr’s kid sister, Donna, proved the Martin family’s athletic genes by becoming the mother of Flathead’s noted champion wrestlers, the Tyree brothers.

Wilbur “Burr” Martin passed away a few years ago, and I cherish the memories of those times we shared, memories that come roaring back every four years.

G. George Ostrom writes a regular column for the Bigfork Eagle.