Colorado
Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame

Robert "Barney" McLean 1917-2006
 
Inducted into the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame 1978
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Barney was born in Lander, Wyoming. Before he was four, his family moved to Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, where he almost immediately put on homemade skis and was nicknamed for a local bow-legged Irish jumper. He won his first prize at the age of thirteen when he captured the Western Boys Jumping Championship.

After winning the National Class B Jumping Championship in 1935, Barney switched to alpine skiing and began collecting a series of awards that eventually included every major race in North America. Among them were the National Downhill, Slalom, and Combined Championships, along with the Harriman Cup in 1942; the National Combined in 1946; the Roch Cup Combined in 1947; a special Alpine Combined at the St. Moritz Olympics in 1948 (where he was captain of the US team); and the NSA Veterans Race in 1956. During WW II the Army even flew him from his station in Canada to compete in the Alta Cup Race, which he won.

Barney's achievements were perhaps best represented by the year 1947 when he was awarded the National Ski Association's All American Ski Trophy for his all-around contribution to the sport, the Halstead Trophy of the Southern Rocky Mountain Ski Association for the same reason, and the Robert Russell Memorial Trophy as Colorado's outstanding athlete of the year - the first time this was ever given to a skier.

In 1996, Barney was celebrated as an American Skiing Legend by The Rolex Corporation and "SKI" magazine.


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