Mike Terrell: Adgate is Hall of Fame bound

Former U.S. Ski Team member and Olympian Cary Adgate, a Boyne Falls native who grew up making his first ski turns on nearby Boyne Mountain, will be inducted into the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame next April.

Four people are selected annually through a vote of a cadre of industry people and snowsports journalists for induction into the Hall of Fame. Last year another longtime Boyne Falls resident Everett Kircher, founder of the Boyne Empire and a ski resort pioneer, was inducted.

Other members of the 2008 Hall of Fame class include a couple of other former U.S. Ski Team members -- freestyle mogul skiers Liz McIntyre (1986-98) and Nelson Carmichael (1984-92) -- and pioneer ski mountaineer Bill Briggs (1958-71).

Adgate, who is but one of two Midwestern men to be inducted into the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, has had a long career that's spanned four decades and includes, most recently, winning the 2005 U.S. Masters national slalom championship. The only other Midwestern make skier to be inducted, Chuck Ferries, was from Houghton.

Like Adgate, who was a member of the 1976-80 Olympic teams, Ferries was a member of a couple of 1950s Olympic teams.

Dick Wagner, from Harbor Springs, who was responsible for leading the nomination of Adgate's name to be voted on for induction, calls him one of the Heartland's all-time top ski racers.

"His skiing achievements are extensive, wish I had time to list them all," he said. "Cary, I think, is the most accomplished alpine racer from the Midwest. I'm thrilled and excited he made it and on his first nomination. Sometimes it can take two or three nominations before a person is voted in. It says a lot about his qualifications."

Adgate learned to ski at Thunder Mountain, which was owned by his parents at the time. It was later sold to Boyne, which used to run it on weekends. It closed in the early 1980s.

"It was a definite advantage to live at a ski area growing up," laughed the 55-year-old ski racer. "It got me started at an early age. When I was 13 I started skiing with Martin Burger, who was an instructor at Boyne Mountain with a racing background. He was my mentor through most of my amateur career, and a big influence on my racing career. The ironic thing is that he moved onto the U.S. Ski Team as a coach about the same time I moved up."

Adgate competed for a total of 18 years at the world class level, which is a long career in a profession subject to career-ending injuries; nine on the U.S. Ski Team and nine as a touring pro.

He won six U.S. national championship titles and was a two-time Olympian. At the age of 19, in 1973, he won the Can-Am Tour overall title with a victory in the notorious Roch Cup Downhill at Aspen. He won U.S. national slalom titles against some of the best skiers of his time -- Bobby Cochran (1974) and Phil Mahre (1976). He had five top-five World Cup finishes from 1974-80. He was the top American finisher in the 1976 Olympic slalom at Innsbruck, Austria, which included the Mahre twins.

Adgate made history in his professional debut in 1981 by winning his first two World Pro Skiing tour events back-to-back. Over the next nine years, with 25 tour victories and 71 top-four finishes, he went on to become one of the most winning pro ski racers ever.

After retiring from the pro circuit he moved back to northern Michigan in 1989 and drifted away from competitive skiing during the 1990s. In 2003 he became Boyne Resorts Ski Ambassador, and got his competitive juices flowing again.

"I got married and started a family during that time, but about the time I started with Boyne I discovered that improvements in equipment design allowed me to ski without back pain again," he said. "That was why I got off the U.S. Ski Team. I had hurt my back, and it couldn't stand the daily activity schedule. When I joined the pro tour it wasn't as intense and didn't demand the daily rigors that a ski team member encounters. But, after awhile even that got too much and I only skied for fun with friends and family."

With the new equipment he was skiing pain free again and took up racing one more time.

"I've had fun with it and some success in open competitions against FIS quality racers half my age," he said with a wry grin. "That makes it even more fun."

Prior to his most recent accolade -- the upcoming induction into the Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame -- Adgate was named Ski Racing Magazine's 2005 Masters Ski Racer of the Year.

I remember interviewing Steve Mahre a couple of years ago when he was at Boyne Mountain putting on a ski racing clinic. We talked about the time he, his brother Phil, Andy Mill and Adgate were all on the Olympic team together. That was a talented team, and I remember him saying that Cary was the one member of the team that they all could count on. He was always there for the team.

Photos

Mike Terrell

Cary Adgate is one of four members who will be inducted in April. Special to the Record-Eagle