Aurele Legere

Aurele Legere first caught the atten¬tion of the winter sports world at the age of ten when he became the youngest ever to take off from the 50 meter jump in his home town of Rumford. That was in 1928 and his jump was recorded as 98 feet.

As an 18 year old high school student in 1935 he jumped 185 feet and while the leap wasn't official it is still recog¬nized as the Maine high school record. That same year he became the youngest Class ''P:.' jumper in the world in the Eastern U.S. Amateur Championships.

On graduation from Stephens High in Rumford, Legere attended prep school at Hebron Academy where he contin¬ued his jumping as one of only 40 Class ''P:.' jumpers in the country. He had already won the Eastern "B" title (1935) and the Eastern ''P:.' title (1936). It was thought he would have made the 1940 Olympic team, had he not chosen to attend prep school, but those games were cancelled because of the war and like so many athletes of the time Legere entered the U.S. Army where he served as a Tech Sergeant.

That service gave him an opportunity to compete in Europe after the war and in 1946 he won the Third Army jumping championship with a jump of 256 feet on the Olympic Hill in Garmisch. The next weekend he won the European Theatre of Operation meet. He went on to tour Europe jumping in Chamonix, France, Cortina, Italy, and Zermatt, Switzerland as a member of the All-Army Ski Team.

While recognized for his many victo¬ries on jumping hills in the United States and Europe, Legere made even greater contributions to the sport as a designer of jumps and an inspiration to young jumpers. Through is efforts his home Chisolm Ski Club maintained a jumping hill long after the NCAA dropped the event form its ski lineup.

In 1976 when Rumford's Black Mountain hosted the Nordic side of the NCAA's he designed and built a new 55 meter jump. Over the years his work on the jumping hill and his work with young skiers pro¬duced a number of jumpers who went on to com¬pete at the N C A A level.

For his achievements in ski jumping Aurele Legere has been inducted into the Masters Ski Jumping Hall of Fame in Lake Placid, NY and in 1996 was one of six Maine skiers recognized by the Ski Maine Association for his contribution to the sport of skiing in Maine. In addition to serving as an official at the 1976 NCAA Championships he served as a jumping official at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid.

His prowess as a competitor and his life long dedication to the sport of ski jumping has earned Aurele Legere in place in the Maine Ski Hall of Fame.