DU Skiing Retrospective

The alpine ski run at Kitzbühel in Tyrol, Austria, had almost completely iced over when Otto Tschudi (BSBA ’75) stepped up to the gate for his best professional race ever. He was competing on the 1969 FIS (International Ski Federation) World Cup circuit for Norway and was wearing bib No. 48, putting 47 skiers in front of him in an era without artificial snowmaking.

“In those days, with a late start number, there were a lot of bumps and holes on the way down,” Tschudi says with a laugh. “Everybody else had already gone to the bar, and they thought the race was over. But it wasn’t.”

Tschudi placed 10th, his best result on the World Cup. While he was celebrating in the sparse finishing area, an unfamiliar man approached Tschudi and asked him a simple question in German: “Haben see auf die shuhle gedacht?” Translated: “Have you thought about school?”

That man was legendary University of Denver ski coach Willy Schaeffler, at the time nearing the end of his 22-year run leading the ski program—plus an eight-year stint as the men’s soccer coach—but still at the height of his work with the U.S. National Ski Team.

Tschudi initially brushed him off.

“’No, no, next weekend I’m on that podium,” Tschudi recalls telling Schaeffler while motioning to the nearby raised platform, the pinnacle of World Cup racing. “School? No interest.”

But Schaeffler had been sent by Jon Terje Överland, a former DU alpine skier and someone who had also competed for Norway alongside Tschudi at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. The persistent coach leveraged that connection into a 20-minute conversation, which led the skier to ask: “So, where is Denver?”

“The deal he gave me was that you ski three (collegiate) races a year, and you can keep skiing the World Cup if you keep your grades up,” Tschudi says. “So, I took the deal, and it ended up working out very well for me.”

Tschudi took a ship from Europe to New York, then a Greyhound bus to Denver. He traveled across gently rising plains and arrived in the city on a cloudy day, one that obscured the mountains, and initially thought himself the victim of an elaborate prank. But after confirming there were indeed gorgeous, snow-covered slopes just a few miles west of Denver, he quickly fell in love with the campus, skiing opportunities and camaraderie that came with collegiate competition. He joined a diverse group of competitors, many of whom were Europeans—for once pulling in the same direction.

Tschudi continued to shine on the sport’s largest stages, including another trip to the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, where he vied with five other current and former DU skiers for international glory. Prior to graduating in 1975 with a B.S. in hotel and restaurant management and international business, he became the most decorated skier in DU history, winning five individual collegiate national titles, including a program-best three top finishes in the 1971 championships.

DU's international draw

Tschudi’s journey is only one of many global voyages that have led to the DU ski program. Throughout its history, the program has sought out the most skilled and ambitious skiers from across the U.S. and the world. The current alpine and Nordic men’s and women’s ski teams include nine student-athletes from Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming and 15 student-athletes from Australia, Canada, Czechia, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The reasons for coming to DU are as varied as the skiers’ hometowns and countries. German alpine skier Nora Brand, Colorado Snowsports Museum Hall of Fame’s 2023 Collegiate Athlete of the Year, came to America because it was an opportunity to combine her academic and athletic ambitions.

“There’s no other place where you have this system of college sports,” she says. “We simply don’t have that in other parts of the world, and that’s a big reason a lot of us come over.”

The international draw extends to the current coaching staff. Alpine head coach Joonas Rasanen, who skied collegiately at the University of New Mexico—and was crowned slalom national champion in 2013—hails from Kauniainen, Finland, where he competed professionally on the FIS World Cup and Europa Cup circuits from 2015 to 2019. He says part of leading a diverse group of athletes is understanding the challenges of their academic and athletic goals.

“I did what they’re doing as a student-athlete back in the day,” Rasanen says, “But from a coaching perspective, it’s fun to see the flair from Norway, Germany, Sweden, Australia. Bringing that hodge-podge together is great, seeing what we all bring to the table. At the end of the day, we’re here at the University, and we’re all in it together as Pioneers.”

A new era

When the new millennium dawned, so too did a new era of skiing for the Pioneers. Kurt Smitz was brought on to helm the program when it returned in 1993 and oversaw another national championship in Utah in 2000.

It was the first of three consecutive titles, plus another in 2005. The five-year span included 24 individual championships and 39 All-Americans. The Pioneers went on to win six more national titles under alpine coach Andy LeRoy, the latest in 2018.

In 2021, Rasanen took over the alpine team, and Rogan Brown now leads the Nordic team. While the team has not triumphed on the sport’s biggest collegiate stage in recent seasons, it hasn’t been without some major successes. Prior to becoming an NCAA champion in 2022, Katie Hensien (BSBA ’23) competed for Team USA during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where she placed 26th in the women’s slalom race.

 “I don’t think an athlete ever really knows if they’ll be able to make it to that level and compete, but it was such an honor to not only represent the U.S., but also Denver, at the Olympics and add to that amazing history,” Hensien says.

Coach Brown says it’s hard to measure the impact DU student-athletes have made. 

“It’s great to see the connections and network that DU skiing has globally,” Brown says. “We see it all the time talking to alumni across the globe. What we did here, the impact that this university had on them as student-athletes, it’s hard to match. To see what they’ve done out in the world, too, is really fantastic.”

Rasanen echoes Brown’s sentiment, saying the recipe for DU’s success has always been and continues to be finding student-athletes who are driven in all their pursuits, especially those beyond skiing. “We try to find the people who are ready to put in the work on and off the slopes," he says.

“That’s really been a key to DU throughout our history and something I’m excited to see more of in the past three years. We take that super seriously as a staff. We want to make sure everybody gets out of here with a degree because skiing can only take you so far. Those types of student-athletes are also the ones who are going to be more driven to improve in the sport, too, but skiing can only take you so far.”

Lasting legacy

Brown points to alumni like Tschudi, who have helped grow the sport, both at DU and beyond.

After graduation, Tschudi’s successes in skiing and business resulted in him funding numerous scholarships at the University, including serving as a founding member of the Bob Beattie Ski Foundation and the Willy Schaeffler Scholarship Fund for Disabled Scholar-Athletes.

In fact, alumnus Jamie Stanton (BSBA ’17), who was a scholarship recipient, won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in the men’s slalom standing event, adding to DU’s now impressive roster of 40 Olympians spanning 75 years.

Tschudi later joined DU’s Board of Trustees in 1991 and is credited as the man with the idea for a second campus in the Rockies, which eventually solidified into the James C. Kennedy Mountain Campus. For Tschudi’s part, he’s quick to shift to Schaeffler and the legacy of diversity he left behind at the University, even after the monumentally successful coach passed away in 1988.

“He’s really the one who put DU skiing on the map, and he did that by having a multitude of nations on this team,” Tschudi says. “He was German, so he had connections all over Europe and with the FIS. He knew everyone in the sport and therefore, he pulled people from all over.

Even when Tschudi was getting ready to graduate, it wasn’t without one more deal from Schaeffler that would bring more international student-athletes to Denver.

“When I graduated, I learned (Schaeffler) had another deal. He said, ‘Oh, ya, you have to get somebody better to take your place, ya?’” When the time came for Tschudi to leave, however, he couldn’t find anybody faster, so he offered Schaeffler a deal that the two-sport coach couldn’t refuse: “I told him, ‘Willy, the best I can do is two guys, and one of them plays soccer.’”

Explore more historic ski photos at the University of Denver Special Collections and Archives.