JOHN DAY -- SKIER, OUTDOORSMAN, MOUNTAIN CLIMBER AND BICYCLIST

Cross-country skiing would not be as popular in Oregon as it is today were it not for a Medford man named John Day. Like a modern day Johnny Appleseed, Day drove around the state, towing a snowmobile, setting tracks for people who wanted to ski cross country.

John spent much of his youth in Southern Oregon. He graduated from Medford High School. He and his wife Nan lived in Sams Valley, where he ranched, developed real estate and raised buffalo. He was an all-around outdoorsman, a bicyclist (he held several age group records), a mountain climber (he climbed four peaks in a 24 hour span in Oregon) and climbed Mt. McKinley in Alaska, and a big game hunter (listed several times in Boone & Crockett Club Record Books).

Day became interested in cross-country skiing after leg injury made it impossible for him to run anymore (he ran in local road races). He spent a winter in Norway learning to race and tried out for the 1964 Olympic Cross Country Ski Team. He was chosen as a alternate, but was not called upon to race with the U.S. Team. Day then spent the next few years promoting skiing for the United States Ski Association. In that position, he traveled throughout Oregon promoting cross-country skiing. Whenever a local club wanted to hold a race, John would lay the tracks and then race himself. During that period, he, along with Bill Pruitt and Dan Bulkley, formed the Oregon Nordic Club, an organization that now comprises hundreds of skiers in chapters throughout Oregon.

John Day died in 1986. Because of his extraordinary contribution to cross country skiing, the Southern Oregon Chapter of the Oregon Nordic Club organized and dedicated an annual ski race in his honor. Started in 1987, the Oregon Nordic Club has held the John Day Memorial race each February at Diamond Lake Resort.