The Penguins Opted for Broader Membership Criteria
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Penguin Power! One of North America’s first and most successful ski clubs was created in Quebec entirely by, and for, women. RHODA EAVES COLLECTION EAVES RHODA Members of the Penguin Ski Club monitoring a schoolgirl race on the slopes at Mont Saint-Sauveur in 1941. Founded in 1932 by a group of young Montreal women, the club’s first recorded meeting and ski meet were held in the winter of 1934. BY CARA ARMSTRONG AND LORI KNOWLES ki clubs have played an important role in gional halls of fame; and have been awarded some the growth of Quebec’s Laurentians as a of Canada’s highest honors. major North American ski hub, as well In the 1933 edition of the Canadian Ski Club An- as in the development of world-class Ca- nual, the Penguin’s founder and first president, nadian racers. And few clubs have been Betty Sherrard—born in Mexico City, raised in Sas successful as the Penguin Ski Club, founded Montreal and educated in England—said the club’s in 1932 by a group of young Montrealers—a group mission was: “to help its members enjoy ski- consisting entirely of women. In the decades since ing to the fullest, and to advance the standard of then, Penguins have won alpine and nordic med- ski proficiency amongst women.” To begin, she als at the Olympic, World Cup, Master’s and recruited fellow female skiers from the Junior national level; been inducted into national and re- League of Montreal and the Canadian Amateur 18 | May-June 2018 SKIING HISTORY Ski Association. She also worked closely with the all-male Red Birds Ski Club of McGill University, founded in 1928. While inspired by the Red Birds, the Penguins opted for broader membership criteria. As noted in the club’s official his- tory, The Penguin Ski Club: 1932–1992, the women elected to found their group outside the university as an “important opportunity for young Montreal women to travel, socialize, and stay together [as well as] offer the first ski instruction and com- petition specifically for women.” Membership was by invitation, and the first recorded meeting was held on March 29, 1934. Members COLLECTION EAVES RHODA could make nominations and the Above: Penguin member Rhona executive committee would discuss Wurtele, friends Elizabeth each one. One “blackball” meant “Libby” Elder and Nancy the nomination was referred to McKean, and Hermann Gadner the committee, and two meant the (far right), an influential ski nominee was out. instructor who coached Lucile Wheeler and the Wurtele twins. MAKING HEADLINES Right: The Penguin clubhouse The Penguins began making head- officially opened in January lines almost immediately after being 1939 on land donated by the formed. Olympic track-and-field Molson family. gold medalist-turned-journalist, RHODA EAVES COLLECTION Myrtle Cook, began featuring the club in her sports column, “Wom- en in the Sportlight,” on a regular member Percival Ritchie. “They moved to a house on the “station basis for the Montreal Star. In 1933, were soon outlawed,” she said. “We road” that had three small bed- the Boston Herald featured a story on would start from the top of a steep, rooms, four cots per room and one this unique all-female group. Both uncleared hill and race straight to bathroom. Members claimed they newspapers were fascinated by the bottom. I ended up in a barbed could “lean out one side of a cot to Duke Dimitri von Leuchtenberg’s wire fence, tore my pants and brush their teeth and out the other work with the club. As a graduate cut my knee. This made me very side to cook bacon for breakfast!” of Hannes Schneider’s Arlberg Ski proud. I still have the scar.’” Desperate for more space, the School and former director of the In 1935, the Penguins joined the club moved the following year ski school at Peckett’s-on-Sugar Hill Canadian Amateur Ski Association to a house in Piedmont, Quebec, in New Hampshire, von Leuchten- and began competing in women’s but soon determined it was too berg had taken on the task of im- races. In that first year, they par- far away from the ski action. A proving the Penguin’s skiing skills ticipated in eight ski races and won permanent home was needed. Ac- and honing their racing technique. every single one of them. Members cording to the official history, John They practiced at Mont Saint- of the group continued to either and Herbert Molson of beer fame Sauveur, and held their first meet win or place in the top five of the stepped in as Penguin patrons in during the winter of 1934. The early Canadian Championships from 1936 late 1938. The Molsons donated competitions included downhill, to 1939. land three-quarters of a mile from cross country, jumping, slalom Saint Sauveur, as well as the funds and a bushwhack race. Laurentian PENGUIN HOUSE: A HOME IS for construction of a building for ski pioneer Herman “Jackrabbit” BUILT BY THE MOLSONS “the fine women who were doing Johannsen organized the festivities During their early years, the Pen- a lot for the Canadian sport (of ski- and set up the bushwhack course guins led a peripatetic existence. In ing) and for the enjoyment of the down an unmarked slope. From 1933, club members used two rooms outdoors.” The Penguin Ski House the club history: “‘I remember the above the Banque National in Saint opened officially on January 1, 1939. bushwhack races,” said Penguin Sauveur as their base. In 1934, they Designed by Alexander Tilloch www.skiinghistory.org May-June 2018 | 19 Galt Durnford of the Montreal ar- Founding member Betty Kemp placed second among the women chitecture firm Fetherstonhaugh and Maxwell, who was studying at the and ninth overall. The twins’ ski- Durnford, the house had a stone École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, ing (and swimming) talents received foundation, square log construction had created a Penguin logo, and it a lot of attention in the Canadian that weathered to a silvery gray, was inscribed over the fireplace. A press. In 1947, Rhona and Rhoda pink gables, and a black Mansard unique chandelier with ski tips pro- were joint runners-up for the Lou roof. The front door opened onto jecting from a pewter center made Marsh Trophy, given by the Cana- a ski room that sported racks for the Penguin House extraordinary. dian Press to Canada’s Most Out- 24 sets of skis, a workbench, and a Nine years later, in 1948, the Red standing Athlete. All of it lent to small stove for waxing. Seven bunk- Birds built a clubhouse just a few Penguin prestige. rooms housed 24 built-in bunks. hundred yards away, on land also Additional items provided by donated by the Molsons. Penguins THE PENGUINS AND THE the Molsons, including mattresses, attended many weekend Red Birds WINTER OLYMPICS pillows, blankets, furniture, and parties, leading to several marriages World War II caused the cancel- coal for three years—even 24 tooth- over the years. lation of two Olympics, but the brushes in their holders in the Penguins were finally able to com- bathroom—kitted out the house. THE PENGUINS’ WAR EFFORT pete on the world stage at the 1948 Despite the planning that went into Olympic Winter Games in St. its design, Penguin House did not Moritz, Switzerland. It didn’t go so get the start its members hoped for. well. The Wurtele twins were the Within its first year, Canada de- only two members of the Canadian clared war on Germany and entered Women’s Alpine Team. Rhoda World War II. The club joined in cracked her anklebone six days the war effort as part of Operation before the Games, and Rhona had Pied Piper, a mass evacuation plan an accident during her run…leaving born out of British fear of air attack Canada without medals. from German bombers. More than The Penguins returned to the 20 British refugee children aged five international arena in 1952 for the to 14, plus two English nannies, Winter Games in Oslo, Norway. spent the summer of 1940 at Pen- Rhona was pregnant and unable to guin House. compete, but Rhoda was joined in RHODA EAVES COLLECTION EAVES RHODA Many Penguins also joined the Oslo by fellow Penguins Rosemary Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele with Lucile war effort. Seven became members Schutz and Joanne Hewson, as well Wheeler (center) in Lake Placid in 1946. of the Canadian Women’s Trans- as Penguin Lucile Wheeler. The port services. Others took over the four competed as the first complete, jobs local men vacated to serve four-woman alpine ski team Canada overseas. Penguin Patricia Paré, for had ever sent to the Olympics. example, became the first female In 1956, Wheeler was joined professional ski instructor at Que- by Penguin Anne Heggtveit on bec’s Mont Tremblant. Canada’s Olympic Alpine Ski Team at Cortina d’Ampezzo. Wheeler NEW DIRECTIONS: won a bronze in downhill, becom- THE WINNING WURTELE TWINS ing both the first Penguin and the With many of its original members first North American to medal in occupied with the war effort, the the downhill. She followed this with club set out to attract new interest a spectacular performance at the by hosting novice races and recruit- 1958 World Championships in Bad ing. Among the new members Gastein, Austria, where she won were Westmount-raised identical both the downhill and the giant twins Rhona and Rhoda Wurtele, slalom and came very close to win- who, fresh out of high school, be- ning the combined…ultimately taking came Penguins in 1942.