MAINTAINED BY THE
Meet the Athletes: Ski Jumpers in the Eastern USA
Earle Murphy
of Lake Placid NY (b. June 9, 1927) was a multi-sport
athlete in high school and college. He began jumping after finishing
college and enjoyed a long jumping career. He improved fast enough to
be invited to ski in the 1959 pre-Olympic event in Squaw Valley, CA. He
returned to Squaw Valley in 1976 to win one of his two U.S. National Masters
big hill titles. Late in his career, he won eight National Age Group crowns.
With Guttorm
Bakke of
Norway, Earle started the International Masters Championships (IMC) and chaired
the
International masters Ski Jumping Committee which oversees these Championships.
He won several medals at the IMC before retiring due to a muscle degeneracy
disease. There are reports that he put on his skis last March and skied
as a guest in the Russian National Masters Championships.
For a number of years it was typical to see just one or two jumpers in Masters Class at Eastern competitions, but in 2007 we saw four at Salisbury, five in the Empire State Games, and six Masters in the annual 50 meter competition at Storrs Hill in Lebanon. The reason why Lebanon had the most is that Lebanon is currently a hotbed of Masters jumping with a mix of resumed jumpers and adult beginners. Jon Farnham teamed up with Lebanon Old Boys Bill Ryan and Dan Brown at the 2006 National Masters Championship in St. Paul, MN.
 Team East (L-R): Jon Farnham, Don West, Dan Brown, Bill Ryan. 
The next year, the LOC Masters Traveling Team added Matt McKenney (left) to compete at the 2007 Masters Nationals in Iola, WI.
Here is a group of five masters who competed in a summer jump at Lebanon. Mark Breen (#16 below), who represented the U.S. at the 1986 World Junior Championships, resumed jumping in the summer of 2006 after a 20 year break and
won the Eastern Masters crown in Salisbury in both 2007 & 2008.
 (L-R): Mark Breen, Jon Farnham, Dan Brown, Ryan Crawford, Bill Ryan.
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Mark Levasseur, Bob Hein, Peter Claus, Don West
Don West of Plattsburgh NY (right, b. July 1, 1937) started ski jumping in
Madison WI with the Blackhawk Ski Club. He moved east in
1965 and has been a fixture at Eastern jumping meets ever since. He has
won several gold medals at the International Masters Championships and the U.S.
Masters Age Group Championship, and was many times Eastern Masters (veterans)
champion during the 1970's. Finally, in 1999 for the first time, he added the
National big hill title to his record. He created and maintains these web pages.
Larry Welch
of Scarboro ME was a promising junior jumper growing up in
Lyndonville VT, but he never jumped as a senior.
He came back to the sport at age thirty and won two National big hill crowns
and two National
age group titles. Larry has dominated Eastern Masters
jumping for several season, winning
several Eastern Masters Championships, but he has not jumped for
a couple of years now. His son, Brian is a member of the U.S. Ski Team.
Mark Levasseur
of Worcester MA was a ski jumping child prodigy, flying off
big hill takeoffs at the age of ten. As a teenager, Mark committed all of his
efforts to professional hockey. After retirement from hockey, he returned to ski
jumping. You will not see a more graceful jumper on the hill! Mark has completed
the qualification process and has become a very acive ski jumping judge, but we hope that we will
see him on his skis as well as in the judges stand.
Jon Farnham
was a very good junior jumper in Lebanon NH and when his boys Jon, Jr.
and Brian started jumping, Dad found some skis and joined them on the hill.
It didn't take long for Jon to regain his jumping skills and he became
Eastern Masters champion in both 1998, 1999 and 2003.
With huge energy and enthusiasm, Jon has thrown himself back into the sport as
jumper, coach, facility developer and organizer. A man of many talents, Jon is occasionally
called on at the start of a competition to deliver his unique harmonica rendition of
the Star Spangled Banner.
Tom Dodds directs the ski jumping program of the Ford Sayre Ski Club, Hanover NH.
As his two boys and the other Ford Sayre skiers developed, Tom couldn't resist joining them
and he is now a regular in the masters class on hills up to 50 meter size. Tom and Jon Farnham go way back;
they were classmates from Kindergarten through grade 12 as well as team mates for Ford Sayre.
Tom has returned to the Upper Valley as a staff doctor at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.