History of the Oregon Nordic Club

by Marjorie Bulkley (SONC historian archives)

Perhaps you are wondering how the Oregon Nordic Club originated. It all started with one man, John Day. John was a prominent businessman in Jackson County. He loved sports, and was a biker, mountain climber and runner. On a climbing expedition on Mt. McKinley he was severely injured and had to give up running. It was then, after he recovered, that he took up cross-country skiing.

Now John didn’t do anything half way. He decided he would like to try out for the 1964 Olympic ski team, and found out that he would have to qualify. So he went to Norway to train for a year. The fact that he was in his fifties didn’t seem to deter him at all. Unfortunately he didn’t qualify.

In 1966 John invited a small group of friends to his house to form an organization to encourage the activities of Nordic skiing. The other people in the group included Bill Pruitt, Bob Huff, Ben Day (the younger brother), and Dan Bulkley (an active Southern Oregon Chapter member until his death in 2018 at 101 years).

The first general meeting of the new Oregon Nordic Club was held March 26, 1966. Upon reading the minutes of the first meeting, I found they made plans to incorporate the club as a nonprofit and to set up by-laws. Their statement of purpose for the club included “the strong desire for the participation in, and the promotion of, outdoor winter touring, or anything conducive to the promotion of Nordic activities. This could include summer activities such as hiking, climbing, water skiing, etc.” It was also agreed they “should emphasize touring rather than racing, and that racing would naturally evolve out of the other.” It was agreed that a fee of $2.00 per person be charged effective from November 1 through October 31.

Now there are eleven chapters of the Oregon Nordic Club all over the state. Each chapter sends a representative to the state organization, which meets each year on the Sunday following the John Craig Memorial Race. The ONC Board of Directors meet several times during the year by remote communication in lieu of personal attendance. A portion of our dues are sent to the state organization which provides us with the following:

A collective for the purchase of insurance and other vital services, thus making it cheaper for chapters. This is very important to us.
Tax reporting
A larger voice for pursuing issues that are in the interest of cross-country skiers.
A conduit for information about cross-country skiing statewide and nationwide.
Promoting cross-country skiing as a life long sport.
And sponsoring the oldest ski race and tour in the state–the John Craig Memorial Race and Mail Carry.

John Day died of leukemia in 1986. He was still skiing right up to almost the end. He had a track setter (it belongs to the club now) and he would hire someone to pull it with a snow cat out ahead of him while he skied. He had the driver go far enough ahead so he couldn’t hear the snow cat. Sometimes he would call Dan to come and ski with him.

The next year after John died, Dan decided it would be a good idea to have a race in his memory, so we started the John Day Memorial Race at Diamond Lake. The race was held annually from 1987 to 2013.

If you are interested in more reading on John Day, read more in this 1964 Sports Illustrated articles: https://vault.si.com/vault/1964/02/03/steps-to-the-stars