Perhaps no one epitomized the Steamboat Springs spirit better than Jim “Moose” Barrows, who passed away June 28 at age 80. Didn’t know him? Fear not, with the below CliffsNotes about a man not afraid to jump off them. Moose moved to town with his family in 1950, joining the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club at age 5, coached by fellow Olympian Gordy Wren.
After winning five individual races racing for the University of Colorado, he went on to become the nation’s premier four-event skier, participating in both Alpine and Nordic events. He later earned a berth on the U.S. Ski Team for the downhill event, leading to a World Cup win in 1967 and berth on the U.S. Olympic team in 1968. There, he was favored to win gold, but caught an edge and tumbled epically, spending the rest of his life known as the star of ABC’s Wide World of Sports’ Agony of Defeat crash.
But he was more known for bettering others’ lives than he was for his biff, founding the Moose’s Loose Golf Tournament benefitting the Moose Barrows Scholarship Fund for SSWSC, raising funds for the Children’s Hospital in Denver’s Anschutz Medical Campus, and receiving 2021’s Philanthropist of the Year award from the Yampa Valley Community Foundation. His standing-room-only (even in a cow field) celebration of life included such Olympians as Gordon Eaton (’64), Billy Kidd (’64), Hank Kashiwa (’72), and more. RIP Moose, we’ll be Swillin’, Chillin’ and Spillin’ in your honor.
