Way back in 1970, longtime U.S. National Ski Team coach Bob Beattie left his post to help found the World Pro Ski Tour.
The pending launch of the Ski Tour, along with the world premier of the movie, Downhill Racer, brought American skiier and 1964 Olympic Slalom Silver Medalist, Billy Kidd, and actress, Natalie Wood, together on the slopes outside of Reno, NV. The movie, which starred Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and Camilla Sparv, focused on the world of high-level downill ski racing.
Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars, calling it “the best movie ever made about sports – without really being about sports at all.”
Kidd was in attendance for a ski exhibition in conjunction with the premier and Wood was there because her second husband, Richard Gregson, was the producer of the film.
Wood, of course, drowned under mysterious conditions in 1981 off Santa Catalina Island, CA. She was aboard her first (and third) husband, Robert Wagner‘s, yacht at the time along with actor Christopher Walken. Her body was found over a mile away from the boat and stories of why she might have been on the small dinghy by herself varied, but the investigation proved inconclusive.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser was the creation of former Ann Arbor News Sports Editor Geoff Larcom. Longtime friend and fellow Ann Arbor News alum, Pat Schutte, took it to heights previously unknown. We aim to keep it alive here at The Sports Fan Project. The cropped photo and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you Sunday.