Jack ELDER

Jack Elder played football at Kent-Meridian High School in Washington, and was an All-State linebacker in 1958. He also competed in judo, earning a black belt when he was still in high school. Elder learned luge in the early 1960s when he was in the US Army (1962-66) and stationed near Garmisch, Germany. He competed at the World Championships in 1965, 1967, 1970, and 1971 in addition to the 1972 Winter Olympics. In 1969 Elder was third in singles at the US and North American luge championships. In the winter of 1984-85, Elder came out of retirement and placed third in the US doubles in luge, but retired for good shortly thereafter.

Elder spent 11 years (1973-84) as a radio broadcaster. In 1984 he co-founded and became President of Oregon Sports Action, a group that investigated the possibility of bringing an Olympic Winter Games to Oregon and helped develop Olympic sports in Oregon. He was a director of Sports and Venues for the 1998 NIKE World Masters Games, and was Inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame Museum in 2010. Elder received the USA Olympians/Paralympians Langkop Award for Lifelong contribution in 2015. He also had the distinction of appearing as an extra in a movie with Elvis Presley, “It Happened at the World’s Fair” (1962).