Meet The Muskegon Engineer Who Changed Winter Sports Forever
In a quiet moment with his daughters, a Muskegon, Michigan, engineer unwittingly set the stage for Olympic glory on snow-covered hills.
It's hard to imagine, but Shaun White wouldn't have won 13 Gold Medals in the Winter Olympics without this Michigan father creating a toy for his kids on Christmas Day of 1965. Sherman Poppen forever changed Winter sports, according to Wikipedia,
Modern snowboarding began in 1965 when Sherman Poppen, an engineer in Muskegon, Michigan, invented a toy for his daughters by fastening two skis together and attaching a rope to one end so he would have some control as they stood on the board and glided downhill.
The snowboard was originally called a snurfer board since it was like surfing on snow. Snurfing and snurfing competitions not only grew in popularity in the '80s in Michigan, but also took off nationwide. Later, snowboarding became a part of the X-Games. As it grew in popularity worldwide, it became a part of the Winter Olympics.
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In March 2020, Sherman Poppen was inducted posthumously into the U.S. Ski-Snowboard Hall of Fame, according to MLive.
He is among the 2019 class of “snowsport pioneers” who were chosen in August to be the newest members of the hall of fame.
Mr. Poppen, we salute you.
There's not a lot of video footage of Sherman Poppen. However, I did find an interview with Mr. Poppen talking about the origins of the snurfer board and how that went from a toy for his kids to an Olympic sport.
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