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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that takes a flying leap through history one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gay Bluesiay, And in this episode

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Speaker 1: we're talking about a bygone sporting event too pure for

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Speaker 1: this world, a wild winter pastime known as barrel jumping.

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Speaker 1: The day was December eighteenth, nineteen sixty five. American speed

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Speaker 1: skater Ken Label set a world record by jumping over

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Speaker 1: seventeen barrels while wearing ice skates. The sport of barrel

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Speaker 1: jumping and yes it's technically a sport, is believed to

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Speaker 1: have originated in Holland roughly three hundred years ago. At first,

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Speaker 1: skaters would launch themselves over mounds of snow rather than barrels,

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Speaker 1: but the desire for a more standardized hurdle led them

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Speaker 1: to using beer kegs laid side by side. Some modern

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Speaker 1: jumpers still used wooden kegs when practicing, but for official

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Speaker 1: competitions regulations called for fiber composition barrels sixteen inches in diameter.

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Speaker 1: As you've probably gleaned, barrel jumping is essentially a winter

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Speaker 1: version of long jumping, except the jumpers have blades strapped

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Speaker 1: to their feet or moving at high speeds, and have

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Speaker 1: a much higher risk of injury. The way it worked

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Speaker 1: was exceedingly simple. Skaters would make several laps around an

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Speaker 1: ice rink to build up speed, and then launch themselves

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Speaker 1: into the air over as many lined up barrels as possible.

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Speaker 1: Of course, clearing the barrels was only part of the challenge.

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Speaker 1: With nothing but hard ice to break your fall, Landing

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Speaker 1: on your feet was equally important it It didn't always happen, though,

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Speaker 1: and plenty of barrel jumpers wound up with broken ankles

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Speaker 1: and shattered pelvises. As a result, the niche sport rose

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Speaker 1: to prominence in the US in the early nineteen thirties.

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Speaker 1: The man generally credited with kicking off the craze was

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Speaker 1: Irving jaffe, an American speed skater and two time gold

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Speaker 1: medal winner at the nineteen thirty two Winter Olympics. Two

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Speaker 1: years after his victory at the Games, Jaffey took a

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Speaker 1: job as the winter sports director at Grossinger's Catskill Resort,

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Speaker 1: about two hours north of Manhattan. While skiing in the

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Speaker 1: Catskill Mountains was the primary draw for vacationing New Yorkers,

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Speaker 1: Jaffe decided to mix things up by adding the little

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Speaker 1: known spectacle of barrel jumping to the resorts winter program.

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Speaker 1: The activity was deemed too dangerous for guests, but using

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Speaker 1: his clout as an Olympic champion, Jaffe was able to

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Speaker 1: convince professional ice skaters and hockey players to try their

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Speaker 1: luck at jumping barrels. The tetition was held at Grossinger's

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Speaker 1: world class outdoor ice rink, and the thrills and spills

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Speaker 1: of the treacherous sport proved so popular with the resort

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Speaker 1: goers that it became an annual event. Similar small scale

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Speaker 1: competitions were held in other parts of the country, as

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Speaker 1: well as in Canada and Europe, but there were no

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Speaker 1: title matches to determine who was the best in the field.

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Speaker 1: As a result, every trick skater in the business started

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Speaker 1: proclaiming themselves the world champion of barrel jumping, a fact

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Speaker 1: that annoyed Jaffey to no end. In nineteen fifty one,

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Speaker 1: he finally had his fill of all the show boating,

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Speaker 1: so he invited jumpers from all over the world to

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Speaker 1: compete at Grossinger's and settle the matter once and for all.

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Speaker 1: The response was overwhelming, and for the next quarter of

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Speaker 1: a century, the resort would host the championship every year.

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Speaker 1: For many spectators, it was the highlight of their whole vacation,

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Speaker 1: and when you read some of the coverage of the event,

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Speaker 1: it's easy to imagine why. As Sports Illustrated reported one

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Speaker 1: winter quote, some skaters did belly whoppers at thirty and

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Speaker 1: forty miles per hour, one crashing head first into the

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Speaker 1: row of barrels. They tumbled wildly, gasp for breath after

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Speaker 1: the wind had been knocked out of them, and then

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Speaker 1: wiggle wobbled back to the bench to await their next turn.

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Speaker 1: Jaffy did his best to mitigate the number of injuries

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Speaker 1: on the ice, but his efforts were often opposed by

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Speaker 1: the very people he sought to keep safe. Once we

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Speaker 1: tried to lengthen the landing space, he told reporters, so

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Speaker 1: the jumpers wouldn't crash so hard, but they refused to

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Speaker 1: allow it. They wanted less landing room so they could

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Speaker 1: have more space to skate and build up speed for

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Speaker 1: their jumps. We make them wear plastic helmets, gloves and

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Speaker 1: pads to protect their backs, but these guys are wild men.

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Speaker 1: The extreme sport of barrel jumping reached its peak popularity

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, when it was televised as part

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Speaker 1: of ABC's y World of Sports. During that time, the

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Speaker 1: competition was dominated by a pair of brothers, Leo and

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Speaker 1: Kenneth Leabelle of Lake Placid, New York. In nineteen sixty,

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Speaker 1: twenty nine year old Leo won his sixth consecutive championship

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Speaker 1: when he cleared a wopping sixteen barrels at a jaw

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Speaker 1: dropping distance of twenty six feet two and a half inches.

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Speaker 1: He had set the bar high that year, and while

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Speaker 1: other competitors eventually managed to jump greater distances, none of

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Speaker 1: them were able to clear more than sixteen barrels. However,

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Speaker 1: sibling rivalry can be a powerful motivator, and in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty five, Ken Lebel was determined to best his brother.

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Speaker 1: That year marked the fifteenth annual World's Championship at Grossinger's,

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Speaker 1: and though the competition was fierce, it ultimately came down

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Speaker 1: to just three skaters, Ken, his brother Leo, and the

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Speaker 1: reigning champ, Jacques Saint Pierre of Quebec. All three men

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Speaker 1: successfully cleared a line of sixteen barrels, so for the

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Speaker 1: first time in the competition's history. A seventeenth barrel was added.

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Speaker 1: Leo LaBelle missed his mark, colliding with the final barrel

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Speaker 1: and sliding backwards into the cushioned wall of the rink.

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Speaker 1: Next up was Jacques Saint Pierre, but he too fell

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Speaker 1: short and slid feet first into the wall. Finally, it

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Speaker 1: was Ken's turn. He circled the rink twice, churning up

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Speaker 1: speed as he strode across the blue tinted ice. Then

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Speaker 1: he dashed around the final curve, took aim at the

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Speaker 1: barrels and tossed his arms back to prepare for liftoff.

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Speaker 1: He rose into the air and flew over every barrel.

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Speaker 1: He even stuck the landing more or less, skating away

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Speaker 1: unharmed and grinning ear to ear. Sportscaster Jim McKay summed

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Speaker 1: up the victory for viewers at home, saying, quote, nobody

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Speaker 1: in the history of the sport ever did it before.

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Speaker 1: There's Kenny's wife just as tearfully excited as if her

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Speaker 1: husband had just won the World Series. Leabell may not

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Speaker 1: have won the World Series, but he did set a

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Speaker 1: world record both for the number of barrels cleared and

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Speaker 1: for his overall distance an astonishing twenty eight feet eight inches.

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Speaker 1: Labelle's lengthy leap was a high water mark for the

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Speaker 1: bizarre sport of barrel jumping, though it was eventually beaten

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Speaker 1: by one barrel and nine inches by Yvonne Jolin of Canada.

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Speaker 1: The yearly competition at Grossinger's continued for another decade or so,

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Speaker 1: but when the resort closed its doors in the mid

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, the barrel jumping championship quickly sank into obscurity.

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Speaker 1: One of the last attempts to revive interest in the

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Speaker 1: sport came in nineteen ninety two, when the now defunct

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Speaker 1: Canadian Barrel Jumping Federation lobbied to have the event included

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Speaker 1: in the Winter Olympics. A live demonstration team was sent

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Speaker 1: to plead the case before the Olympic Committee, but after

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Speaker 1: watching a video of barrel jumping, the members were so

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Speaker 1: mortified by the likelihood of injuries that they canceled the

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Speaker 1: meeting altogether. One committee member explained the decision saying, quote,

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Speaker 1: it appeared to be a brutal sort of sport. Everybody

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Speaker 1: falls on their backside. Of course, it's been more than

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Speaker 1: thirty years since that unceremonious rejection, and with Winter Olympics

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Speaker 1: viewership at an all time low, I don't think the

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Speaker 1: Games can still afford to be squeamish. So if anyone

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Speaker 1: on the committee is listening, I say take a chance

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Speaker 1: and let's roll out the barrels once again. I'm Gabe

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Speaker 1: Lucier and hopefully you now know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. If you have a

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Speaker 1: second and you're so inclined, consider keeping up with us

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Speaker 1: or you can get in touch directly by writing to

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Speaker 1: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks as always to

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Speaker 1: Chandler Maze for producing the show, and thanks to you

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Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

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Speaker 1: another day in History class