Clark Matis (2023) - CU Athletic Hall of Fame - University of Colorado Athletics

Clark Matis

Induction:
2023
Class:
1970

Earned three letters from 1967 through 1969 … Matis was the third CU skier to win two individual national titles, claiming the cross country crowns in 1968 and 1969 at the NCAA Championships; he was the first to win two titles in back-to-back years (as a sophomore he finished second) … A two-time, first-team All-American … Destroyed the collegiate competition over his junior and senior years, winning one 30-kilometer race by 4½ minutes … He won nine college races, the most by Nordic skier at the time for CU, and finished in the top five in all 13 career events (he won his last eight; he missed four events in ’68 competing for the U.S. in the Winter Olympics) … The recipient of CU’s Dick Schoenberger Memorial Award as the team’s most outstanding skier as a junior … Represented CU on the U.S. team for the 1966 and 1968 World University Games … As a member of the U.S. National Nordic Ski Team, he won the 15- and 30-kilometer races at the Rocky Mountain Division Championships in 1971 … He was on the 1968 and 1972 U.S. Olympic teams, competing in ’72 in the men’s 30k cross country race (finished 53rd; he injured his leg and couldn’t compete in ‘68) … He served as an assistant coach for the Buffaloes in 1972, when CU won the first of eight straight NCAA men’s titles, the first seven under Bill Marolt, his college coach … Prior to attending CU, he was on the U.S. Junior National Cross Country Ski team for four years (1961-64), and won the Junior Nationals in 1964 (and a member of the relay team for the ’63 and ‘64 championship performances) … Also placed second in the 1967 Nor-Am Cross Country Championships and third in the ’68 U.S. Olympic team championship tryouts at Lake Placid, N.Y. … After he completed his days of being a competitive skier, he became an executive with Rossignal Skis … Graduated with a bachelor's degree in Engineering from CU in 1970 ... In 1981, along with Randy Merrell and John Schweitzer, he founded Merrell, an outdoor shoe company, where he designed footwear and owned multiple patents on shoe and boot designs (Merrell is now owned by Wolverine World Wide Inc., and he now oversees technical advanced concept footwear design and … A native of Durango, Colo., his mother (Virginia) became the first female member of CU’s club ski team in 1939 (his father, Arvo, was the longtime president of the Durango Ski Club and was a coach for junior teams) … He was born July 1, 1946 in Durango and now lives in Snowmass Village, Colo.