Taulbee, a retired businessman who coached at the Washington Athletic Club after his competition days, will be inducted into the Northwest Ski Museum and Hall of Fame on Sunday in Mountlake Terrace at an induction ceremony at the Nile Shrine Golf and Country Club.
“It got me by surprise,” Taulbee said of the honor. “We’ve had an awful lot of good skiers from the Northwest. … It’s quite an honor.”
Taulbee, a four-year member of Seattle’s Franklin High School boys ski team as well as an all-state baseball and football player, was the national collegiate downhill champion at the University of Washington in 1956. He also won the downhill and giant slalom at the International Collegiate Championships in Banff, Alberta, that same year, earning NCAA All-America honors.
“I was one of those crazy guys who liked to go fast,” Taulbee said.
After competing for the Pacific Northwest Ski Association and winning multiple individual championships, he turned to coaching until the mid-1960s. His Washington state junior boys team won a championship in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Meg Wochnick: 360-754-5473 mwochnick@theolympian.com @megwochnick www.theolympian.com/southsoundsports
