In 1998, SVSEF started a Pro-Am event to raise funds for the ski team that continues today in honor of Bill Janss. It is a theme-based event with costumes galore and fun. Each year, the racers compete in qualifying runs to make it to the final four. The fastest team with combined times on the first day of qualifying has their team name and Pro engraved on the trophy.

By the age of 20, Bill Janss had already established a brilliant skiing and racing career. He was a member of the Stanford University ski team for three years, a California State Champion and was selected as a member of the 1940 U.S. Olympic Alpine Squad.

In 1942, Bill was a flight instructor for the Royal Canadian Air Force and later taught at Oxnard Army Air Base, then made an officer in the Army Air Force, flying his own pressurized twin engine, Airstar. After the war, skiing was still uppermost in Bill’s mind and he and his brother, Ed, bought ranch country in Colorado. An ideal village grew from those range lands and Snowmass opened in 1967. 

In 1964, the Janss Corporation bought Sun Valley, Idaho from the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1968, Bill took entire control of the Sun Valley stock and it was held by Bill and his immediate family until it was sold to Earl Holding in 1977. In the ten years Bill owned Sun Valley; he replaced all but one of the 16 lifts and added three new lifts. Janss helped develop equipment to groom the slopes and remained dedicated and devoted to the organization of skiing, racing, and developing one of the finest ski resorts in the universe. 

Bill’s contribution to skiing cannot be measured—it is too multi-faceted. It includes resort development, racing, financing, U.S. Ski Association board work and a sincere desire to help the progress of skiing. His devotion of time and treasure to the organization of skiing, and representation in International Skiing, put him on the boards of the U.S. Ski Association’s U.S Alpine Committee, at which time he helped instigate the point system for racers that is used today. William C. “Bill” Janss (1918-1996) was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1979.

Award recipients’ names are engraved on the Bill Janss Pro-Am Classic Speed Cup, which is displayed in the SVSEF Training Center at Warm Springs.

Source: U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame