University of Vermont Athletics

Lawrence S. Damon 1955 - Cross Country, Skiing

One of the best performers in the history of the University of Vermont ski team, Larry Damon, a 1976 UVM Hall of Fame inductee, was ahead of his time. Today the Catamounts ski team can boost of an abundance of All-Americans but in the 1950s, it was rare for a Vermont athlete to be accorded such an honor.

Damon won the NCAA Cross-Country Individual Championship in 1955, the only UVMer to perform that task until fellow Hall of Famer Stan Dunklee won the same title 21 years later. He was a four-time member of the U.S. Olympic Ski team skiing in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968. In addition to ski racing, Damon was a strong road racer, finishing 10th in the 1962 Boston Marathon and in the same year, winning the New England Open Cross-Country Championship in Boston. Later he was an accomplished masters runner and captured many road races around New England for many years.

Damon captained both the ski and fall cross-country teams at Vermont and upon graduation, was the recipient of the Wasson Athletic Prize, presented annually to the senior athlete who has maintained the highest academic average. He was a mechanical engineer student at UVM.

A native of Burlington, Sports Illustrated selected Damon as one of the Top 50 Vermont athletes of the 20th Century. The magazine's editors composed a list of the "Top 50 Athletes" in each state in its December 27, 1999 issue to commemorate the millennium. Damon ranked 14th among the Top 50 Vermonters.