New Orleans is known for a lot of things, but producing Winter Olympic athletes isn't one of them.
So, when the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper went snooping around recently to discover if The Big Easy had been the launching pad for any lugers or curlers, staff writer Bob Fortus came up with a retired doctor in Sun Valley.
It turned out that Dr. Lynn "Buck" Levy was the first of only three Louisiana natives to compete in the Winter Olympics—and that was 50 years ago at Cortina, Italy.
At Cortina, Levy competed for the 1956 U.S. Olympic team in the Nordic-combined event, encompassing cross-country skiing and ski jumping. He was 50th in 30-kilometer cross-country and 35th in Nordic-combined.
Sun Valley resident Levy, 74, is better known locally as a 10-handicap golfer who also ran 37 marathons in a six-year stretch from 1978 to 1984, before a hip injury caused him to retire from the 26-mile, 385-yard distance.
Levy's story is interesting for how he got to Cortina, not necessarily for his results.
"I'd never seen a snowflake until I was 18," said Levy, who had played quarterback in high school football at Newman High School in the Metairie area of New Orleans.
Levy traveled west for the first time at the age of 15 and worked on a ranch in Montana. On the way out, in 1948, he stopped in Colorado and "found out about the fly fishing and hunting there," he said.
His long-term goal was going to medical school in Louisiana, but Levy decided to attend Western State College at Gunnison, Colo., for his undergraduate studies.
Levy's roommate at Western State College was Mack Miller, who became a nationally-ranked Masters Nordic skier from McCall. Miller talked Levy into going out for the Western State cross-country ski team, which was coached by Swede Sven Wiik—future coach of the 1960 Olympic team.
A quick study and a hard worker, Levy improved rapidly at cross-country skiing and then started ski jumping. By the time Levy graduated from Western State in 1954, he and Miller had competed all over the country in FIS (International Ski Federation) events.
Levy entered the U.S. Army in 1954 and was stationed with the "ski troops" at Camp Hale, Colo. The Army base had its own ski team of 25 men. Levy joined it. In the fall of 1955, Levy auditioned for the U.S. Olympic team in Oregon and made it as a combined skier.
"I never dreamed when I went to college in Colorado in 1950 that I would be on the Olympic cross-country team six years later," said Levy.
Levy has great memories about his Olympic trip.
He said, "I had a great time and it was lovely in Cortina, although that was a year they had very little snow. The opening ceremonies were fabulous. We walked in with the team and I remember there were carpets on the ice rink.
"I did the combined jump and what I remember is falling on my last practice jump and landing head first. I had drawn No. 1 on the jump, which is the last thing you want.
"After the Olympics, the Army gave us temporary duty and we were invited to compete in Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland as part of a post-Olympic tour. I did pretty well and we didn't get back until April.
"We just traveled around, three of us. It was great. We got to ski at the Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo, the most famous jumping hill in the world, and also at Lahti, Finland, which was like being in the World Series in front of 50,000 people."
For many athletes in the early days of the Winter Olympics, competing was a one-shot deal, and that was the certainly the case with Levy.
Levy was discharged from the Army in June 1956 and attended Louisiana State University's medical school from 1957 to 1961. He interned for a year in Philadelphia, then worked in Long Beach, Calif., from 1963 to 1968.
His contact with Dr. John Moritz of Sun Valley ended up with Levy taking a job with Dr. Moritz at Mollie Scott Clinic in Sun Valley in 1970. He worked there in general practice until 1986, when Levy retired.
Since, Levy has been playing golf, bird hunting, fly fishing and tending to his real estate investments. When the Times-Picayune called, Levy was right in the middle of reading William Poundstone's "Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System that Beat the Casinos and Wall Street." Last year, he nearly shot his age in a round of golf at Sun Valley, a 76 with three penalty strokes.
Levy and his wife, JoAnn Levy, notable for completing all 31 of the Boulder Mountain Ski Tour cross-country ski marathons in Ketchum, left today, Feb. 15, for New Zealand.
From April 24 to April 30, Levy plans to compete in the $6 million Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf tournament at the English Turn Golf and Country Club.
He'll have a little gumbo, taste some crawfish and stuffed eggplant, and glory in his unique position in the annals of the Crescent City.
