Exhibit Description
 Named in honor of Utah's Athlete of the 20th Century, the Alf Engen Collection is the heart and soul of the Center. It is comprised of more than 300 trophies, medals, uniforms, scrapbooks, skis, boots, photos, films and other collectables that span some 70 years of a man who arguably did the most to shape the region's skiing landscape.
By some accounts, Alf was the finest all-around skier ever. Here is a sampling of why his collection is of such significance, not only in Utah but worldwide:
- 16 times a U.S. ski champion in jumping, cross-country, downhill and slalom events
- World ski jumping record-setter, once breaking the world record twice the same day
- Coach of the 1948 U.S. Olympic Team
- Inducted into the National Ski
- Hall of Fame in 1956
- Helped establish 30 ski areas in the 1930s and 1940s in the Intermountain Region, including Alta and Snowbasin, Utah; Snow King at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Idaho's Bogus Basin and Magic Mountain
- As director of the ski school at Alta he taught thousands to ski and made powder skiing an art form that earned him the title of "Father of powder skiing"
- Alta's Alf's High Rustler ski run, acclaimed as one of America's most exhilarating, is named in his honor.
- The Salt Lake Tribune named him "Utah's Athlete of the 20th Century"
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