The Colorado Buffaloes, representing the University of Colorado Boulder, boast a rich athletic tradition with the ski team standing out as one of its most successful programs. The university sponsors 16 varsity sports teams and participates as a member of the Big 12 Conference at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Colorado has won 30 national championships in its history, with 21 in skiing, the most recent coming in 2024, underscoring the team's consistent excellence on the slopes.
Early Days and Conference Affiliations
The University of Colorado has been a member of various athletic conferences throughout its history. It was a member of the Colorado Football Association in 1893 and became a charter member of the Colorado Faculty Athletic Conference in 1909, which later changed its name to Rocky Mountain Faculty Athletic Conference. In 1938, Colorado left the RMFAC to become a charter member of the Mountain States Conference (a.k.a. Skyline Conference). CU joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1947, then commonly known as the Big Six, changing the common name to the Big Seven. In 1958, the conference added OSU to become the Big Eight Conference. On July 1, 2011, the school joined the Pac-12 Conference, along with Utah.
A total of 12 of CU's 17 varsity sports competed in the Pac-12, except the ski teams, indoor track & field teams and the lacrosse team. The ski teams participate in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA), of which it has been a member since 1947, along with fellow Pac-12 newcomer Utah. Both continue to house skiing in the RMISA. The indoor track & field teams participated in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) as the Pac-12 didn't sponsor indoor track. With the Big 12 sponsoring indoor track, CU now competes in that conference. Women's lacrosse was added in the spring of 2014; that team competed in the MPSF until the Pac-12 Conference added women's lacrosse as a sport for the 2018 season. Women's lacrosse now competes in the Big 12, following the conference's decision to add the sport starting in the spring 2025 season.
Dominance in Skiing
The CU ski team competes as a member of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, as CU is one of two members of the Big-12 along with Utah that competes in skiing. Colorado is one of the dominant programs in the NCAA in skiing, winning 21 total national championships, including 20 NCAA Championships, most recently in 2024. The Buffaloes have won 29 RMISA championships, most recently in 2024.
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Over decades CU-Boulder has earned a supreme reputation in skiing, starting with its first national championship, in 1959.
Legends of Aspen - "Bob Beattie"
Bob Beattie and a De Facto National Training Center
In 1961, the National Ski Association picked University of Colorado coach Bob Beattie to renovate the national program. He responded to the challenge by creating a de facto national training center within his program at CU Boulder. Racer (and later coach and administrator) Bill Marolt recalls, “We were going to do it the American way. For example, Beattie was fixated on physical fitness.
Billy Kidd: Beattie knew how to get the most out of his athletes.
At the Mt. Bachelor training camp
Olympic Success
In 1964 Billy Kidd (Econ’69) and Jimmie Heuga (PolSci’73) became the first American men to win Olympic medals in the Alpine sport, a silver and bronze in the slalom.
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The Buffaloes have had 53 individuals connected to the school participate in the Olympics 85 times.
1959: The First National Championship
The first national championship team in any sport in CU’s athletic history took place on March 29, 1959 in Winter Park, Colo., as the CU ski team edged out rival Denver by 5.8 points. Fittingly, the 1959 ski team was the first team to be inducted into the Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.
“You’ve got to hand it to these kids,” Coach Bob Beattie said. “They’ve been second a lot of times but they’ve always gone into the next meet fighting to win.
“We’re at a disadvantage when it comes to age and experience. Our oldest man is 21 and Denver’s youngest is 22. This is Beattie’s third season at Boulder.
“This (the NCAA title) has been our goal right from the start,” the Manchester, N.H., native says. “I’ve tried to get a team of young men who typify the average student at Colorado,” he says.
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As a team Colorado failed to win any of the six events in the three-day meet but was consistently strong in all to upset the Pioneers, who had won four of the previous five NCAA meets. A disqualification in the slalom and a fall in the downhill cost Denver valuable points in the Alpine standings and prevented the Pioneers from winning.
Bob Beattie, CU’s 26-year-old coach, credited a great team effort for the Buffs’ victory. “Today, Butts jumped better than he’s ever done before,” Beattie said. “But that was the theme of the meet as far as we were concerned. When we needed a great performance someone came through.
| Year | Event | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1959 | NCAA Skiing Championship | 1st Place |
Recent Success: 2024 NCAA Championship
Fifth-year senior Magnus Boee claimed the third national title of his career, leading an exceptional day by the Nordic squad that lifted CU to its first national championship since 2015 and its 21st overall on Saturday at Howelsen Hill. The Buffs finished with 569.5 points to edge four-time defending champion Utah (567.5) by two points. To win, CU recorded the second-largest final day comeback in history, rallying from a 51-point deficit to start the day to move from third to first.
In the final event of the championships, Boee cruised to the title in the men’s 20K freestyle, posting a time of 55 minutes, 38 seconds to win by 4.1 seconds over Denver’s Florian Knopf. An eight-time All-American, Boee won his first title since sweeping the two Nordic races in 2021.
Other Notable Achievements
- Cross Country: Colorado has won five NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships (2001, 2004, 2006, 2013, and 2014) and three NCAA Women's Cross Country Championships (2000, 2004, 2018).
- Individual Success: Forrest B. Hale Irwin was a two-time All-Big Eight defensive back and an NCAA individual golf champion at Colorado, who went on to spectacular success in professional golf.
The Colorado Buffaloes continue to uphold a tradition of excellence in collegiate skiing, with a legacy built on teamwork, determination, and exceptional coaching.