The ski slide your mother remembered so fondly was located on Muir Knoll overlooking Lake Mendota. It was constructed over winter break in 1919 under the leadership of a group of Norwegian students, and the sport quickly caught on. The original slide was wooden, and by 1930, it had fallen into disrepair and was condemned. But the UW wouldn’t let the ski slide go without a fight. H. C. Bradley 1910, adviser to the UW Ski Club, and Porter Butts 1924, MA’36, director of the Wisconsin Union, led an effort to raise $1,600 to save the slide. By 1933, a new steel slide had been built on the same site, weighing 55 tons and standing 56 feet high.

According to an article in the 1957 Daily Cardinal, the steel slide enjoyed heavy use by the Hoofers Ski Club, members of the 1940s Olympic teams who hailed from Wisconsin, and Madison-area skiing enthusiasts. But in 1955, the university’s vice president asked the Hoofers to practice at the nearby Blackhawk ski jump so that parking space could be developed on the site. That year, the jump needed an estimated $400 in repairs, and it was dismantled and moved to Madison’s Hoyt Park.