Former Oregon track and field star Art Skipper, 31, died Tuesday afternoon in a plane crash near Sandy, Ore.
Skipper, who one friend described as “fearless” and “invincible,” graduated from the University in 1992, the same year that he won the NCAA Championship in the javelin.
The small single-engine aircraft crashed into a rural Clackamas County area about 3:55 p.m. Tuesday, killing Skipper on impact and seriously injuring his 37-year-old cousin, Ted Skipper, who was the only other passenger.
Alice Lasher, spokeswoman for the Sandy Fire Department, was first on the scene and described the area as being “rugged terrain,” making access to the crash difficult.
“The plane was pretty twisted, so it was difficult to decide who had been flying,” Lasher said. “It was raining hard and was foggy and took 15 to 20 minutes to remove (Ted).”
Ted Skipper was transported to Oregon Health & Science University, where he is listed in serious condition. The cause of the crash remains under investigation by the FAA, though officials said the 1950 fixed-wing Piper may have clipped a tree before falling to the ground.
While at Oregon, Art Skipper won the NCAA title with a javelin throw of 251 feet, 8 inches. He was awarded two All-American awards and placed at least third in the Pacific-10 Conference all four years of his collegiate career.
“Art was one of the best athletes that came through the Oregon program,” said legendary coach Bill Dellinger, who guided the Ducks men’s track and field program from 1973 to 1998. “He was dedicated to the team and competed even when he may have been injured or not at his best. He’ll be missed by many.”
Skipper also still holds the national high school javelin record throw of 259-10, which he set at Sandy High in 1988, the year he was selected as the National High School Athlete of the Year by Track and Field News Magazine.
But more than his accomplishments, friends said that it was the way he carried himself and how he treated people that made him stand out.
“Art was larger than life,” said Brian Juenemann, 31, Skipper’s classmate at Sandy High and at the University. “He seemed like an invincible character. He lived his life fearlessly and always had you shaking your head in amazement at some of the stuff he did.
“He wouldn’t think twice about getting in that small of an airplane.”
The Skipper family owns the Country Squire Airpark located about one mile from the crash and 30 miles from Portland. Skipper’s father and uncle are also both involved with the Portland Fire Department, and Skipper himself had just finished his first year as a member of the Portland Fire Bureau.
“We are really grieving,” Deputy Chief Jim Klum said. “We lost a valued and loved member of the department.”
Skipper had recently married fellow former Oregon track and field athlete Kamala Kohlmeier.
As a prep athlete, Skipper was also a standout in football and wrestling. Skipper’s wrestling coach in high school, Chuck Kearney Sr., is the father of current Oregon wrestling coach Chuck Kearney Jr.
“My first memory of him is when I graduated high school with his brother Scott,” Kearney Jr. said. “I just remember seeing this little 12-year-old at all of our practices. He was destined to be an athlete. He chose track, but he just as easily could have played major college football, or I just know he would have been a phenomenal college wrestler. It takes a special kind of person to be as successful as he was.
“You wouldn’t know all this unless you really knew him, though. He had such humility. He wasn’t a bragger.”
Both Kearney and Juenemann consider themselves fortunate that they were able to recently chat with Skipper. Kearney ran into him in mid-September and Juenemann got a chance to catch up with his friend at Oregon’s football game against Utah on Sept. 8.
“It was the first time I’d seen him in over a year,” Juenemann said. “He was doing great and staying really active.”
Said Kearney: “This sort of stuff really shakes you back into the real world.”