RIDGEWAY, Fort Erie — As we look ahead to the Paris games, we're also looking back and celebrating Olympians from Western New York who competed in past games.
Jack Mathias is a Buffalo native and member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. 2 On Your Side caught up with him on Friday just before he hosted a summer reunion for Olympic and Paralympic athletes from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
"I was delivering newspapers to a man on Highland Avenue, and he said he had a sailboat and offered to take me out to give me a try," said Jack Mathias.
Jack Mathias liked sailing so much, he sailed with that man for a year, then started crewing for other people. That involved making his way to the Buffalo Canoe Club in Canada.
"That's when I would take two buses to get up here, and two buses back home just to go sailing," said Jack Mathias.
After mastering the basics, and getting out on the water whenever he could, Mathias set his eyes on the Olympics.
"I got connected with my Olympic skipper for one regatta, and we got on the boat together and we knew we were made for each other and basically we, after that, we planned a two-and-a-half year campaign to try and make the Olympic team," said Jack Mathias.
And in 1976, they made it to Montreal. The sailing events were in Kingston, Ontario, and while they fell short of a medal, Mathias says one of his career highlights was visiting the White House.
"There was a telegram inviting us to the White House and we responded and went back and forth because it didn't say my wife was invited, and eventually she was, and then we had to come up with money, which we had zero money at the time, so my father paid for our flight down to Washington and we went to the White House, met the President, and he at the time, they gave the Medal of Freedom to Jessie Owens, and I kick myself today for not getting Jessie Owens' autograph," said Jack Mathias.
In the years since, Mathias has participated in the Olympic torch run, and continues inspiring future generations of athletes.
"As you watch the athletes compete now, what kind of memories come up for you as you're watching them?" asked 2 On Your Side's Kelly Dudzik.
"I'd love to go back because it goes by in such a hurry. It's a blur. You're walking in the opening ceremony and all of the sudden, it's over," said Jack Mathias.
Mathias continues to spread his love of sailing to younger generations and was inducted into the Lafayette High School Sports Wall of Fame in 2019.
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