The Club is incorporated as a 501(c)7 non-profit organization.
The letter below from Charter Member and former Club President Dr. Lorenz Ruddy describes the beginning of our Club.
Until a few questions are answered, the beginnings of our club are about as follows:
In the 1930’s there were a few Sacramentans who were interested in skiing. They usually went to ski at Soda Springs or to the Auburn Ski Club at Cisco Grove. Curtis Cutter, a member of the winter sports committee of the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, was asked by that organization to form a club in Sacramento. Curtis interested some of his friends, and a first meeting was held in 1935 at McKinley Park Clubhouse. On January 27, 1937, the name “Kandahar” was adopted after the famous British Club.
C. B. (Barney) White, Jr., was Kandahar’s first President, with Arthur Devlin as Vice-President. Through his literary interest in early British Ski Annuals and books by Arnold Lunn, Father of British skiing and originator of the modern two-flag slalom, Devlin was no doubt largely responsible for our club’s name. Our emblem’s colors of red and blue, are taken from those used by the Norwegian Olympic team in 1936.
The “K” on the ski was approved and the result was and is the most attractive and elegant emblem in the ski world.
Our first annual banquet was held at the Sutter Club in May 1938, and the club name was changed in 1939 at the request of the British Club. “California Kandahar” was questionably accepted by them, but our members refused to give up the parent name. Club by-laws were also adopted in 1939, and we became a corporation that year.
So much for our first days. Much, of course, has not been said for want of space and correctness. We hope someday to get the full story.