RUMFORD – Hoping to reinvigorate Nordic skiing competitions at Maine’s colleges, Andy Shephard introduced a new event Friday afternoon at Black Mountain of Maine.

Shephard, president of Maine Winter Sports Center, said the Rumford ski area will host the Maine Collegiate Nordic Ski Championships on Jan. 13 and 14. He wants to make it an annual event.

“Colleges have started to stop funding ski teams, and we’d like to turn that around,” Shephard told a crowd of athletes and coaches from Bates College in Lewiston, Colby College in Waterville, Bowdoin College in Bowdoin, and the University of Maine campuses at Farmington, Orono and Fort Kent. They had gathered inside the Black Mountain base lodge.

Shephard then dubbed the event the “Chummy Broomhall Cup,” and presented a poster heralding the first championship meet to Wendall “Chummy” Broomhall, a Rumford native, U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division veteran, two-time Olympian (1948 and 1952), and head of the Chisholm Ski Club, one of the nation’s oldest and most active ski clubs.

“No one in this state represents skiing more than Chummy. He represents truly the best of Maine skiing,” Shephard told Broomhall, who stood beside him during the news conference, visibly moved by the honor.

“I am honored to have this named after me, and I am looking forward to a few more years,” said Broomhall, who was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1981 and the Maine Ski Hall of Fame in 2003.

Among skiers participating in the championships will be teams from the University of Maine campuses at Presque Isle, Fort Kent, Orono, and Farmington, and Colby, Bowdoin and Bates colleges.

The top three male and female skiers from each college will be scored, with the winning team having the highest overall score for the two days. The winning team will be able to display the Chummy Broomhall Cup trophy on their campus for the following year, Shephard said.

“Maine colleges have a long and proud tradition of skiing. We are hoping this initiative will help give the most talented student-athletes in the country another reason to look at colleges in Maine. We want to make this the major ski event in the state,” he said.

The Maine Winter Sports Center is a non-profit, economic development company that operates with sustained funding from the Portland-based Libra Foundation. It is tasked with re-establishing skiing as a lifestyle in Maine.