In 1957, at the age of 16, Glenn Sperry won a National Championship. In 2007, at the age of 66, he decided to win another one!
Glenn Sperry grew up in a family of water skiers and got his first pair of skis at the age of six. His first competition was in 1953, and his goal was to best his older brother, which he did in in 1955, 1956, 1957, and 1958.
In 1957, he won the National Championship, which led to a job offer with the Tommy Barlett touring ski show. In 1959, after touring for a year, Tommy asked him to come to the Dells in Wisconsin, the Home of Water Skiing, to work summers performing and teaching. He worked there for several summers and went on an overseas tour to the Far East in 1960.
If he had never accomplished anything else, Glenn certainly felt that water skiing had paid off, but he also wanted to be a pilot. Between his summers skiing, he went to school and graduated with a degree in Aeronautics. During the summer of 1962, he worked for Tommy at the Seattle World’s Fair where he broke a couple of toes. This snafu led to him meeting his wife, Judy, who was the nurse at the infirmary. They were married the next year and moved to Texas.
Sperry took a job at General Dynamics. After working for a few years, Sperry earned a second degree in Business Administration. Still, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do professionally.
During this time, he taught classes at church. One day, someone asked him if he had ever thought about becoming a teacher. Glenn realized it would be a good fit, as it left his summers free to continue water-skiing work. He applied with the Castleberry School District.
Sperry did not have a teaching certificate, so he began his education career as a bus driver while earning his credentials. In 1971, he began teaching Industrial Arts at the high school. His students built one or two cars each year to participate in the Technology Student Association national contests. One of their cars won every year they participated.
He occasionally taught math and coached tennis during his 35 years at Castleberry. He continued driving a school bus throughout his career and even for several years after retiring. His wife worked in the district as a school nurse for 22 years. They both retired in 2004 when she was diagnosed with cancer. Glenn and Judy joined the Castleberry School Retirees Association. Judy served as President for many years and Glenn still serves as a chapter officer.
Glenn continued throughout his teaching career to ski. He mentored skiers during the summers and operated his own touring show for many years, inventing tricks and improving equipment. Stilt skiing, a water sport where a person skis while standing on stilts, was one of Glenn’s more unusual activities. Glenn’s 7’2’ stilts were the tallest in the world, that is, until he decided to set a record that would be hard to beat and made a pair that were ten and a half feet tall!
During summer events, people often asked Glenn why he was no longer competing. In 2007, after Judy’s passing, he decided to compete again. He was invited by Lance Renfro to visit his skiing center in Phoenix, Arizona, where Lance prepared a training program to help Glenn qualify for Nationals.
August 2007 saw Glenn in Bakersfield, California at Nationals. During the first two rounds, he started well but ended with falls and was in fourth place. The third round was jump. He almost missed his turn because of miscommunication and fell on the first attempt, though his second and third jumps were good. In fact, his final jump of 104 feet was nearly twice the distance of any of the other competitors!
The final standings had Glenn winning his second nationals 50 years after he won his first! Reflecting on this monumental achievement, Glenn says, “skiing is an ability that God has given me that I can share with other people.”
Glenn Sperry has been active in water skiing for more than 70 years! A true pioneer in the sport, he stands out as a show skier and innovator. Glenn was recognized with a USA Water Ski and Wake Sports Award of Distinction in 1998 and received the USA Ski and Water Sports Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. 2022 also marked the 100th anniversary of water skiing and Glenn participated in a show honoring the sport in Wisconsin.
“If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish an awful, awful lot. Even if you get to be sixty, seventy years old,” says Glenn.
Hear Glenn share his story in his own words by viewing this video.
