Las Vegas Institute of Sport
Founded: 1974
Colours: Imperial
Purple and Olympic Gold (Originally Imperial Purple only - Olympic Gold was
added in 1976 in recognition of Barry's Olympic Gold Medal)
Desert Sky Blue and Casino Gold (2006 Special Edition)
LVIS is an organisation dedicated to the pursuit of sporting excellence without
the unfortunate level of seriousness that seems to infect so many other sporting
societies.
Barry Jaeger - LVSA / LVIS Founder
Barry Jaeger 1955-2007
The Birth of the Legend
Barry Randy Jaeger was born on January 1st 1955, just as the boom times began in the gambling town of Las Vegas, NV. The son of a successful gambler and a showgirl, Barry showed early athletic promise and was captain of three school teams until, in his Junior Varsity year, a scandal involving his Headmaster's wife resulted in his expulsion.
Banned from all college teams, Barry started sculling on the pond of the Mirage Hotel, under the fountains and established his own club – the Las Vegas Sculling Association (LVSA). Blessed with fearsome legs (shaved, of course) and golden locks he cut quite a dash on the water and rapidly gained recognition for his sporting prowess.
Keen to keep fresh mentally, Barry branched out into other sports and took to them with style, winning several national titles in athletics, cycling (track and road) and swimming and rapidly achieved selection for the US international teams with a natural progression to taking numerous World Championship titles.
(It's a little known fact that the sport of Triathlon was born in 1974 when Barry took part in the National Championships for all three sports on the same day due to an unfortunate calendar clash. Barry won the Swimming championship in the morning, the Cycling road race championship in the early afternoon and the 10,000m athletics title in the evening)
The birth of the Institute
It was at this time that the Las Vegas Institute of Sport was founded in order to provide an organisation to support elite athletes who could see past the sad bureaucracy and small-minded officialdom that existed in many sports while retaining an enjoyment for the good things in life.
With several national and world titles to his name, Barry was unsurprisingly selected to compete at the 1976 Olympics in several sports and disciplines. Unfortunately Barry's expected domination of the Olympics was cut short after one event (the Single Scull) in which he won a Gold Medal - Just a fortnight before the Olympics, an experiment with skin-tight rowing shorts resulted in an unfortunate and embarrassing accident at Henley Royal Regatta (resulting in a lifetime ban) which, while not stopping him winning the Diamond Sculls, did meant that after winning the rowing event at the Olympics in considerable pain, Barry required some time out to recover! In true Jaeger style, Barry “recuperated” in Monte Carlo with Bo Derek.
Crossing the Water
Barry's withdrawal from the Montreal Olympics caused quite a storm in the US Olympic Association owing to political pressure from the top - Barry's withdrawal and the US' consequent loss of a further 10 predicted gold medals had meant that the US' medal tally was well short of expectation, being beaten by both the USSR and East Germany instead of topping the table. With the cold war in full swing Barry became a persona-non-grata.
Barry was extremely unhappy at the controversy and vowed to leave the US and re-settle in Europe. LVIS was also relocated while retaining its name. Once settled in the UK, Barry was the first American to win a stage on the Tour De France (but as an amateur and hence why the fact has all but disappeared) and is also rumoured to has invented the first mountain bike based on a design he came up with in 1970.
Barry was famous outside sporting circles for his playboy reputation and his entourage – He was the only sculler to have his boat carried for him by six scantily-clad blondes.
During the 1984 season, Barry suffered a serious leg injury after jumping out from the 5th floor of the Dorchester Hotel where a Hollywood leading lady had been staying while visiting London. Unfortunately her husband arrived at the hotel suite unexpectedly and Barry leapt out of the window to save his lady friend's blushes. Unsurprisingly, the recuperation from the resultant broken leg interrupted Barry's season quite severely. Barry, not wanting to stop racing entirely realised that there was a need for an LVIS team for those recovering from injury or circumstance and established the 'LVIS Penultimates', an unofficial squad for those not on top form. In order to ensure that this team still had a clear goal, any team racing under the Penultimates names has to ensure that they finish second last in their category - a challenge that is often the equal of the usual level of LVIS performance.
The final act
Barry sadly died in March 2007 after attempting to repeat his triple National Championship success of 1974. While attempting to lap the field for the second time during the athletics 10,000m, he suffered a heart attack and died shortly after. His last words were reported to be 'Go Vegas'