The old photos of Bob Theobald acrobatically moving down a slope or flying through the air

might pin on him the label of hot dog skier.

Theobald, one of the originators of what became modern-day freestyle skiing, hot dog skiing still to some, simply recalls a “philosophical disagreement” with traditional skiers and ski racers of the 1970s.

Theobald on Thursday night won induction to the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame at the Utah Olympic Park during a ceremony that recalled his on-the-snow prowess as a freestyle skier.

In an interview after his induction, Theobald said freestyle skiing’s formative years were in an era of upheaval in the United States, starting in the late 1960s and continuing in the early 1970s.

“Freestyle evolved because of the status of the country. Those days, the late ’60s the ’70s, there was rebellion,” he said. “It permeated everybody in the United States, every sport.”

At the time, traditional ski racers and ski instructing continued to dominate the slopes. There were “friendly skirmishes” in that era between the freestyle skiers and the traditionalists, Theobald recalls, as the newcomers were seeking acceptance.

“The natural way to rebel was to rebel against the status quo,” he said.

In his comments to the audience at the Utah Olympic Park, Theobald credited others who pioneered freestyle skiing as he was crafting his own style. He also said his mother forced him to take ballet lessons when he was 8 years old, skills that were valuable later on as he became a freestyle skier.

People at one point saw him as “that renegade ski instructor,” Theobald said.

“I was only part of the evolution of freestyle skiing,” he told the crowd.

Theobald finished in first place in national freestyle-skiing competitions from 1970 to 1975 and was an early executive in freestyle organizations, according to a biography prepared by the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame. The biography mentions that Theobald was the first person in competition to perform a forward twisting somersault. His skiing was photographed or filmed for movies and television shows, the biography says, calling him a “daring pioneer on skis and in the air.”

Theobald is now 62 years old and lives in Park Meadows. And he loathes the label of hot dog skier.

The others inducted into the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame on Thursday were:

  • Kit DesLauriers, who is the first person to ski from the summit on the tallest peak on each continent, a feat known as the Seven Summits. She skied the Mt. Everest summit on Oct.18, 2006, a biography prepared by the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame said. She lives in Teton Village, Wyo., in the Jackson area.
  • William (Bill) Levitt, who was the longtime mayor of Alta. The Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame biography credited Levitt with wanting to preserve the environs and the watershed. It says he was a supporter of bus systems and housing. He died in 2009.
  • Raymond R. Stewart, who put in a rope tow at Timp Haven in Provo Canyon in 1945, his biography says. Timp Haven was the predecessor to what later became Sundance Resort. He died in 1995.