Of Irish descent, Beattie was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, to Robert Archibald Beattie (1904–1975), a sales manager for a roofing company,[4] and Katherine Simpson (née Prime; 1906–1995).[5] He had a younger brother, John M.[5] He graduated from Manchester Central High School in 1950.[5] He attended Middlebury CollegeinVermont, where he participated in several sports, including football, tennis, cross country, and skiing.[3][6] After graduating in 1955 with a degree in education, he remained at Middlebury as an assistant coach.[3]
Coaching career
In 1956, he was named acting coach of the school's ski team after coach Bobo Sheehan left to coach the alpine skiers on the 1956 U.S. Olympic Team.[3] In 1957, Beattie became the head skiing coach for the University of ColoradoinBoulder, and during his tenure the team won the NCAA national titles in 1959 and 1960.[7][3] In 1961, the U.S. Ski Association named Beattie the U.S. Ski Team's head alpine coach.[8][9] He continued to work concurrently for the university until 1965.[8][10][11]
In 1966, Beattie co-founded the World Cup for alpine skiing.[13] After stepping down as U.S. team coach in 1969, he founded the World Pro Ski Tour in 1970 and worked in promoting it.[18] He became a NASTAR commissioner in 1970.[13]ABC Sports hired him as a ski-racing commentator, where he was frequently paired with Frank Gifford, a former NFL running back. Beattie's television work included alpine commentary during ABC's coverage of four Winter Olympics: the games of 1976, 1980, 1984,[3] and 1988.[19] He also covered Volleyball at the 1984 Summer Olympics.[20] Beattie later worked as ABC's winter sports correspondent, which also involved non-alpine sports,[21] and occasionally worked as an announcer for non-winter sports on ABC's Wide World of Sports program.[22]
He continued to manage the World Pro Ski Tour until 1982.[13] He started hosting ESPN skiing programs in 1985.[22]
Beattie had authored or co-authored three books,[8] including My Ten Secrets of Skiing (Viking Press, NY; 1968)[23] and Bob Beattie's Learn to Ski (Bantam Books, 1967).[24]
Beattie had two children, Zeno and Susan, from his first marriage.[27][28] His second marriage was to Olympic skier Kiki Cutter[29][30] and lasted from 1971 to 1973.[6] He married a third time in 1980, to Cheryl Britton, and that marriage lasted until 1987.[27] He was married to Marci Beattie until his death in 2018.[27]
Beattie died on April 1, 2018, in Fruita, Colorado, from a long illness at the age of 85.[27][28]