Together with his two fellow Texans, Walter Glasgow and Dick Hoepfner, John Kolius skippered his boat, Good News to the silver medals in the Soling class at the 1976 Olympics. Kolius, a graduate of Houston, went into business in his hometown as a sailmaker. Kolius first became nationally prominent in 1968 when he won the Sears Cup, emblematic of the junior national sailing champion. In 1983 he achieved his greatest measure of fame – he was selected to skipper the boat Courageous in the America’s Cup Trials. Courageous was the boat that defended the Cup in 1974 and 1977 but was not still expected to be a worthy contender. However, Challenger, under Kolius’ rein, surpassed the performance of Defender and was narrowly beaten out by Liberty as the selection to defend the Cup in 1983.
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