life:

Did you know? Today marks 88 years since the very first Winter Olympics.

Here’s a flashback to a classic 1960 LIFE photo essay — The 1960 games were notable on a number of levels. It was the first time an “Olympic Village” was built to house the athletes (largely because the location was so remote and undeveloped that there was little there before the games; Squaw Valley remains the smallest place in the world to ever host an Olympics). The U.S. men’s hockey team won gold over powerhouse Canadian, Russian, Sweden, and Czechoslovakian squads. And none other than Walt Disney was the games’ “Head of Pageantry.”

(see more — Winter Olympics 1960)