Marching On: The Ralph McCreath Story

"His presence was felt the moment he walked into a room. He had a way about him that made people take notice." - Jim McCreath, December 15, 2008, "Memoir For My Father"

The son of Bert and Margaret McCreath, Ralph Scott McCreath was born on April 27, 1919, in Toronto, Ontario. The McCreath's, a Presbyterian family, maintained a home in the affluent Moore Park district of Toronto and Ralph, his sisters June and Louise and younger brother Ross were doted on by their parents Bert and Margaret and a live-in Danish servant, growing up during the roaring twenties wanting for very little.

Sandy McKechnie, Dudley Reburn, James Bain, Ralph McCreath, Billy Brown and Gordon Gilchrist in the 1931 Toronto Skating Club carnival

As a teenager, Ralph attended the North Toronto Collegiate School where his excellence at athletics overshadowed his considerable scholastic skill. He participated in a wide range of high school sports, but the sports he showed the most passion for were hockey and figure skating.

Photo courtesy Archives Of Ontario, Herbert Nott fonds

One hockey coach had him jump over benches to practice leaping over fallen defencemen on his way to the net, a skill which aided him in his early lessons in free skating. Six-foot-tall Ralph's high-flying jumps soon caught the attention of the coaches at the Toronto Skating Club and in 1935, after he had won four medals in the junior men's and pairs events at the Canadian Championships, he gave up hockey entirely to focus on figure skating under coach Walter Arian.

Left: Ralph McCreath, Veronica Clarke, Constance and Bud Wilson. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine. Right: Veronica Clarke and Ralph McCreath. Photo courtesy Hilary Bruun.

In the years that followed, Ralph's success in singles, pairs, fours and ice dancing was nothing short of remarkable. From 1936 to 1941, he won an incredible twenty-four medals at the Canadian and North American Championships, including gold medals in singles, pairs, the fourteenstep, tenstep and fours at the Canadian Championships.

Norah McCarthy and Ralph McCreath. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine (left) and "Skating Through The Years" (right).

Ralph's skating pushed the athletic boundaries of the time. He and his partners performed particularly novel lifts and his winning free skating performance at the 1940 Canadian Championships in Ottawa included an Axel, double Salchow and double loop.

Top: Ralph McCreath, Bud Wilson and the Caley sisters, 1939 North American fours champions. Bottom: Mary Rose Thacker, Ralph McCreath and Eleanor O'Meara. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

With partners Veronica Clarke, Norah McCarthy and Eleanor O'Meara, Ralph was one of the most in-demand skaters for carnivals throughout Ontario and the Eastern United States. He performed in a charity ice gala at Madison Square Garden, hitchhiked to Lake Placid every summer to train, competed in forty-below temperatures and even earned a much-coveted spot on the Canadian team set to attend the 1940 Winter Olympic Games that were ultimately cancelled after the outbreak of World War II.

Eleanor O'Meara and Ralph McCreath

In October of 1940, Ralph put his studies at the University Of Toronto on hold and bid adieu to his buddies at the Theta Delta Chi fraternity when he and his younger brother Ross enlisted in the 48th Highlanders Of Canada. Continuing to train and compete that winter despite his military obligations, the twenty-one-year-old Lance Corporal had perhaps his finest hour at the 1941 North American Championships in Philadelphia.

Left: Mary Rose Thacker, Ralph McCreath and Eleanor O'Meara. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine. Right: Norah McCarthy and Ralph McCreath in act.

After defeating Donna Atwood and Eugene Turner to win the pairs event with Eleanor O'Meara, Ralph managed an incredible come-from-behind win in the men's event after being over thirty points behind Turner in the figures. His exciting free skating performance was set to music specially orchestrated by the Toronto Skating Club's musical director Jack Jardine that stopped when he jumped, adding to the dramatic effect of his performance. Even more dramatic was the judging of the competition. The six judges - three from Canada and three from America - split their votes down the middle, with only an eighth of a point ultimately determining the final result. Associated Press reporters called it "one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of the competition." In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Dick Button recalled, "Out of the six judges, the three Canadians voted first places to the Canadian McCreath and three American judges voted first to the American Turner. Each judge placed the skater from the other country second, thereby giving both of the skaters a total of ordinals... The decision was decided on the fact that the Canadian judges had marked the American slightly slower in second place than the Americans had marked the Canadian skater in second place." The results of this event were a textbook example of why having an even number of judges at the North American Championships was a terrible, terrible idea. Interestingly, his narrow win in Philadelphia was followed up by a narrow loss to sculler Theo DuBois in the quest for that year's Lou Marsh Trophy, one of Canada's top sporting honours.

Left: Ralph's brother Ross. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission. Right: Ralph in uniform. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

That summer, Ralph sailed for Europe. During the War, he served in England, France and North Africa and rose to the rank of Major in the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps. While in London, he did some skating and went to visit an injured friend in the hospital. He found Stewart Reburn in the next bed.
In 2008, his son Jim recalled, "As a curious youngster I would often ask him questions about his time in the army. He would always talk about the wonderful people he had met and the amazing places he had seen, but there was a different look in his eyes when he spoke of these things. He would try to change the subject as quickly as possible. I am sure he must have felt that after living through those hellish times, some memories are best left untold."

Ralph and Myrtle McCreath on their wedding day. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

Returning to Canada, Ralph won his third and final Canadian senior men's title in 1946 ahead of Norris Bowden and Roger Wickson. He wore his military uniform for his free skating performance. He later teamed up with Gloria Lillico to perform a pair in carnivals.

Eleanor O'Meara and Ralph McCreath. Photo courtesy Archives of Ontario. 

After obtaining his law degree at Osgoode Law School in 1949, Ralph settled on Kingsway Crescent in Toronto with his wife Myrtle [Franceschini] and raised three sons and a daughter. He practiced corporate law and served as a CFSA judge, referee and team leader. He judged at three Olympic Games and several World Championships, notably voting for Petra Burka when she won the 1965 World title and for Frances Dafoe and Norris Bowden when they settled for silver in 1956. Even though Ralph had voted for him and Dafoe at the 1956 World Championships, Bowden was vocal about his former competitor's appointment as Canada's judge and team leader that season before the team even left for Europe to participate in the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. In Bowden's famous letter to the CFSA that got him banned, he questioned "whether the best interests of the team were considered in selecting a judge who, by his own admission, had not been too interested in skating as of late as witnessed by not having seen the Canadian world champion pair skate for three years though they were members of the same club and gave numerous exhibitions."

Barbara Ann Scott and Ralph McCreath. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Despite serving as a member of the CFSA's executive, a founding member of the Olympic Trust and a trustee of the Canadian Olympic Endowment Fund, the perception that Ralph was a lawyer first and a judge second led some to question where his loyalties lay at a time when North American skaters were frequently at the mercy of panels heavily stacked with European judges. Ralph was also criticized for being a tough cookie. Kenny Moir recalled, "I remember being a demonstrator at a judges seminar being presented by Ralph McCreath back in the late sixties in Vancouver. He was one of Canada's top judges so there was a huge turnout of notable judges which was scary in itself. But he was terrifying. He'd whisper the figure error to make in your ear which is tough to pull off and if you were to do it correctly and you made errors he'd go to town on you in front of the crowd. I did have one high note though, when he asked me to do a series jump combination and no one could break it down, I made his day so he could yell at them!"

Ralph McCreath, Charles Rathgab and Imre Szabo

Ralph may have been a tough judge, but he was also a benevolent one. He accepted Bruce Hyland's invitation to come take a look at the training sessions of his students. In those days, skaters and coaches were very much in one camp and judges in another. Monitoring sessions simply weren't a thing yet, and there was always the worry on both sides that a judge offering constructive feedback to a skater might be perceived as untoward. Debbi Wilkes recalled, "You could never talk about it and you never admitted it because it was totally inappropriate as things were defined in those days."

Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.

Tragically, Ralph's wife Myrtle passed away at the age of forty-six in 1968. Many years later he remarried. He devoted much of his free time to his farm and travel and was a lifelong fan of football and hockey. Later in life, he played the piano in a musical trio with two of his good friends, performing at special events and parties. In 1994, he was inducted into the CFSA (Skate Canada) Hall Of Fame. After suffering a stroke only months before, Ralph passed away at his Toronto home on May 2, 1997, at the age of seventy-eight. In the "Toronto Star" that year, his son Jim recalled, "He never wanted to admit he was slowing down. He was in great shape until the time of his stroke... The funny thing about him throughout his life, he would never brag about what he could do. He just knew what he could do... and [would] go out and do it."

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of six fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The 1934 European Figure Skating Championships

Women's competitors at the 1934 European Championships in Prague. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

Originally slated to be held in Innsbruck as part of the city's International Sports Week, the 1934 European Figure Skating Championships were relocated when an untimely thaw rendered the ice in the Austrian city completely unsuitable for competition. The women's and pairs events were hastily relocated to Prague and the men's event moved to the old Austrian farming village of Seefeld, high in the Tyrol Mountains.

Previewing the event for "Sketch" magazine, Pamela Murray wrote, "The European Skating Championship was scheduled 20th and 21st, but [the] thaw switched the event to Seefeld. This meant getting up at six, after arriving late the night before. I was so sleepy when we mustered (competitors and their camp followers) at the station that I loaded my camera backwards - always a bad omen. Sure enough, it snowed all day, and there were thirteen competitors, wavy ice, and some tense moments. It's usual for [a] competitor to have a judge of his nationality, so if a Chinese went in, a Chinese judge would have to be fetched from Pekin by air-mail. Much the handsomest and best-turned-out competitors were [Jean] Henrion and Jackie Dunn, who at barely seventeen, is quite an Adonis. He got a lot of good-luck telegrams, including one from his great-aunt, Mrs. Ralph Philipson, the former Baroness de Knoop... On the second morning, it cleared and we could see snow-laden forests from the train, and imagine high mountains behind veils of cloud; also begin to realize how different this wooded land of chalets is from the Engadine, though the great River Inn now winding through the plain rises in the lake of St. Moritz. At Seefeld the village band played us to the rink, dressed in green coats, white stockings, black knickerbockers, felt hats with white feathers aft, wide belts with names embroidered, scarlet facings, and purple waistcoats. The village idiot, in rags, sold programmes and capered in front, drawing peals of laughter. The church bells pealed too, and the shop-windows were full of long pipes with coloured views on their china bowls, and absurd Tyrolean toys, made with a puckish sense of humour. Behind the band the drum was trundled on a painted trolley, and from a Madonna-blue house, with dark-brown wooden windows, a woman shouted 'Gruss Gott' to a friend in the procession. It was all so joyous and 'gemütlich' I nearly cried."

Photo courtesy Národní muzeum

Now that the backdrop of the latter event in Seefeld has been painted, let's take a look back at the stories and scandals from these events... including perhaps one of the most dramatic school figure competitions of all time!

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Sonja Henie. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

Having recently graduated from Radcliffe College, with the help of the USFSA Maribel Vinson spent a year training overseas in preparation for the 1934 European and World Championships. Realizing that she was at a disadvantage when entering overseas competitions due to the missed training time spent on long trans-Atlantic steamship voyages, she took full advantage of the indoor rinks in Bournemouth, London, Oxford and Edinburgh and time spent skating outdoors St. Moritz. She arrived in Prague ready to make her mark as the first skater from North America to compete in that particular event, which didn't specifically bar non-European skaters at that point in time from participating... provided they held membership with an ISU member nation in Europe. Handily, Vinson became a member of the National Skating Association. However, try as she might have, she found herself in the unenviable position of going up against reigning Olympic, World and European Sonja Henie.

Megan Taylor and Mollie Phillips. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

The January 27, 1934 issue of the Austrian "Sport-Tagblatt" described Henie's victory as "a runaway" one, noting that her lead in the figures made it next to impossible for her chief rivals - Liselotte Landbeck, Maribel Vinson and Megan Taylor - to have challenged her for the title even if they gave the performances of their lives in the free skate. In a rather anti-climactic finish, that's exactly the order the four women finished.

Maribel Vinson's bronze proved to be the only medal ever won by an American woman at the European Championships and the crowd of four thousand who sat in a blinding snowstorm, applauding wildly while the women skated their school figures had to have been the best crowd ever! Vinson recalled the event thusly: "It was a strange competition held outdoors under very difficult circumstances (we skated the school figures in a blizzard) but Yvonne [de Ligne] and I managed to enjoy it thoroughly, and taking into account the far-from-ideal conditions, I at least skated the best I could, both school and free."

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Emília Rotter and László Szollás. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

The pairs competition in Prague was considerably hyped as a battle royale between the defending European Champions Idi Papez and Karl Zwack of Austria and the reigning World Champions Emília Rotter and László Szollás of Hungary. Before the event even started, the smack talk had started. One journalist writing for the "Sport-Tagblatt" questioned whether the Hungarians would even appear in Prague to challenge the Austrians: "In the tactics which the Hungarians like to pursue, it is by no means certain whether they will actually appear at the start." In the end, both teams did arrive and in a close contest, the Hungarians defeated the Austrians.

Zofia Bilorówna and Tadeusz Kowalski. Photo courtesy National Archives of Poland.

In claiming the bronze, Zofia Bilorówna and Tadeusz Kowalski made history as the first Polish team to medal at the European Championships... a feat that wouldn't be duplicated until Dorota Zagórska and Mariusz Siudek earned the silver medal at the 1999 European Championships, also in Prague.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Karl Schäfer

An unlucky thirteen men from six nations vied for the men's title in Seefeld in 1934: six from Austria, three from Hungary and one apiece from Great Britain, France and Switzerland so the deck was heavily stacked for the home team that year. Karl Schäfer, the reigning Olympic, World and European Champion, was of course the heavy favourite. Captain T.D. Richardson's account of Schäfer's actions in the school figures offered some insight into this great champion of yesteryear's character. Recalling the event in 1956, Richardson wrote: "Unfortunately, the ice there was very bumpy and for once - surely the only time in competition - Karli fell on a back-change-loop. Instead of meekly going on, he played merry hell with the referee, Ulrich Salchow (who was also the high panjandrum, i.e. President of the International Skating Union), and with the whole panel of judges, for asking him and his rivals to skate on such appalling ice! The referee thereupon allowed him a re-skate, influenced of course by the fact that Schäfer was reigning World, European and Olympic Champion. Shortly afterward, the late Jack Dunn had a similar mishap. He was ordered peremptorily to 'finish out the figure' which he did, and he received very, very low marks in consequence. Then I, who had taken Dunn to the championship, knowing Karli extremely well suggested to him that this was not quite fair. He agreed, went on the ice, holding up the whole competition, and demanded a re-skate for his British friend. He stayed on the ice until he got his way, and then, on to the ice went Dunn, completely out of turn, re-skated the figure and obtained quite good marks. So much for reputation, personality and superb audacity! I always had the feeling that both Grafström and Schäfer were judging the judges, instead of being judged!" 

In the end, Schäfer won the 1934 European Figure Skating Championships by a landslide with Dunn a distant sixth but the Briton did manage to defeat three of the Austrian's teammates, including a young upstart named Felix Kaspar who would go on to win two World titles and the bronze medal at the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. A pair of Hungarians, Dénes Pataky and Elemér Terták, claimed the silver and bronze. The fact that Schäfer went up to bat for his British competitor only goes to show you that even in the Tyrol Mountains, it never hurts to have friends in high places.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of six fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

The Best of 2024: A Skate Guard New Year's Spectacular

2024 has been a landmark year for figure skating, filled with remarkable achievements. During the World Figure Skating Championships held in Montreal this spring, Ilia Malinin made history by becoming the first skater to successfully execute six quadruple jumps, at the World Championships as he clinched his first World title. In the pairs competition, Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps brought home Canada's first gold medal at the Worlds since 2016. Notably, no woman has ever secured a World title in her forties until now. In a thrilling turn of events in Grenoble, France, Amber Glenn emerged as the first American woman to win the ISU Grand Prix Final in over ten years. In the ice dance event, Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson also achieved a historic milestone by earning the UK's first-ever medal in ice dancing at the Grand Prix Final. These are just a few of the many milestones that occurred this year!

This year has also been an absolute blast from the viewpoint of a skating content creator. I was delighted by the reception to my book "Sequins, Scandals & Salchows: Figure Skating in the 1980s". I was equally delighted to finally say goodbye to "X" and embrace the wonderful world of Bluesky. If you're not following me there as of yet, I hope that you will!

Though 2024 has been a year full of amazing moments in figure skating, there have been sad moments as well. As we look back on the year, we all will take a moment to honour the memories of many members of the skating community we lost this year, including Bob Paul, Sjoukje Dijkstra, Andrea Kékesy, Frank Carroll, Joan Haanappel, Slavka Kohout, Walter Bainbridge, Melissa Militano, Gordon Crossland, Claire Ferguson, Margaret Crosland and Hugh Graham.

As is the case every year here on Skate Guard, I like to close out the year by doing a little countdown of 10.0 of the most compelling stories that you may have missed over the past year. A Happy New Year to you and here's to more fascinating figure skating history in 2024! 

10. SKATE GUARD TACKLES SKATE GUARD HISTORY

Since the blog is called Skate Guard, it was perhaps inevitable that I did a blog on the history of the sport's most famous accessories. Back in February, we explored the interesting evolution of skate guards over the years.

9. THE CASA CARIOCA NIGHTCLUB

Did you know that Germany once played host to a skating nightclub? In the aftermath of World War II, the famous Casa Carioca Nightclub in Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the stomping grounds of both army men and adagio pairs skaters. We explored the story of this unique skating venue on the blog back in January.

8. HOWARD BASS, SKATING SCRIBE

You might not know his name, but Howard Bass was one of the most prolific writers about figure skating you could find. He penned nearly a dozen books about the sport and produced three different skating magazines. We explored Howard Bass' story on the blog back in February.

7. ORAL HISTORY: INTERVIEW WITH OSBORNE COLSON

After winning two consecutive Canadian senior men's titles, Osborne Colson went on to an incredible career as one of the most revered figure skating coaches in Canada. Thanks to Greg Hill, who contributed his transcripts of several interviews that appeared on the blog this year, a rare oral history interview with Mr. Colson saw the light of day on the blog in April.

6. A MARVEL FROM MANCHESTER: THE JACK FERGUSON PAGE STORY

A two-time Olympian and medallist at the World Figure Skating Championships in both singles and pairs, Jack Ferguson Page was the UK's leading men's figure skater for over a decade. However, his triumphant life ended in tragedy. We explored Jack Ferguson Page's story on the blog in August.

5. MARVIN R. CLARK, THE FIRST AMERICAN SKATING JOURNALIST

Does the name Marvin R. Clark mean anything to you? I didn't think so. It probably should, because not only was he the first American skating journalist, but he was also blind. We explored Marvin R. Clark's story on the blog in February.

4. THE ADELAIDE GLACIARIUM

Did you know that the first ice rink in the Southern Hemisphere opened its doors in 1904? The Adelaide Glaciarium was the first of its kind in Australia and its history was absolutely fascinating. We explored the rink's story back in March.

3. TALKING TOLLER WITH PHILLIPPA CRANSTON BARAN

In February, I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Phillippa Cranston Baran about her book "Toller Cranston: Ice, Paint, Passion", dedicated to her brilliant brother Toller. If you haven't read the book yet, you should definitely read this interview.

2. THE SKATING CLUB

During the Victorian era, the UK's most prestigious skating club was simply called.... The Skating Club. I had an absolute blast digging deep - and I mean deep - into the archives to bring the story of this London skating club to life in November. It's the perfect story for a snowy holiday afternoon.

1. THEY SKATED AWAY

In my book Sequins, Scandals & Salchows: Figure Skating in the 1980s, I delve into how the AIDS Epidemic intersected with the skating world during that decade. Sadly, the impact of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses extended well beyond the 80s, resulting in the loss of numerous beloved skaters, coaches, and judges.

In fact, the number of individuals from our skating family whose lives were lost was more than double that of those lost in the tragic 1961 Sabena Crash, which took the lives of the entire U.S. Figure Skating Team.

During the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2021, I dedicated several months to interviewing the surviving family members and friends of many who were part of the skating world and who we lost. This invaluable research became a significant aspect of the book, and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who shared their stories.

They Skated Away is a further collection of short biographies, memories, and photographs that honor the lives of many talented men who left us far too early. I hope you check it out and get involved by sharing your own memories and photos in 2025. You can explore this feature here.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Bluesky, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering one of six fascinating books highlighting the history of figure skating: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

Cover Reveal - Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice

The first Canadian woman to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games, Barbara Ann Scott transcended her sport, becoming a symbol of hope and inspiration. In Canada, she became a cultural icon, rivaling the most celebrated stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. Her stunning victory at the 1948 Olympics uplifted a nation grappling with the aftermath of World War II, inspiring thousands of Canadians to dream big and strive for excellence in their own lives. 

Barbara Ann Scott: Queen of the Ice is a significant new biography that will delight knowledgeable and passionate fans of figure skating. This well-researched narrative presents a revealing portrait of a Canadian figure skating legend, offering new insights and information about Scott's career that will both surprise and enlighten readers.

Coming in March during the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships in Boston

Join the ARC Team or pre-order your copy from select retailers today!

Here's To You, Mr. Nick: The Howard Nicholson Story

Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France

"A trainer and a prospective champion have to understand the interpretation of music. You often hear contestants at a championship tell the official to 'put on a record.' It does not seem to matter to them which one. But that won't do for my pupils. I have all their music arranged to their steps. Jack Hylton made the records which Sonja Henie used at the Olympic Games." - Howard Nicholson, 1938

"I would think that three revolutions in the air is a limit for the figure skater. I can't see any figure skater doing more than three revolutions. In ballet, the limit has been five turns. But the ballet dancer jumps off two feet and the body is close to vertical at the start; a figure skater starts off one foot and the body can never be as vertical as the ballet dancer's body." - Howard Nicholson, "The Boston Globe", April 27, 1969

The son of Thomas and Anna (Cross) Nicholson, Howard Ernest Nicholson was born December 30, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Nicholson family lived on Topping Street and Howard's father worked as a carpenter and car builder to support Howard, his mother and older brother Robert. The Nicholson's were Methodists. Howard put on his first pair of skates when he was two.

Howard started pursuing figure skating seriously around the age of twelve when his neighbour Carl Gandy returned from a European trip and taught him what he'd learned about Continental Style skating. Howard caught so quickly that soon friends and teachers were asking him for lessons. As his brother had taken up a job as a clerk to help support the family, Howard's income from giving these lessons was more than appreciated.

Figure skating wasn't Howard's only talent. Five foot six, black-haired and brown-eyed Howard was an athletic young man who excelled at speed skating, hockey and running. While attending Mechanic Arts High School, he held his school's record for running the quarter mile and the Minnesota high school record for the half mile. 

Howard was drafted to serve in the Great War but was fortunate enough not to be called on to serve. At the age of nineteen, he married a young woman named Myrtle Marie Newquist and travelled the Eastern Seaboard, performing in ice revues at the College Inn and Hotel Morrison in Illinois and the Cincinnati Zoo in Ohio. The ice conditions were horrendous at times, as he recalled in 1976: "You really had to push on that stuff and you had to carry the floor and the 'ice' with you." By 1921, Howard and Myrtle's marriage had dissolved and he was appearing in Charles Dillingham's production "Get Together" at the Hippodrome in New York City with Charlotte Oelschlägel. The following year, he starred in a revue at the Ice Palace at 45th and Market Streets in Philadelphia.

Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine

In 1923, Howard sailed for Europe in search of new professional skating opportunities. The first rink he visited was the Manchester Ice Palace in England, where he got a taste of the English Style club figures which were still practiced routinely there. Friends got him a job performing in an ice revue at the Grand Hotel in St. Moritz. In one performance, he almost broke his neck when his leg got caught on a bench he was trying to jump over. However, his performances were a huge hit. Soon he was giving two thousand lessons each skating season, on top of his already daunting performance schedule that saw him travelling to give exhibitions all over the Continent - Paris, Milan, Antwerp and Berlin. 

Top: Howard Nicholson, Katie Schmidt and Paul Kreckow. Middle: Katie Schmidt and Howard Nicholson. Photos courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France. Bottom: Howard Nicholson jumping over thirteen people. Photo courtesy Dawn Birchler French.

During the Roaring Twenties, Howard was widely recognized as one of the top professional skaters in the world. Mentored by Bernard Adams, he earned the Gold Medal in Figures of the ISU, National Association and Schweizer Eislauf-Verband. He also formed highly successful on-ice partnerships with Hilda Rückert, Katie Schmidt and Freda Whitaker. 

Top: Katie Schmidt and Howard Nicholson. Photo courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France. Middle: Hilda Rückert  and Howard Nicholson. Bottom: Howard Nicholson and Hans Witte.

Howard and his partners performed some of the earliest known exhibitions of adagio pairs skating, performing tricks that were adapted from roller skating shows. They were doing the neck spin and the 'whirligig' - a precursor to the bounce spin - long before these tricks were seen in touring American ice shows. In 1924, Howard and Freda Whitaker gave exhibitions of pairs skating and ice dancing atop Selfridge's flagship store in London. In 1925, Howard went to Australia with Hans Witte, giving exhibitions at the Melbourne and Sydney Glaciariums. One of Howard and Hans' big tricks involved Howard jumping over Henry's head while he was performing a sit spin. In 1926, Howard - a professional skater - passed the ISU's Bronze, Silver and Gold Tests in two weeks. When he had a spare afternoon, he could be found golfing or playing ice tennis.

Karl Schäfer, Sonja Henie and Howard Nicholson

By 1931, Howard had relocated from St. Moritz to London to teach his most famous pupil... Sonja Henie. At the Hammersmith Ice Drome, a large framed portrait of Sonja hung in the lobby with the inscription: "To Howard Nicholson, the best trainer in the world. Sonja." When that rink closed in 1934, Howard and Sonja worked together at the Westminster Ice Club.

Sonja Henie and Howard Nicholson in Berlin in 1936. Photo courtesy National Archives Of Poland.

There was a fierce rivalry between Howard and Cecilia Colledge's coach Jacques Gerschwiler at the time. Both skaters were training in London - Sonja at Hammersmith and Westminster and Cecilia at Queen's, Bayswater. In her book "Wings On My Feet", Sonja recalled her coach thusly: "He made invaluable contributions to my progress. His training methods had the remarkable double-barreled power to spur on not only one's technical development but also one's attitude. He stirred his pupils to greater competitiveness. Each day he had a new program of work to offer, an integral part of the whole training but an important bit in itself. At the end of several days one could see the separate new additions to one's packet of specialties and at the same time feel a lift in one's whole skating level. He gave me a better understanding of my work. He taught me how to use my arms to keep the attention of the public, and what freshness means, and how to sustain verve throughout a program." It was under Howard's tutelage that Sonja won two of her three Olympic gold medals, as well as many European and World titles.

In the early thirties, Howard won the Open Professional Championships of Great Britain three times and invented the La Rumba Tango at Hammersmith, a compulsory dance that was published in "The Times". Though the dance caught on with both elite and social skaters at the time, it was unfortunately not adopted by the National Skating Association's Dance Committee. 

Nate Walley, Dunbar Poole and Howard Nicholson at the 1934 World and British Open Professional Championships at the Hammersmith Ice-Drome. Photo courtesy "Skating World" magazine.

Howard's 1933 instructional book "Nicholson On Figure Skating", published by The Bodley Head, was a huge success. The same year his book came out, he remarried to Yvonne Christine Smith. The couple settled in a three-room oak-furnished 'doll's house' in Kensington that was so novel it drew the attention of reporters. A writer with "The Evening News" remarked, "Mrs. Howard Nicholson seems to suit her house. She is small, dark, vivid, good company and a good housewife - in miniature."

In 1936, Howard had the misfortune of meeting Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring backstage in the dressing room at an exhibition Sonja Henie was giving. In 1956, he recalled, "Hitler had the look of a madman in his eyes and Göring had the largest head and neck of any man I have ever seen in my life." Little did he know at the time that World War II was on the horizon.

Left: Howard Nicholson performing a spread eagle. Right: Gillis Grafström and Howard Nicholson. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

By the time many of London's ice rinks began closing due to the War, Howard was already on a steamer back to America with his Bournemouth protégé Hazel Franklin... whom many hailed as 'Sonja 2.0'. In the decades that followed, he established himself as one of America's most prestigious elite coaches. Students at the Skating Club of New York, St. Moritz Ice Skating Club, Detroit Skating Club and Granite Club in Toronto all clamoured for a fifteen-minute lesson with 'Mr. Nick'. He was a fixture in Lake Placid and even had his own private studio rink called  'Nick's Nook' at Skateland in New Hyde Park, Long Island. In 1956, he released a 'road map' style chart of diagrams and descriptions of school figures, the result of a five-year collaboration with his good friend T.D. Richardson. In later years, Howard preferred teaching figures over free skating and was sought out by other coaches as a 'fixer' to their students' problems with figures.

An important contribution to the sport made by Howard was his organization of the 1964 World's Professional Invitational Figure Skating Championships in Lake Placid. This event, which featured competitions in singles, pairs and ice dancing, was one of the first professional competitions of note to be held on North American soil. It was an important predecessor to the World Professional Championships that Dick Button would present years later in Landover, Maryland.

In his later days coaching in America, Howard earned a reputation as something of a character. He wore blue suede skates and had a favourite 'hat of the week'. A tall stool always marked his patch. He developed a rivalry with Gustave Lussi almost as famous as the one he'd had with Jacques Gerschwiler years prior. A cigar was always on the go when he was teaching and it wasn't uncommon for his patch to be littered with ashes. As they say, where there's smoke, there's fire... a late-night blaze gutted his five-room cottage on Placid Heights in 1953.

Mollie Phillips, Howard Nicholson and Jackie Dunn at the 1935 European Championships. Photo courtesy BIS Archive.

The list of skaters that Howard worked with at one point or another over the course of his career reads like a who's who of figure skating: Vivi-Anne Hultén, Yvonne de Ligne, Freddie Tomlins, Jackie Dunn, Horst Faber, Mollie Phillips, Daphne Walker, Mary Rose Thacker, Sonya (Klopfer) Dunfield, Edi Scholdan, Carlo Fassi, Slavka Kohout, Sheldon Galbraith, Miggs Dean, Ginny Baxter, Ramona Allen, Yvonne Sherman Tutt, Dudley Richards, Priscilla Hill, Lorraine Hanlon, Bobbi Shire, Andra McLaughlin Kelly, Kazuo Ohashi, Per Cock-Clausen and Mabel Fairbanks. He worked on figures with Maribel Vinson, Barbara Ann Scott, Dorothy Hamill, Gundi Busch, Cecilia Colledge, Scotty Allen, Audrey Peppe and Toller Cranston. More than a dozen of the competitors at the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen were his pupils.

Howard also taught Dukes and Duchesses, Princesses, British Members of Parliament, Sir Samuel Hoare, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Elisabeth of Bavaria and the Queens of Spain and Belgium. He even taught Jack Dempsey, the famous World Heavyweight Champion in boxing, how to skate. For part of the 1948/1949 season, he was in the enviable position of supporting himself by teaching only one pupil: the daughter of the wealthy Vice-President of the General Electric Corporation in Great Britain.

Howard Nicholson with student Michelle Webber. Photo courtesy Christie Sausa's book "Lake Placid Figure Skating: A History". Used with permission.

In 1931, Howard said of his most famous pupil Sonja Henie, "Not only have I never had a pupil like Sonja, but I have never seen or imagined there could be a girl so wonderful and so brilliant. I am astounded at her ability to grasp almost immediately my suggestions, however new they may be to her. Difficult and complicated new steps which one would expect to spend months on, even with what it is the fashion to call a first-class skater (I mean anyone who has at least passed the gold medal standard) are performed after only a few lessons with an ease and grace which only an exceptional artist could possibly attain."

Howard was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 1976 and passed away on Christmas Day in Lake Placid in 1978. He was eighty-two years old, had been suffering from cancer and only stopped coaching five weeks before his death.

Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.