2024

Greece Is The Word: A Gander At Greek Figure Skating History

Ice rink in The National Gardens Of Athens, Christmas 2005. Photo courtesy Robert Wallace.

"Old things become new with the passage of time." - Nicostratus

Known for its hot summers and mild winters, Greece was home to one of the oldest civilizations in Europe. The ancient Greeks were renowned for their advances in art, science and culture more than two thousand years ago. It was also in Greece that the Olympic movement was born.

Owing to Greece's climate, ice skating didn't catch on in the same way it did in other European countries. Though there were ice factories in Athens, Salonika, Patras, Corfu, Cephalonia, Missolonghi, Zante (Zakynthos), Volo, Tripoli, Kalamata, Syra and Larissa during The Great War, they only operated for about half the year and mainly served the purpose of manufacturing ice to cool beer and pack sherbets.

Before the first ice rink in Greece was even built, the country had already made inroads into the figure skating world. Jimmy Demogines, the 1969 U.S. Junior Silver Medallist, earned the nickname "Zorba The Greek" because of his family background. Britons Diane Towler and Bernard Ford performed an Sirtaki-inspired free dance to great effect, winning no less than four World titles during the sixties.

"Fantasy On Ice", a smaller-scale touring production starring Simone Grigorescu and Lenel and Kirk van den Berg, made its way to Greece in 1985. The show was set under a tent, in a white marble amphitheatre in the port city of Piraeus, near Attica overlooking the Acropolis. Both Toller Cranston and Robin Cousins had (as it turned out, luckily) turned down starring roles in the production. Not long after arriving, the event's promoter bolted for an airport with the money, leaving the skaters stranded. The city denied the organizers access to the rink, and the ice rink and set were kept under lock and key for weeks.

Coincidentally, The Stadio Eirinis kai Filias (Peace and Friendship Stadium) in Piraeus was the first big Greek stadium to install an ice rink. It also opened in 1985 and was designed by the architectural firm Thymios Papagiannis and Associates. The Stadium hosted the first Greek Ice Hockey Championship in 1989. By the early nineties, the skating rink fell by the wayside as the Stadium was needed for other sports like basketball and track and field. As is often the case, when one rink closes, another one opens, and Greece was actually fortunate enough to have two ice rinks until 2001 when the rink in Moschato closed its doors. Two years later, the second rink in Athens was demolished and Greek skaters found themselves rinkless. While many skaters trained abroad, others had to put their skates on a shelf. Things were so dire in 2008 that a group of skaters from Marousi were training for the National Championships in a temporary rink covered by a tent in a parking lot. The situation has improved somewhat today, with rinks operating in both Athens and Oraiokastro, Thessaloniki.

For many years, skating in Greece was governed by the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation, which was founded in June 1986. It became a provisional ISU member in 1987 and a full member in 1991. In October 2011, long-time President and founder of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation Christos Chatziathanassiou died suddenly. At the time of his death, a representative from the [Pegasus Kypseli] Athletic Club stated, "He left with the big complaint of the state's long-standing unjust behavior towards the Hellenic Ice Skating Federation and its activities, yet thanks to his great personal love for ice skating and his great personal sacrifices he was able to keep up the bar in the activities of the Federation, having of course the support of his faithful associates. It is a characteristic fact that the State has had a negative impact on its financial contribution to the Federation's sporting activities, such as the Pan-Hellenic Championships, National Teams, etc., which caused it a great deal of sadness." It was later claimed that the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation operated illegally for many years, mismanaging approximately three million dollars in state subsidies. The ISU dropped Greece like a hot potato for a time, before allowing the Hellenic Winter Sports Federation, Greece's reworked governing body for figure and speed skating, curling, ice hockey, skiing, luge, bobsled and skeleton to (re)join in 2015.

As for Greek coaches, there are a few important names to note. Katerina Papafotiou won the Greek women's title three consecutive times in the early nineties. She went on to serve as the National Coach of the Hellenic Ice Sports Federation for many years. Her coach was World Champion Vladimir Kovalev, who for many years worked with Greek skaters. Fellow Soviet Olympians Nina Zhuk and Konstantin Kokora also worked with Greek skaters.

Greece's first representative at the World Junior Championships was Vasya Houpis, who placed second to last in 1990. At the 1992 World Championships in Oakland, Elaine Asanakis and Mark Naylor made history as Greece's first entry at a senior ISU Championship. Naylor grew up in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Asanakis in Brooklyn, New York. Asanakis and Naylor trained at the University Of Delaware under Ron Ludington. Asanakis, the daughter of Greek immigrants, later represented Greece internationally with Joel McKeever and Alcuin Schulten. Interestingly, she and McKeever had once competed internationally together as fours skaters, representing America but skating with different partners. Unfortunately, Asanakis and McKeever failed to qualify for the 1998 Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, missing a berth at the qualifying competition in Vienna the autumn prior by just two spots.

Panagiotis Markouizos

In Prague in 1993, Harris Haita made history as the first singles skater from Greece to compete at the World Championships. The following year in Japan, Lefki Terzaki became the first Greek woman to compete at Worlds. At the 1998 World Championships in Lausanne, Ubavka Novakovic-Kytinoy became the first Greek judge at a major ISU Championship. She went on to become involved as an official in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Athens' Panagiotis Markouizos was one of the first Greek skaters to perform more than one triple jump consistently. Georgina Papavasiliou was the first Greek singles skater to make it past the qualifying rounds at Worlds. Papavasiliou, who was born in Scotland but had ties to Corfu, finished twenty-ninth in 2002.

Christa-Elizabeth Goulakos and Eric Neumann-Aubichon. Photo courtesy J. Barry Mittan.

Zeus Issariotis, the son of a Toronto tavern owner who grew up in the Greek village of Isari, near Athens, took the silver at the 2005 Copenhagen Trophy - the first medal for a Greek man internationally. He trained at the Cricket Club for a time under Canadian Champion Sébastien Britten.

In 2007, Themistocles Leftheris became the first Greek American skater to win a senior medal at the U.S. Championships. The same year, Christa-Elizabeth Goulakos and Eric Neumann-Aubichon made history as the first Greek ice dancers to compete at Europeans and Worlds. They were both born in Canada but her family was from Greece. His former partner Alice Graham once skated with Andrew Poje. Goulakos and Neumann-Aubichon trained in Quebec with Chantal Lefebvre and Arseniy Markov. They weren't the only couple to represent Greece who didn't live there. From 2008 to 2010, pairs skaters Jessica Crenshaw and Chad Tsagris represented the country at the World Championships. She hailed from the United States; he from Canada. They were coached by Isabelle Brasseur and Rocky Marval.

Nikki Georgiadis, who represented Greece at the World Junior Championships with her fellow Canadian-born partner Graham Hockley, was the final torch bearer in Greece for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. She had the honour to lighting the cauldron at the historic marble Panathenaic Stadium in Athens before handing the Olympic Flame to the Canadian organizers of those Games.

Over the years, many touring ice shows including the Russian All Stars and Disney On Ice have entertained Greek audiences. In 2011 and 2012, ANT1 even aired a Greek version of Torvill and Dean's "Dancing On Ice" competition. Unfortunately, the series was an unprecedented flop, with complaints about everything from the low-budget production to the fact that none of the judges or host really had much of a skating background.

Anna Chatziathanassiou and Maria Mastrogiannopoulou. Photos courtesy J. Barry Mittan.

Though Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron represented France in international competition, Papadakis' father hails from Korydallos, a suburb of Athens. This, of course, makes Papadakis the first figure skater of Greek heritage to win both an Olympic medal and a World title.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, "Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed." Though the history of Greek figure skating is relatively recent, who knows what the future will hold?

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.

The 1978 European Figure Skating Championships

Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewerstorff. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer.

"Out on an immaculate white area people moved with grace, amazing and strange to humans." - Robert D. Stevenson, Skating, April 1937

In early February 1978, the Alsatian border town of Strasbourg in northeastern France was absolutely the place to be if you were one of Europe's top figure skaters at that time. The 1978 European Figure Skating Championships, held on a temporary rink in the Rhine Hall, featured a virtual who's who of late seventies figure skating royalty. There were one hundred and two competitors in the first Europeans held in France in fourteen years. Notably absent in Strasbourg were the Soviet judges, banned from participating by an ISU ruling.

I thought it would be fun today to hop in the time machine and explore some of the stories that made this competition so particularly exciting. Change into your best spandex onesie and buckle up as we go back and look at the best and the rest from this event!

THE PAIRS COMPETITION

Considering that Irina Rodnina had stood atop the medal podium at the European Championships for nine consecutive years previous to this event, it was absolutely no surprise to anyone in Strasbourg when Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev dominated in the short program, easily beating East German pairs Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewersdorff and Sabine Baeß and Tassilo Thierbach.

Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev

As for the free skate, the February 2, 1978 issue of "The Globe And Mail" reported, "Olympic gold medalists Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev of the Soviet Union skated an artistic, crowd-pleasing program in the freestyle category yesterday to clinch their sixth consecutive European pairs crown. The experienced pair, also five times world champions, earned eight 5.9's and one 6.0 for artistic expression in a five-minute performance that combined technical skill, near-perfect synchronization and calm confidence. On the first night of the European championships Tuesday, the Soviet pair had clearly demonstrated their world supremacy. They scored the only 6.0 of the evening and eight 5.9s to lead clearly into last night's final performance. Rodnina and Zaitsev had nine ordinals and 148.54 points. Second place went to another Soviet couple, Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakhrai, with 22 ordinals and 141.74 points. In third place were the East Germans, Manuela Mager and Uwe Bewerstorff, with 23 ordinals and 142.08 points. Following their dazzling performance, the Soviet champions waited patiently by the rink for the results of their team-mates, then dashed off to their dressing room, smiling broadly but declining to comment on their victory." In winning ten European titles, Irina Rodnina beat the previous record of nine held by Ulrich Salchow. Marina Cherkasova and Sergei Shakrai's free skate featured clean side-by-side triple toe-loops - a first at an ISU Championship.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

Defending World Champion Vladimir Kovalev dominated the school figures, 'outracing' East Germany's Jan Hoffmann, the Soviet Union's Igor Bobrin, East Germany's Mario Liebers and Great Britain's Robin Cousins, who placed a disappointing ninth on the first figure - the rocker. Twenty-year-old Cousins won the short program with a clean triple jump combination. He received a perfect 6.0 from one judge but remained behind Hoffmann, Kovalev and Bobrin. The leaders were only separated by one ordinal placing and thirty-two tenths of a point.

Robin Cousins. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer.

Although Vladimir Kovalev's convincing win in the compulsory figures all but assured him a place on the medal podium, Cousins was able to ultimately make up ground by winning the free skate and overcome Bobrin to win the bronze medal behind Hoffmann (who landed a triple Lutz in the free skate) and Kovalev, who celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday the day of the free skate. Cousins' effort earned him a spate of 5.9's and a 6.0 from the French judge for presentation. He won the free skating phase of the competition, landing two triple toe-loops, a triple Salchow and stepping out of a triple loop attempt.

In the book "Robin Cousins: Skating For Gold", Cousins recalled, "It was my first international championship quest since training under Carlo [Fassi] in Denver, and for the first time, I felt ready and eager well in advance. I had a rather nasty fall during one of the practices, but on the whole, the preparations went very smoothly... I did not concentrate on the first figure quite so much as I should have done. It was the left inside rocker and it went a little haywire. I did manage afterwards to put down two of my best figures - the paragraph double three and the change loop. But the judges had already awarded me bad marks for the first figure and were not going to make up much difference on the other two... In my own estimation, the long [program] was technically adequate, but the presentation I knew was better and I enjoyed it probably more than any I had previously performed. The audience and judges seemed to like it too."

THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION

Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer.

Following the compulsory dances and the OSP, reigning European champions Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov of the Soviet Union led the pack with 12 ordinals and 120 points ahead of Hungary's Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay who had 22 ordinals and 98.50 points. In third were
Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov with 23 ordinals and 98.50 points. Controversy swirled as the Hungarian team was allowed a reskate in their Paso Doble OSP when they fell because an alleged ridge of ice tripped them. They'd also fallen on a rut in the Kilian. As a result of these falls, the ISU later passed a rule to resurface the ice more frequently.

The February 4, 1978 issue of The Globe And Mail noted that in the free dance "Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov of the Soviet Union broke with their long-standing practice of skating to classical music and easily won their second consecutive European pairs dance crown last night. They were the second Soviet couple to win gold medals in the European figure skating championships, after five-time world champions Irina Rodnina and Alexander Zaitsev, who won the pairs competition Wednesday night. Moiseeva and Minenkov danced to specially-arranged extracts from West Side Story, apparently preparing themselves to use faster-paced tempos at the world championships in Ottawa next month. The Soviet pair had some trouble one minute into their dance when Minekov slipped and his knee fell to the ice. But they recovered and found their rhythm again to complete their four-minute performance with spirited footwork, ending by sliding 30 feet on their knees in front of the judges. They scored 11 ordinals and 206.40 points. Second place also went to a Soviet pair, Natalia Linichuk and Gennady Karponosov, who performed a series of new elements in finely timed quicksteps to win 128 ordinals and 204.10 points. Hungarians [Krisztina Regőczy and András Sallay] held on to third place with 26 ordinals and 201.58 points. World silver medallists Janet Thompson and [Warren] Maxwell were a disappointing fourth, despite an athletic dance to the tunes of 'Fiddler on the Roof. They scored 35 ordinals and 199.24 points."

Top: Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell. Photo courtesy "Canadian Skater" magazine. Bottom: Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov.

In March 1978's "Skating" magazine, Howard Bass complained that in Strasbourg "too many acrobatic and pair moves infiltrated the dance event and were not penalized. The rules state a recognizable code that is frequently disregarded so it is no wonder now that more than ever lay onlookers find it difficult to differentiate between ice dancing and pair skating. Furthering to our knowledge of this event, Lynn Copley-Graves in "Figure Skating History: The Evolution Of Dance On Ice" noted that "even with no Soviet judges in Strasbourg, France, Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov skated above everyone else, performing in their cool demeanor as if on a ballet stage. In beautiful costumes and displaying obvious illegalities, their free program had little difficulty until the end... Torvill/Dean, in their first Europeans, saw less and less of Janet Sawbridge who had married and stayed at a different hotel, and relied on Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell, he with unending humor, to show them the ropes. Jayne and Chris were pleased to break into the top ten. They took note of all the competitors' habits, such as the way András Sallay seemed to kiss Krisztina Regőczy when they entered the ice." It was in Strasbourg in fact that Torvill and Dean first connected with none other than legendary coach Betty Callaway.

Christopher Dean later recalled, "We felt so small in the dazzling company. When we got to see Moiseeva and Minenkov on the ice for real, they were not only better than we had imagined, but they seemed so strong and powerful, and so big. Everybody seemed so much bigger than us, in fact, and if in many cases it was more imagined than real, in the case of Moiseeva and Minenkov it was a fact. Minenkov must have been over six feet, which is unusually tall for a skater, and his wife... was taller than average. She had to be, otherwise they would have looked unbalanced. As it was they looked fabulous, particularly Irina, beautiful and balletic, and I couldn't have conceived that anybody in the world, let alone us, would ever beat them. We were both quite bowled over by them. We'd heard Alan Weeks raving about them on the box so often. Now we really knew why."

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

After the short program, defending European Champion and World Silver Medallist Anett Pötzsch of East Germany led West Germany's Dagmar Lurz and Austria's Claudia Kristofics-Binder. In "Skating" magazine, sportswriter Howard Bass noted, "A too-low level of marks continued to be awarded for the figures in both solo events. The highest mark awarded in one of the men's figures was 4.1... This seems to falsify the relative merits of figures and free, making nonsense of their respective 30 and 70 percent ratios."

Elena Vodorezova, a disastrous eighth in figures, skated brilliantly to win the short program while Pötzsch floundered on two jumps - the triple Salchow and double loop, placing sixth in that segment. Susanna Driano moved up from fourth to third with a strong performance, and Claudia Kristofics-Binder dropped to sixth. Injury forced her to withdraw before the free skate.

Left: Astrid Jansen in de Wal. Photo courtesy Eileen Mortimer. Right: Denise Biellmann.

In the free skate, the real story of the day came from Switzerland's Denise Biellmann, who attempted a triple Lutz and landed it, albeit not cleanly. Her trademark Biellmann spin brought down the house and her gutsy effort earned her the distinction of being perhaps the first woman to earn a 6.0 for technical merit in a major international competition. The perfect mark was awarded by British judge Pauline Borrajo. Although she won the free skate, Biellmann's twelfth-place finish in figures kept her off the podium in fourth behind Pötzsch, Dagmar Lurz and Elena Vodorezova. Canadian-based Astrid in de Wal placed a disappointing seventeenth.

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.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day to all of you! Interested in celebrating the amazing history of Canadian figure skating today? Of course you are and I've got you covered!

WATCH A DOCUMENTARY

Global Television aired "The Golden Age Of Canadian Skating" on March 14, 1984. The show was produced by Milad Bessada and hosted by newscaster Jan Tennant. David Young, who wrote the book "The Golden Age Of Canadian Figure Skating" that year, also conducted the research and writing for the special. Featuring interviews with eleven Canadian figure skating legends, including Barbara Ann Scott and Donald Jackson, this documentary is still regarded as one of the most important historical records of Canadian figure skating.

READ A BOOK

The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating is a reference book crammed with fascinating facts and figures, many of which you simply can't find online.

This compelling resource includes:

- Short biographies of hundreds of skaters, coaches, choreographers, judges and builders... including many incredible people you have never even heard of.

- Detailed records of Canadian figure skating competitions dating back to the 19th century, including complete results of the Canadian Championships from the early 20th century to present day.

- Intriguing facts and figures about the governance and growth of Canada's most exciting winter sport.

Available for purchase on where books are sold in eBook and print editions.

Order your copy today!

READ BLOGS, EXPLORE PHOTOS AND MORE!

Check out the Canadian Skating History board on Skate Guard's Pinterest account to discover a wide range of blogs, photos and much, more more!

Oral History: Interview With Sue Abbe

So many skaters from the golden age of figure skating are sadly no longer with us. I was delighted when Greg Hill reached out to me in the spring of 2024 and offered to donate several interviews he had conducted from 2001 to 2006 while researching a piece on the life of Maribel Vinson Owen.

Today's blog is an interview conducted with the late Sue Abbe, the sister of U.S. Pairs Skating Champion Dudley Richards, on February 13, 2002. Richards tragically perished in the 1961 Sabena Crash and had personal connections to The Kennedy Family.

When transcribing Hill's handwritten notes, I rearranged the order of Mrs. Abbe's interview at times to keep topics together.

I think you will agree that this oral history provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of figure skating in the 1950s and 1960s!

ON JUDGING SCANDALS

[What happened to Salé and Pelletier at the 2002 Olympics] happened to my brother Dudley, too. He'd just won the National Novice, at twelve-years-old. The next year, he had to go up to National Junior. He excelled in the figures. This was out in California. He went out all by himself.... He gets out there, and he's winning the whole thing, and - I forget the guy's name - he'd been trying for five years to win it. He's like eighteen, and here's Dudley, fourteen. So they said, "Oh, we'll give it to this guy." Dudley lost by one tenth of a point.

Dudley was very good in school figures. In fact, his first Worlds he went to was in Milan, and my mother was on the elevator there when some judge said, "Who's this Richardson boy? He's pretty good!" Mrs. Button said, "Well, here's the mother." The judge said, "Oh! If I knew..." See, here's the politics of it. They can't let a new kid on the block beat Dick Button. I'm glad it's finally coming out [referring to the judging scandals at the 2002 Olympics]. That's one reason why Dudley said he wouldn't turn professional, cause he wanted to be a Worlds or Olympic judge... He wanted to keep his amateur standing. He wanted to straighten out [things] and you know, try to help. [The fact Dudley was on a USFSA Committee was] unusual, to be competing and be on that - I think, if I remember it right.

Dudley Richards

ON DUDLEY'S START IN SKATING

We were kids in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and we had friends that had a place just north of Pawtucket [with a] nice big pond. We'd go up there and skate on the pond on Sunday afternoons. There'd be some other people skating too - girls. You didn't have much ice time in those days, back in the 40s. These girls who happened to be on the pond with us [said] to Dudley, "Gee, you have some talent. Why don't you join the Providence Skating Club?" My folks had him do that.

My father was the manager of an iron foundry, called JS White. It was a family [run business] on my mother's side. My folks didn't actually encourage Dudley. He did it himself. They told him, "Why do you do it?" They wouldn't go along with it. My folks weren't athletic. He went to the Providence Skating Club, but he excelled so quickly. They didn't have any good professional teachers there, so they advised him to go to The Skating Club of Boston. He was around eleven or twelve at this time. Bud Wilson was his first teacher. The problem was, during the war, getting there. You'd have to get there by train.

ON DUDLEY'S ATTITUDE ABOUT COMPETITIONS

Dudley was very laid-back about his competitions in skating. My father told him, "Dudley, no matter who you are, or how good you are, tomorrow you'll be forgotten." He didn't want him to get swell-headed... In those days, the only time the [USFSA] paid [for your travel] was if you won the U.S. [title]. You had to win the whole thing. Now, they pay you. I just read in the paper today [that] anyone who gets a gold medal [gets] $25,000. Isn't that nice?

Dudley Richards

ON SKATING PAIRS WITH TENLEY ALBRIGHT

He came to pair with Tenley Albright, because they were just practicing [together] all the time, and they were young and energetic. They tried Easterns [in pairs] and they did singles. They won both and then they tried [moving up]... Then they won Eastern Senior. The next thing is Nationals, then it gets a little complicated. Tenley decided no, she wanted to work more on her own. I don't think Tenley and Dudley were ever romantically involved. She came to the house in Hyannis Port [once]. I mean, maybe a little puppy love. They were too young.

ON SAILING WITH TEDDY AND BOBBY KENNEDY

I remember my father buying a boat - a [trawler] - so we could get extra gas, you know, cause of the boat. Our family had a cottage in South Hyannis and the '44 hurricane took it. So then, from there, we decided to move over to Hyannis Port, we rented for a year, and then bought an old house and fixed it up. That's how we got involved with the Kennedys. We were Republicans. Dudley and Teddy ended up rooming together at Harvard. I crewed for Teddy, cause we didn't have enough sailboats. Dudley was a sailor, too. Our oldest brother [Ross] was a sailor [Vice-Commodore of the Yacht Club]. He won that [title]. The Chappaquiddick Regattas - Ross won both of those. He was supposed to go to Teddy's inquest. Ross was the first one to see him get up [to go] swimming in the morning. There's more to it than that. Ross wanted to win the race. He didn't want to go out partying. He was out working early on his boat when Teddy got [in trouble]. Dudley was [usually] only at Hyannis Port in the month of August. He and Teddy were competitors. Ross and Bobby Kennedy were moreso competitive. Bobby was a few years older than Ross.

ON DUDLEY'S SERIOUS NECK INJURY

[One summer] Dudley broke his neck swimming. It took him five years to come back. It was after sailing [that he injured his neck]. He won the race, probably against Teddy [Kennedy], because they were competitors. [Afterwards] they were horsing around on the pier... and somebody pushed him in. [They] forgot it was low tide. When they started sailing, it was high tide.

Dudley Richards

ON DUDLEY'S EDUCATION

We were just family-oriented. Dudley was always so busy... He was just congenial. Everybody loved him. He had time for people. He just didn't have to sit, to try and fit everybody in. He was never tutored [in his studies]. I ended up not being a bad sailor cause of Ross. Dudley took a PG at Belmont Hill. He went to Providence Country Day, which is a private school. [Ross was at PCD, then ended up at Tabor] and graduated from it at seventeen [then did a post-graduate at Belmont Hill]. But, with his neck and all, and being... a younger graduate, plus the skating, [Dudley] said, "Well, that'll be nearer than the Skating Club of Boston." While he was at Belmont Hill, they had a sailing team. He was the skipper and he won the Annapolis - a competition of Eastern Prep schools. He represented Belmont Hill. [He went on to Harvard] and graduated in 1954.

ON DUDLEY'S STINT IN THE MILITARY

After Harvard, when he broke his neck, the doctor told him, "Well, one thing, Dudley, you'll never have to worry, cause the army will never take you." He tried at Harvard to get into [the] Air Force ROTC, and they caught up with him - kicked him out [for a year]. He said, "If I ever get [in], I don't want to go in [as an enlisted man]." Sure enough, he graduated from Harvard in 1954, and the Army takes him. He went to Fort Dix, and then they had him climbing telephone poles. [He was] not supposed to have... any contact because of his neck. So then, he tried to finagle [someone] to get to, you know, entertain the troops. He heard he was going to be sent overseas. He finally finagled it so he ended up skating in Garmisch [at the Casa Carioca nightclub] for two years, entertaining the troops, where he got, I think, like $50 a performance.

When Dudley was in the army in Garmisch, they taught him how to teach people how to defect, which he did. He showed one or two people how. He said he couldn't be there right at the time, but he made arrangements for them to defect.

Dudley Richards and Maribel Yerxa Owen Jr. Photo courtesy World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame.

ON DUDLEY'S PARTNERSHIP WITH MARIBEL YERXA OWEN JR.

[Around the time he was skating with Maribel Yerxa Owen Jr.], we didn't see a lot of him, at that point - but we knew he was getting involved. She was a lot younger [but] there was [a] fire going on there. I sensed it. [In terms of competitive skating] Dudley wasn't going to go any further, and I don't think she would have. She wasn't as good as Laurence.

ON PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

When John F. Kennedy was running for President, he stopped by The Skating Club of Boston and talked to Dudley, to get votes. Knowing Dudley was Republican, he said he had a little influence. Then, when he was elected President, he invited Dudley down to Hyannis Port to be there on election night. Dudley said, "I just voted for Nixon. I couldn't resist this one, so I went down to Hyannis Port." Dudley also [attended] the opening of a Kennedy rink in Hyannis. He did a lot of charity [work].

ON SENATOR TED KENNEDY

Teddy Kennedy wanted Dudley to take a Spanish exam for him. Dudley wouldn't do it, so Teddy got somebody else to do it and got caught. Then he came to Hyannis Port and said, "Please don't tell people, cause it might get out."

ON DUDLEY'S PRIVATE LIFE

Good-looking women went for him! He told me, "Sis, I [meet] all of these beautiful women. You're more natural. You got more smarts than all the rest of 'em!"

I think maybe the family was thinking he should... you know, do something with his life other than skating. He was twenty-nine. He was kind of private, but I know that he... I know romantically he was... OK, I don't want to tell you.

Photo courtesy "Abbot Bulletin"

ON THE AFTERMATH OF THE SABENA CRASH

[I married John Abbe] in 1958, and moved to Buffalo in 1960. We kind of lost touch. Dudley was close to all those skaters, you know, in his way, not that he'd say to us, because that was his life... Nordblom... he was doing very well [there].

[Before the crash], I remember sending him a telegram, which he never got. It was [about] a wedding in Vail. He had been out there, maybe a week before. I was in Buffalo [when I heard about the crash.] My husband was travelling a lot. He'd take off for weeks. In fact, a friend called me early in the morning. I had to listen to that on the radio for ten hours [while] driving. It was unbelievable. Dudley had tickets for my mother [to attend the Worlds in Prague] but at the last minute, she decided not to go.

When the airplane crashed, his apartment was robbed because it was in the paper, and the elevator wasn't working. Isn't that awful? They only got a typewriter and a few things. He worked for Honeywell [before he worked at Nordblom]. It was right next to The Skating Club of Boston. He was supposed to be a writer for them. His major at Harvard was history. He wanted to make money. He was doing real well. Norman Woods... was a big hockey player at Harvard. He was big at Nordblom, and he was a friend of Dudley's at Harvard too. Dudley was very good at all sports... sailing, tennis... for what little time he had to spend on them. Eleven months out of the year was [for] skating. Fred Heller - a Harvard classmate - identified Dudley's body from the crash. He was in Europe at the time. Dudley was godfather to their two boys, and they gave him a St. Christopher's Medal, which he wore, and that's how Fred Heller identified Dudley's body [Dudley was Congregational].

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 "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" and pre-ordering "Sequins, Scandals & Salchows: Figure Skating in the 1980s", which will be released this fall where books are sold: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.

You've Met Your Match

When we think of collectible skating history, our first thoughts are probably souvenir programs, posters, art, autographed pictures and videos. However, as we explored in a previous blog on philately, there's a lot of skating memorabilia out there in forms we may not commonly think of. Phillumeny - the hobby of collecting matchbook covers - may seem a rather obscure or unique specialization. However, considering how socially acceptable smoking was in much of the world until the last two decades or so, it's quite unsurprising that skating was prominently featured on matchbook covers and cigarette cards for many, many years.

Perhaps the most popular examples of skating-themed matchbooks emerged in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, at the height of the great rebirth of American hotel ice shows, which had started before Prohibition. Both The Hotel New Yorker in New York City and Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago advertised their suppertime skating soirées on matchbooks which would have been provided free of charge to their patrons.

A 'pin-up' style illustration of a figure skater also appeared on matchbooks given to soldiers at the Dow Air Force Base in Bangor, Maine during World War II. Overseas in Japan, the Harima Match Company produced a matchbook featuring a bespectacled male skater zooming along while smoking a pipe. One Finnish matchbook depicted an elegantly dressed female skater performing a beautiful spiral. The Cleveland Skating Club, which hosted the 1940 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, even got in the matchbook game during the early 40s.

At times, cigarette cards - specialized trade cards used for advertising and to stiffen cigarette packaging - featured figure skating as well. One of the most unique examples of this was a series of twenty-five cards depicting 'Winter Sports' produced by British cigarette manufacturers Lambert and Butler issued in 1914. One card featured a woman performing a toe spin, three featured pairs skaters and a fifth showed a young man enjoying a fine afternoon of skate sailing on a frozen river. One of Lambert and Butler's rivals, Mitchell's Cigarettes, also issued a card that depicted two men skating in the English Style in old-style skates with curlicue toes and a couple skating, with the woman warming her hands in a muff. Ogden's Tobacco Company even issued a cigarette card with an illustration of Sonja Henie.

If you're looking to add a few new pieces of unique skating memorabilia to your collection, you just may find some inexpensive gems online or in your local antique store.

Discover The History Of Figure Skating!

Learn all about the fascinating world of figure skating history with Skate Guard Blog.

Explore a treasure trove of articles on the history of figure skating, highlighting Olympic Medallists, World and National Champions and dazzling competitions, shows and tours. Written by former skater and judge Ryan Stevens, Skate Guard Blog also offers intriguing insights into the evolution of the sport over the decades. Delve into Stevens' five books for even more riveting stories and information about the history of everyone's favourite winter Olympic sport.

Oral History: Interview with Osborne Colson

Today's blog is an interview conducted with legendary Canadian coach Osborne Colson on May 30, 2002. When transcribing handwritten notes of Hill's interview, I rearranged the order at times to keep skaters and topics together.

I think you will agree that this oral history provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of figure skating in the 1930s!

Maribel Vinson Owen and Guy Owen

ON MARIBEL VINSON OWEN AND GUY OWEN

Maribel Vinson Owen had wonderfully peppy music when she skated at the carnivals put on at the Toronto Skating Club. I knew Maribel through the skating.

Maribel was, again, older than I was, and when she came to skate these shows, we were absolutely mesmerized and hypnotized by the way she behaved on the ice and off. Such flamboyance! The girl was just magnetic. [In her skating] she was a free spirit. There's not many like that. Guy Owen was a free spirit too. All the top skaters are pretty well free spirits. I mean, there's something about us. We're individualists and we can't help ourselves being that way but we don't want to change. That's even stronger.

I was stunned that [Maribel] married Guy Owen. They were a bit too similar. They were both very effervescent, spontaneous people [who] loved life. [There was] more stability in Maribel than in Guy. I knew Guy Owen when he was sixteen years old, I guess. Maribel was older than Guy; Maribel was older than I was. I was just coming up. I always admired her style and her outlook on life. To a younger boy of 14 or 15, she was like a rock star.

Guy got along with everybody. He had that kind of personality. I never saw him fight with anybody. Guy was terribly likable, very personable. Everybody adored him. He was an Ottawa boy. I'm a Toronto boy, so I got to know him skating through the competitions. He was also in fours. Guy would've been a tennis player because he had great knees. He was very imaginative. He liked to be heard. When there was a group, he would sometimes try to lead it. Skaters are kind of funny, because they're all quite expressive - at least they should be, if they're going to be good. They've got to have that colour. Guy had colour - definitely!

Guy couldn't beat me in competition. I was younger and duller - much more conservative, at that point. I wouldn't say I'm conservative now. I competed against Guy in the Canadian Championships - both junior and senior - in Montreal, one year, and Toronto another. I envied [his skating] very much because his musicality was excellent. He had a great flair for music and movement - and he produced both at the same time. He had a winning smile, that you don't see very often in the skaters today. He used that personality. He knew he could win people over and he was hard to beat, because of that. You didn't want to skate after him. 2 or 3 fellows after him and the crowd would die down, but he always [brought down] the house. His double loop jumps were superb. [He would do] three consecutively.

Osborne Colson

ON HIS OWN AMATEUR CAREER

I came up in a family that was very level-headed - a wonderful mother, a wonderful father. Both skated a little and played golf. [My parents] insisted I play the game. My father got me into cricket. He wanted me in team games. He thought that was better for you because he thought you get selfish when you're in a competition by yourself - and he was quite right. There's something about a team effort. If the team does well, and if you don't play well that night, your team won and you're all in a happy mood. You have to learn to lose and win. [Guy Owen worked in a bank.] Everybody started working in a bank because it was hard times. We were all of the same era. I worked in the Toronto Dominion Bank (then the Dominion Bank). We did it as a livelihood and to pay for our skating. We got three weeks holiday if we took them in the winter, so that was a great way to get in training.

ON JUMPING IN THE 1930s .VS. THE 2000s

Double Axels weren't done as much then, and triples were not done or even played with. The way they presented the jumps [in the 1930s] was almost better than some of the people that are doing doubles and triples today because they're more like little spins [in the air]. The jumps went up mainly. Today, you're trying to rotate sometimes before you get up and that... can't make a good skater. The hardest thing in the world, from a teaching standpoint, is to get your students to jump up, so that they have the time element to make the three rotations - and for the fourth, even worse. The style of skating has changed enormously.

Frances Claudet Johnson

ON GAY BLADES, FRANCES CLAUDET JOHNSON, KARL SCHÄFER AND WALTER ARIAN

Everybody was calling me to join [Maribel Vinson Owen and Guy Owen's show] Gay Blades, but I felt that they were all just turning from amateur to professional and they were all... not the most stable people in the world. One reason I didn't go with that group [was] because I knew it was the first time for [the Gay Blades] and at that time, I was Canadian Champion. I thought the company [Ice] Follies would respect what I was at, and I was at the age that I could learn something from being with some professional people - and Shipstad and Johnson certainly knew how to put this show together. They had a wonderful manager. He was from Chicago and really, he was responsible for making it a success. I toured for seven years.

Maribel controlled the show and she gave Guy more money (in salary) than Fran Claudet, and she shouldn't have because Fran did an awful lot of the choreography, plus skating pairs and singles. Fran got cancer. [When she was elderly], she said, "I don't want all those treatments. I've had a wonderful life" and she just died. Fran told me... that Maribel always said, "Oh, Fran, you're wonderful. You're worth more" but she never really gave her more.

Fran was quite an athletic girl, a beautiful tennis player. She was in the 1932 Olympics in pairs, with Chauncey Bangs. As she matured, she became more beautiful. She wasn't as pretty [as her] very pretty sister [in Toronto]. Fran died when she was ninety. I was at her 90th birthday in New York. Her family (on her husband's side) gave her a party. It was a marvelous party. Some of the old show people were there. Chronologically, you get older (you can't help that!) but the spirit of a performer seems to last until they die. I think it's a quality and she had that - just wonderful. When she skated, Fran had beautiful edges, and she admired all the skaters who had good edges.

Fran enjoyed the show [Gay Blades] very much. She was the right one to start there because she'd been teaching, and she just said, "I'm going to take a fling at show business!" She had a very good smile and beautiful teeth, and found that she could capture an audience very easily. She was never egotistical, never conceived about it, but she literally enjoyed it to the point that nothing was better. We actually became very, very fond of each other. She was six years older than me and we were very, very close friends really until her death. I think she did a bit of a pair with Karl Schäfer and then I think she skated with Walter Arian. She quite liked Karl. He was a lovely skater and had good edges. Walter Arian was trying to make advances towards romance with her and she didn't particularly like him. I think he's Austrian. He was a good coach. I took lessons from him. Arian coached the Jenkins brothers in Cleveland. What Gay Blades really needed was a real manager. Most skaters of that kind of talent aren't the best business people. They don't even like doing the books.

Maribel and Fran understood each other. They were both talented people and they'd have their little arguments but that's only because she suddenly realized that Maribel was kind of favoring Guy - and the money too. But Fran was never bitter about anything. She used to smoke a little bit, and she'd take one drag out of the cigarette and that gave her a chance to [properly think about her] answer. She wasn't impulsive to snap something out at you.

Laurence Owen

ON LAURENCE AND GERTRUDE OWEN

Laurence Owen inherited both qualities from her mother and her father and when she did the compulsory figures, a musician or a composer could've composed a piece because of the way she skated. She was so fluent in movement and so magical. I mean, she was a really great skater. [Maribel's mother] Gertrude Vinson wore the same kind of hat as the Queen Mother.

ON MICHELLE KWAN

Not the same, but Michelle Kwan gives you a thrill, to this day. There may be better skaters, but there's some spell that she's able to cast on people, and it's endeared her to the world. I hear she's going to skate again, which I'm not sure whether she should, because certainly if she doesn't have a trainer [that's not a good idea].

Gretchen Van Zandt Merrill. Photo courtesy Boston Public Library.

ON GRETCHEN VAN ZANDT MERRILL AND BARBARA ANN SCOTT

Gretchen Merrill was a very lovely girl. Life got too tough for her and she committed suicide. She came up and studied with Otto Gold, a Czech coach, who also used to coach Barbara Ann Scott. Gretchen didn't quite have the temperament for competition, particularly. You have to have ice water in your veins and not be tough. I worked with Barbara Ann myself and she would get me to fire the bullet. She'd say, "You look after that," and she'd just come out smiling. I'm used to the intrigue and Barbara Ann and I still talk to one another frequently.

ON THE SABENA CRASH

I felt terrible about the Crash [in 1961] but I said, "You know, Maribel will be up in heaven there, and she'll start the first ice rink." Well, these other people were weeping right, left and center, and I said, "No, I'm kind of envious of her." But I admired her and I knew she had that quality.

ON MARY JANE HALSTEAD

Mary Jane Halstead wasn't a great skater. She had a lithe body and she could direction. She turned out to be quite a good teacher, after the show folded. Unfortunately, just like Guy Owen, she ended up being an alcoholic and killed herself with booze. She was a very sweet person, and I knew the whole family. She was just average as a skater. She did a pair - not a great pair - but she presented herself well, and she had a nice body. Whatever she put on, she looked great. I think she enjoyed the Gay Blades phase of her life. It was her first break into professional skating. Mary Jane Halstead, Fran Claudet and Guy Owen were all friends.

Cecil Smith and Melville Rogers

ON CECIL SMITH AND MELVILLE ROGERS

Melville Rogers was an average skater - very handsome! His son is extraordinarily handsome and lives in Toronto. We have lunch twice a week. Melville was very pompous. He came from a wealthy family. He knew he was good-looking ad he sort of demonstrated that to all. He skated a pair with my cousin, Cecil Eustace Smith. My cousins skated against Maribel at Worlds and Cecil came second to Sonja Henie. She was a very beautiful girl and she never did turn pro. She chose to get married. She didn't want to marry a skater and she turned out to be as successful in golf [as she was in skating]. Melville would come to Toronto (that side of my family was quite wealthy] and he would always sponge off them.

George E.B. 'Geddy' Hill, Grace and James Madden

ON GEORGE E.B. HILL, GRACE AND JAMES MADDEN AND AMERICANS

Geddy Hill was a wonderful architect. He did Richard Dwyer's house in California. A very nice fellow, actually. He was a very good friend of Fran Claudet's.

The Madden Family - Gracie Madden, James Madden - were wealthy people and they were great friends [of Geddy's]. Some Americans are exactly just like we are. They're no different. you know, you think, "Canadians - horribly cold and Americans are so brash [when they win] a title. That's nonsense. I had the privilege of working in the States for seven years and my close, close friends are from America. I brought the boy that - a good coach now [Don Laws] - taught Scotty Hamilton and took him to Worlds. I'm so pleased that I had that part of my career.

ON COMPULSORY FIGURES

Edges are not done as well as they were done in years past. You see, there are no figures done. I don't say the figures should've gone for competitions, but [in] the beginning you should be doing figures, because the parents are paying while you teach them things they would've learned automatically in figures. So they're wasting their money. The discipline, the concentration, the focus and also, the use of time - with your studies and with your school. You could blend it all together. Now they free skate too much, and they have greater injuries and [more knee problems].

ON THE PAST AND PRESENT OF SKATING

I'm not saying that the skating in the past was by any means as good as it is today. I'm just saying that there are certain qualities that I wish were still with us with the new skaters because they would make them absolutely stand out. There's the technology. Biomechanics is understood by the coaches. We all take courses in it. The systems of training are a little more in-depth.

The 1954 U.S. Figure Skating Championships

From March 18 to 20, 1954, the famed Polar Palace in Hollywood, California played host to the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Though the U.S. Championships were held in California in 1947, the event marked the first time that Los Angeles had the distinction of playing host to the event. It was also the first time since 1947 that the event was held over a relatively short three-day span. The rink where Sonja Henie and Belita Jepson-Turner had once practiced couldn't have been a more regal setting for America's top skaters.

Senior medallists in 1954. Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Each of the event's evening free skating sessions had sellout crowds of one thousand, six hundred spectators and the rink's coffee shop was full of skaters and judges, who snacked and smoked while discussing the high and low points of the competition. The jukebox played "Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes.

There were social events too - a dinner and cocktail hour hosted by the Inter-Club Association Of Southern California, a Judges Dinner and a turkey dinner and dance, which was held in one half of the lobby of the host hotel, The Ambassador. Every medallist received a solid gold pin with a diamond inset from Harry E. Radix, engraved "1954 National Championships". The event's success was credited to the efforts of Otto Dallmayr, the Competition Chairman and Deane McMinn, then President of the Inter-Club Association.

Tenley Albright center ice at the Polar Palace, carrying the American flag. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Now that we have a picture of the event, let's look back on the most important part... the skating!

THE NOVICE AND JUNIOR EVENTS

Sidney Ann Foster and Franklin Stirling Nelson. Photo courtesy Dartmouth College Archives.

Sidney Ann Foster of Fargo, North Dakota and Franklin Stirling Nelson of Tulsa, Oklahoma were the only novice or junior winners who didn't hail from the West Coast. Sidney and Franklin trained in Boston, under Cecilia Colledge and were students at Radcliffe and Harvard. They took the Silver Dance title, making history by performing the first winning free dance in this category at the U.S. Championships.

Patricia Kilgore with the Heaton R. Robertson Memorial Trophy. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Dawn May and David Hertz of Seattle, Washington took the junior pairs title. They were the only other novice or junior winners who weren't from California. Joan Zamboni and Charles Coulon medalled in both Silver Dance and junior pairs. At the time, Coulon was President of the host Los Angeles Figure Skating Club. Tim Brown, a student of Eugene Mikeler from Glendora, coasted to victory in the junior men's event on the strength of his figures. The free skate and silver medal was won by Milwaukee's Raymond Blommer, who was seventh in figures. Patricia Kilgore of Compton took the novice women's title, winning the new Heaton R. Robertson Trophy. Placing dead last in her first trip to Nationals was Maribel Yerxa Owen.

Roderick Reid, John 'J.J.' Bejshak, Robert Brewer, Lawrence Lovett, Lorin Caccamise, Don Mike Anthony, James Short, Richard Swenning and Bradley Lord. Photo courtesy Robert Brewer.

Sixteen-year-old Robert Lee Brewer of Alhambra was the winner of the novice men's event. In fact, the top five spots in novice men all went to skaters from California! Placing sixth was young Bradley Lord from the Skating Club of Boston, a student of Bud Wilson.

Robert Brewer

Seventeen-year-old Catherine Machado, skating in her home rink, moved up from second after figures to claim the junior women's title. The leader after the figures, Sherry Dorsey of Mercer Island, Washington fell twice in her free skate and dropped to second. Mary Ann Dorsey, who was third after figures, withdrew after catching the flu. With a spectacular free skate, sixteen-year-old Claralynn Lewis of Colorado Springs moved up from being in a tie for seventh after figures to take the bronze. Machado was awarded the Oscar L. Richard Trophy for the most artistic performance in either the junior or senior women's events.

THE PAIRS AND ICE DANCE COMPETITIONS

Edward and Carmel Bodel and Sidney Ann Foster and Franklin Nelson. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

The 1953 Gold Dance Champions Carol Peters and Danny Ryan had parted ways to take jobs teaching in Washington, D.C. and at the Minto Skating Club. With unanimous first-place votes, married couple Carmel and Edward Bodel reclaimed the Gold Dance title that they had last held in 1951. For their effort, they earned the Harry E. Radix Trophy. Carmel worked as a secretary; Edward in the construction field.

Carmel and Ed Bodel

Phyllis and Martin Forney of the Hershey Figure Skating Club took the silver; Patsy Riedel and Roland Junso of the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club the bronze. Finishing just off the podium in fourth were Janet Williams and Bill Kipp.

Dawn May and David Hertz and Carole Ann Ormaca and Robin Greiner. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine. Left: Phyllis and Martin Forney.

Only three pairs vied for the senior pairs event and the Henry Wainwright Howe Memorial Trophy. The winners, with first-place votes from four of the five judges, were Carole Ann Ormaca and Robin Greiner of Fresno. Margaret and Hugh Graham of Boston finished second; Lucille Ash and Sully Kothman of the Broadmoor Skating Club third. The results were exactly the same as the previous year's Nationals in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the only difference being that Sully had skated with Kay Servatius that year. Missing from the event were Anita Andres and Dudley Richards. They'd won senior pairs at the Easterns and were named to the World team but Dudley received a draft letter for the Korean War.

THE MEN'S COMPETITION

The Jenkins brothers

Twenty-two-year-old Hayes Alan Jenkins of Colorado Springs wasn't just the likely winner in the men's event in Los Angeles. He was practically a shoo-in. Hayes had won the last two World Championships and the previous year's World Championships. He also benefited from the fact that after the World Championships in Oslo, Jimmy Grogan - who would have been his closest competitor - had turned professional.

David Jenkins. Photo courtesy Dartmouth College Archives.

Though Hayes' younger brother David gave him a run for his money, Hayes won both the free skate and a second national title. Ronnie Robertson, who'd finished second the year previous in Jimmy Grogan's absence, took the bronze and Tulsa's Hugh Graham finished fourth. Though the Broadmoor Skating Club finished a strong second to the Los Angeles Figure Skating Club in the battle for the Bedell H. Harned Trophy for the club that earned the most points overall, Hayes was the only skater from the Broadmoor to earn a gold medal in Los Angeles.

Hayes Alan Jenkins. Photo courtesy Dartmouth College Archives.

Hayes also won the Oscar L. Richard Trophy for the most outstanding artistic program in either the junior or senior men's events. Sevy Von Sonn wrote, "His tremendous poise and the ease with which he skated, coupled with his ability to coordinate his skating moves and music beautifully, were indeed a joy to behold."

THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION

Tenley Albright at The Polar Palace. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.

Eighteen-year-old Tenley Albright of Newton Center, Massachusetts may have been the defending U.S. Champion, but after losing her World title to West Germany's Gundi Busch in Oslo, she was determined to fight back from the disappointment. After amassing an incredible one hundred and fifty point lead in the figures, she appeared in a fuchsia satin dress with matching gloves at center ice to perform her free skate to "Birth Of The Blues" - the same program she'd performed in a film for the Polio Foundation.

After performing a double Axel, Axel/double loop combination and a spread eagle/double Salchow/spread eagle sequence, she earned a standing ovation and first-place marks from every judge on her way to her third national title.

Fourteen-year-old Carol Heiss, the youngest competitor in the six skater field, was unanimously second. The fact she even competed was quite a feat, considering that only two months earlier she'd suffered a serious injury in practice after colliding with her sister. "I really did nothing more than a double flip and a double loop, but I was so far ahead in figures that helped me to stay second," Heiss told Allison Manley in her 2012 interview on The Manleywoman SkateCast. Four judges to one, Frances Dorsey defeated Patricia Firth for the bronze. The only non-teenager in the field, twenty-two-year-old Margaret Ann Graham of Tulsa finished fifth. Miggs Dean of Farmington, Michigan was sixth.

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 "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" and pre-ordering "Sequins, Scandals & Salchows: Figure Skating in the 1980s", which will be released this fall where books are sold: https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.