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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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