SCNY celebrates its history
by Lynn Rutherford, special to U.S. Figure Skating Online |
For longtime members, RISE brought to life days of skating and socializing at the old Madison Square Garden on 50th Street and Eighth Avenue, the club's home until the late 1960s.
Lucy Brennan, a U.S. and World judge for 50 years who holds the ISU Gold Award of Merit, recalled sharing club ice with Harold Hartshorne, a five-time U.S. champion who became an influential judge and official, and Eddie LeMaire, a U.S. junior men's and pairs champion, and national judge.
Both men--as well as Hartshorne's wife, Louise, and LeMaire's son, Richard "Dickie"--were on Sabena Airlines Flight 548.
"Eddie was a lot of fun. We all called him 'Uncle Eddie;' he was so excited about taking his son to Prague," Brennan said. "Harold Hartshorne was a big part of our dance group. I skated with Bill Kipp, Bill Swallender--it goes on and on."
To Brennan, the highlight of the evening was seeing all 13 U.S. Olympic champions together. SCNY can claim three--Carol Heiss (1960), Dorothy Hamill (1976) and Sarah Hughes (2002)--as members.
"I skated with Carol [Heiss Jenkins] here in New York; my mother and I gave Carol and Hayes [Jenkins] their rehearsal dinner. Tenley [Albright], of course, is my generation," Brennan said. "Seeing all of them was wonderful."
One of those New York Olympic champions said when she was 9 years old her eyes were opened to the sport's history by none other than Frank Carroll.
"I went out to Lake Arrowhead for two summers, and one of the first things [Carroll] told me was what he learned from Maribel [Vinson Owen] and the lessons she taught him," Hughes said.
"Frank is a very direct person, a very technical coach, and that's how Maribel taught him," Hughes continued. "John Nicks was around a lot when I was competing as well, because he had Sasha [Cohen], and he came over to California from England after the crash because we had so few coaches."
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"I knew bits of pieces [of the stories], but I never really knew how big they were," said the 24-year-old Forte, who placed a career-best ninth at the 2011 AT&T U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, N.C.
"I went to California for my 21st birthday and took [lessons] from Frank [Carroll], but I didn't know about his connection to Maribel Vinson Owen, and I didn't know about Ron Ludington's connection either," Forte continued. "It was a great decision to do a documentary feature about what happened."
One of the things that struck Forte were the powerful jumping skills so many members of the 1961 U.S. World Team showed in the archival footage of their performances.
"Seeing how big their jumps were made me appreciate the importance of doing compulsory figures," she said. "The skaters looked so consistent, with good knee bend, and got so much height on their jumps. Everything was so smooth.
"I only took, I think, one pre-preliminary figures test, and then moves-in-the-field tests were brought in," Forte continued. "I think doing figures helped skaters develop consistency and control...I would really like to master more of them someday."
Forte, who supports her skating by coaching in her home area of Long Island, helped pass the story of the 1961 U.S. Team on to a new generation by encouraging her students to attend a screening.
She said, "They really enjoyed it; a lot of my kids saw me on the live broadcast, which was cool."
