Dick Button has passed away | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Dick Button has passed away

How sad, as a watcher of old skating competitions on YouTube I heard the dulcent tones of Dick Button many a time. He was an engaging commentator.

RIP Mr Button, you'll be remembered for all your remarkable achievements in the sport and for your commentary.
 
I love how he highlighted the lesser known skaters who contributed something to the fine art of figure skating (his chosen phrase). He would tell us why this person mattered and what they added to the sport. He went on to create professional skating giving us Championships so skaters could earn a living after their amateur days. He highlighted champions and up and comers no matter what nation they represented. As he put it - I love great skating. He was also careful not to throw around the word legends - saving it for the the skaters "who made the sport different and better because they were in it."

Because of him, I learned of the great skaters of the past and could recite the names of the great ones of the black and white tv era. I learned who the Protopopovs were and got to see their exquisite death spirals of the past. He called out the judges when he felt they made decisions not in the interest of pure skating. He championed both John Curry & Toller Cranston and did not play favorites. He reminded us that not only the champions were winners by highlighting Janet Lynn. He made sure we never forgot the skaters lost in the Sabena plane crash of 1961.

RIP Mr Button and thanks for the memories.
Standing Ovation to you for a life well lived.
 
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I started watching Dick at the beginning of his broadcasting career and learned so much from him. I consider myself to be a fan of figure skating, even though to don't like what it has become. There are so many Buttonisms that come to my mind whenever I watch. For me, he's still there commentating in my head. Unfortunately, I think the toe point battle is lost!
 
Thank you, Uncle Dick. 🙌 What an amazing life you led, and what iconic contributions you made to the sport you loved. 🥹 I'll always remember your wit, good humor, and that mischievous twinkle in your eye. You taught me so much about figure skating in those early years of figure skating broadcasting. So many unforgettable moments. May you R.I.P.

The skating gods are surely embracing you, so many gone before you, and those we lost too suddenly and too soon in a similar scenario to 1961. Such young losses surpass our understanding. Your heart knew it was time for your own departure. May you all be joined together in a beautiful figure skating paradise. 🫂
 
I did not know he had remarried after his divorce. Good for him. Good for him.
 

Some more Dick Button Quotes And Sayings...​

  1. One of the reasons for putting yourself on the line, is that life is not simply treading water... I always felt that once you reach a certain point, you have to try and move ahead.
  2. There is a popular fallacy that falling down is the mark of a poor skater. But the truth is that when one stops falling, he has probably stopped improving.
  3. That's what really makes great skating competitions. When you have two top skaters in good form giving superb performances.
  4. They were two halves that together formed a magical whole.
  5. "Whatever that was supposed to be, it wasn't"
  6. "There needs to be a little more swan in that Swan Lake."
  7. I do find some of the costumes sometimes are over the top. You almost feel you've been trapped in a windmill in the Metropolitan Opera House costume department.
  8. It's beautiful theater. It has everything going for it. I mean music and choreography and . . . beautiful girls. It's an elegant, wonderful sport.
  9. That was a devastating time for all of us to deal with. The crash took away so many in the skating community.
  10. Single skaters frequently say "I am only skating for myself" ..Baloney! they are skating for Judges and audience otherwise would be in a vacuum
  11. As a reminder of what I hope to see tonight, confident skating. I would like to see more stretch, more pointed feet, straighter backs, deeper edging, tighter rotation, better flow in and out of jumps and more performance.
  12. The scandal helps people become aware of (skating). And once they're aware of it, they're hooked.
  13. "Look at that look," Dick Button about Michelle Kwan as she waited for her LP music Tosca - also "She skated with heart, she skated with emotion and passion and you can't ask for more than that, she lifts you off your seat."
  14. Dick Button after he assessed Shizuka's 2006 FS in Torino "Magnificent quality, that's a lady skating!"
  15. One of Dick Button's favorite comments "Now THAT is a sloppy foot position". And all of us always wondered WHY it was a sloppy foot position.
  16. "You know, some skaters hypnotize you, and other skaters, even though they may be wonderful athletes, give you the opportunity to make a trip to the refrigerator."
  17. Plushenko has theater in his blood. That's why we watch and comment on him.
  18. "It wouldn't hurt if she would smile once in a while."
  19. "I think this program just looks like it's been slapped together without very much thought or intelligence put into it. it's a series of back strokes and forward strokes like this into one or more triple jumps. and unfortunately it's neither interesting nor original nor unique"
  20. start with a young lady and start counting the number of times when they’re doing step sequences and all of those wonderful things, where they raise either one or the other or both arms over the level of their shoulders. And if you start counting, my bet is that you will get to 20 very, very quickly, and then you can stop. They’re like flailing windmills. That’s exactly the point. That does not augur well, in my book.
  21. An important skater is one who leaves the sport different and better because they were in it.
  22. "Every skater goes through a thousand CDs until they find the music that they want... and all too often they end up with Carmen."
  23. "Was there a program? No, there wasn't. There were jumps and arm movements."
  24. He has a wonderful kind of flair, very much in the style of the 19th-Century Romantic poet Byron might have been. He's kind of Byronic, isn't he?"
  25. "See how high she is on that toe? That's not a good spin! Look where is up there, that spin is rocking all over the place!"
  26. "It was completed. It just wasn't completed well."
  27. "Look at the swash in that swashbuckling!"
  28. "Midori Ito has been compared to a Duracell battery -- unlimited energy -- a high-beamed smile -- simply an extraordinary jumper."
  29. The forward outside edge into the axel is the most treacherous
 
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