Dick Button, US figure skating pioneer, will always be 'godfather of this sport'

American figure skating pioneer Dick Button, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, who went on to have an Emmy Award-winning broadcast career as a TV analyst, died Thursday. He was 95.

Button is widely considered one of the greatest figure skaters of all time. He was the first American skater to win an Olympic gold medal in 1948 and repeated as Olympic champion in 1952, after he successfully landed the first double axel and triple jump in competition. He remains the only U.S. figure skater to win two individual Olympic golds. Button also won five consecutive world championships (1948-1952), seven consecutive U.S. Championships (1946-1952) and was the only American to win the European championship (1948).

“No other figure skater embodies the sport as much as Dick Button," Tara Lipinski, the 1998 Olympic women's figure skating champion, said in 2015. “He is, and always will be, the godfather of this sport.” 

Button, born July 18, 1929 in Englewood, New Jersey, to George and Evelyn Button, graduated from Dwight-Englewood School, formerly known as the Englewood School for Boys, in 1947. He started skating at age six, according to his 2013 book, "Push Dick's Button," and began training competitively at age 12 after his dad overheard a school teacher say he would not succeed.

"I was then five feet tall, weighed 160 pounds, and looked like a butterball," Button wrote in his book. "Taking one look, the teacher said I would never learn to skate until a 'snowball learned to live in Hades.'"

His teacher was wrong. At age 18, Button became the youngest American man to win a gold medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He did so by successfully landing a double axel in competition, the first skater to do so. He completed the feat days after he landed the double axel for the first time in practice.

"Like a young man remembering his first love, I remember every detail of St. Moritz that day," Button recalled in 1998. "Its brilliant sun, the crowds, the long walk to the stadium, the white coats and caps we wore, the sublime ice here at the Kulm (Country Club) for skating figures, the darkening shadows of a setting sun, the enthusiasm of what seemed to me like huge crowds."

In 1949, Button became the first figure skater to win the James E. Sullivan Award, presented to the best amateur athlete in the United States. That same year, he enrolled at Harvard, where he won the U.S. and world championships each year he was a student.

Button's innovation landed him another Olympic gold medal at the Oslo (Norway) Games in 1952, his senior year at Harvard, when he became the first figure skater to land a triple jump (the triple loop) in competition. He also invented the flying camel spin, known as the "Button Camel."

"Dick Button is the greatest skater of all-time. I've said it a thousand times and I meant it a thousand times," Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, said in 2022. "Everything we see today started with him."

Button later graduated cum laude in government that year, according to the Harvard Crimson. "Nowadays, no one can be a skater and go to college. I feel it is a great loss. For me, it was the perfect combination," Button said in 1998.

He retired from competition in 1952 and enrolled in Harvard Law School in the fall. Button skated professionally for the"Ice Capades" during his first year of law school and later toured with "Holiday on Ice," among other ice shows. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1956.

Button's second act began shortly after. He started his decades-long broadcasting career in 1960, first doing figure skating commentary for CBS' 1960 Winter Olympic broadcast in Squaw Valley, California, after CBS purchased the rights to the Olympic Games for $50,000. 

“I had no idea what I was doing. I had no idea what an expert commentator or television broadcaster was supposed to do,” Button recalled. “I was paid $2,000 to go to Squaw Valley, and I spent $3,000 on telephone calls back to New York, asking everybody, 'What did you like? What didn’t you like? What did you think could be clearer? What did you think was too much?' And people told me, and that helped formulate where I was going and what I was doing. I had to learn by doing.”

He joined ABC Sports in 1962 and went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality in 1981. He also served as a judge on the reality series "Battle of the Blades" in 2009 and "Skating with the Stars," a short lived spinoff of "Dancing With the Stars," in 2010.

“Using his wit, passion, and unfiltered honesty, Dick drew in ever increasing television audiences whether they were new viewers or dedicated fans," said Lipinski. "(He) raised the profile of the sport to unprecedented heights showing that figure skating encompasses athleticism, grace, and, sometimes, drama.”

Button was inducted to the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976 and the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2015. He has two children, Edward and Emily.