Barb Caffrey's Blog

As a long-time figure skating fan, I remember hearing the voice of Dick Button during many important competitions over the years. He loved figure skating, partly because he’d been so good at it himself.

Button won gold medals in 1948 and 1952, when skating rinks were still outside. He was the first to do a double Axel jump, and the first to do a triple jump of any sort whatsoever.

For me, though, I remember Button as a commentator. (USA Today columnist Christine Brennan said Button preferred the term “narrator.”) Button could explain figure skating so well, people who never skated like me were able to understand it. He knew it was both a sport and an art form, and he described it on both levels.

Button lived a good, long life full of love, happiness, and the sport he chose as his own, figure skating. That he died so soon after the terrible helicopter/plane crash in Washington DC (where at least four figure skaters were lost, two of their parents, and at least three coaches) seems both oddly appropriate and heartbreakingly sad.

The memories I have of Button’s narration that are the most precious to me are these:

US figure skater Christopher Bowman, in 1992, wasn’t thought to have a prayer of being in the top five at the Olympic Games. Bowman was known for showmanship and for skating a completely different program nearly every time he was out on the ice. Bowman’s program started off with a jump combo that Button was expecting, but nearly everything else was different. I could hear both the frustration and the pride that Button had regarding Bowman, as Bowman was thought by some to have wasted his potential. 1992 Bowman was possibly his finest hour as a figure skater, and Button knew it.

US figure skater Tonya Harding, long before the attack by her soon-to-be-ex husband on rival Nancy Kerrigan, skated brilliantly to finish third at the 1992 US Figure Skating Championships. Button wasn’t sure Harding would land on the podium, but he was happy she did. He considered her a complete skater, not just an athlete, which was high praise from him.

Finally, Button was a big fan of one of my favorite figure skaters ever, Johnny Weir. He once called Weir’s skating “liquid gold” as it was so smooth and attractive.

I’m glad Dick Button had such a long and memorable life. I’m also glad he was there for so long as a broadcaster, educating many (including me) about the joy and pain to be had in figure skating.

To say Button will be missed is an understatement.