41 Facts About Dick Button

Richard Totten Button was an American figure skater and skating analyst.

Dick Button was a two-time Olympic champion and five-time consecutive world champion.

Dick Button was the only non-European man to have become European champion.

Dick Button invented the flying camel spin, which was originally known as the "Button camel".

Dick Button "brought increased athleticism" to figure skating in the years following World War II.

Dick Button was born on July 18,1929, and raised in Englewood, New Jersey.

Dick Button graduated in 1947 from the Englewood School for Boys.

Dick Button began skating at an early age but did not begin training seriously until the age of 12, after his father overheard him being told he would never be a good skater.

Dick Button's father sent him to Lake Placid, New York, to train with coach Gus Lussi, who coached him throughout his competitive career.

Dick Button was skating pairs, and competed with Barbara Jones in junior pairs at the 1946 Eastern States Championships.

Dick Button went on to win six more national championships, tying the record set by Roger Turner, who won seven US Nationals between 1928 and 1934.

Dick Button won the free skating portion, but Gerschwiler had the majority of first places from the judges, three to Button's two.

Dick Button won the silver medal at his first World Championships.

Dick Button later passed on this trophy to John Misha Petkevich following the 1972 Olympics and World Championships.

Dick Button is the only American to have won the European Championships.

Dick Button had been attempting the double Axel jump in practice but had never landed it.

Dick Button decided to put it into his free skating for the next day.

Dick Button landed it in competition, becoming the first skater in the world to do so.

Dick Button received eight firsts and two seconds, for a total of 10 places.

Dick Button went on to win the 1948 World Championships, where he faced Gerschwiler for the last time.

Dick Button is one of only two male figure skaters to win this award.

Dick Button had intended to attend Yale University beginning in the fall of 1947, but deferred a year due to the Olympics.

Dick Button was a full-time student at Harvard while skating competitively and graduated in 1952 and was a member of The Delphic Club, one of the University's select "Final Clubs".

Dick Button went on to win every international competition he entered for the next four years.

Dick Button was the winner of the James E Sullivan Award as the top US amateur athlete of 1949, becoming the first figure skater to win the award.

Dick Button landed it for the first time in practice in December 1951 at the Skating Club of Boston, and for the first time in exhibition in Vienna following the European Championships.

Dick Button was the last man to defend his Olympic title in figure skating until Yuzuru Hanyu won his second Olympic gold in 2018.

Dick Button repeated as Gold medalist, then went on to defend his titles at the 1952 World Figure Skating Championships and US Championships.

Dick Button decided to enter Harvard Law School in the fall of 1952.

Dick Button signed on to skate with the Ice Capades during his law school vacations.

Dick Button co-produced "Dick Button's Ice-Travaganza" for the 1964 New York World's Fair, starring 1963 World Champion Donald McPherson, but the ice show lost money and closed after a few months.

Dick Button appeared in television roles, including Hans Brinker and Mr Broadway, as well as appearing in a 1995 episode of Animaniacs, voicing himself in the three-part segment "All the Words in the English Language".

Figure skating historian James R Hines said that it was in roles other than as a skater in which Button has had the greatest influence on the sport.

Dick Button provided commentary for CBS's broadcast of the 1960 Winter Olympics, launching a decades-long career in television broadcast journalism.

Dick Button did commentary for CBS's broadcast of the 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships.

Dick Button again appeared on NBC to do commentary for 2010 Games.

Dick Button was a guest on the TV show I've Got A Secret as one of five former Olympic champions which aired October 13,1954.

Dick Button was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1976, the same year it was founded.

Dick Button suffered a serious head injury on July 5,1978, when he was one of several men assaulted in Central Park by a gang of youths armed with baseball bats.

Dick Button died in North Salem on January 30,2025, at the age of 95.

Dick Button's death occurred less than a day after several participants in the 2025 US Figure Skating Championships, including skaters and coaches from the Skating Club of Boston with which Button had a life-long association, were killed in a mid-air collision over the Potomac River.