(January 31, 2024) Jason Brown was honored as the first public recipient of what will now be called the Button-Salchow trophy.  Previous private recipients of the trophy are Dick Button, John Misha Petkevich and Paul Wylie.

The first World Championships held after the end of World War II took place in 1947 in Stockholm, Sweden.  Five men competed, among them Dick Button.  It was a closely contested event, held on an outdoor artificial surface at the Olympic Stadium.  Button, however, almost did not get to compete.

As described by Skateguard Blogspot, "on the way to the event, the train Button and his coach Gustave Lussi were travelling on broke down. They jumped out into the snowbanks and hitchhiked their way to the arena. They arrived late and were initially told that Button was disqualified, but the mess was cleared up and he was allowed to compete."

The event started with the skating of twelve compulsory figures.

As described by Lyman E. Wakefield, Jr.  in Skating Magazine, 'It took most of one day beginning at ten in the morning with time out for lunch for the men to skate their figures. Judging was all on the open basis marking from 0 to 6. Judges were quick to make their decisions and all recordings were made in an enclosed movable little house which was nearby. The referee would blow his whistle for the numbers to be raised, and a bell on the recorder's house signaled completion of these recordings. The mechanics of handling these recordings were excellent. All figures were multiplied immediately by proper factors in a computing machine in the recorder's house and listed."  At the end of the figures, Hans Gerschwiler of Switzerland led by 35 points.

In the free skating, Button made up the point difference and more, winning the free skate, and scored more points overall than Gerschwiler.  But when the total points were ordinalized, Button came in second on a 3-2 split of the judges, although ahead by nearly three points.

Niagara Hall "25 Guinea Trophy" won by Ulrich Salchow in 1900

Cup detail

Left to Right: Paul George, John Misha Petkevich, Dick Button, Paul Wylie

In his book "Dick Button On Skates", Button wrote, "The fateful bell sounded again and it was announced that Hans had won. I was second. He had scored seven and I had eight in this placings. But there was more to it. The score was even closer. I had made up the deficit in points! I went beyond the Swiss by 352.86 to 350. But that didn't matter; it meant an E for effort, but Hans still won. He had a majority of first places in the votes of the judges - three to two - and that's what counted. Gerschwiler was ranked first by the Swiss, Czech and English judges, with me second. I won the Danish and United States votes, with Hans second on those cards."

Among those who thought Button should have won the title was Ulrich Salchow, at the time the grand old man of international figure skating, ten-times world champion, and former president of the ISU.  Salchow told him as such and invited Button to his home were he offered Button his choice of any of Salchow's trophies.  Button when telling this story would say that he chose to be modest in his choice and took one of the more modest trophies, a winning cup from an international competition in London from 1900.

Button held onto the trophy for 25 years, and in 1972 he privately gave the trophy to John Misha Petkevich, who Button felt had significantly impacted the development of skating, though never obtaining a World or Olympic title, telling him ”You should not retire from amateur skating without an international level trophy.

In 2010 the trophy was again privately passed on, with Petkevich giving the trophy to Paul Wylie, the 1992 Olympic silver medalist, who also is widely recognized to have significantly impacted the development skating, despite never becoming a US National, World or Olympic Champion (and who many think to this day was unfairly deprived of the Olympic Gold).

In 2019 Petkevich, Wylie and Paul George, the U.S. Figure Skating Foundation president,  decided to create a public facing Button-Salchow Trophy done with Button's blessing. Petkevich said, “I insisted that Dick’s name be added to it, because Dick’s the one who started the sequence of events that would lead to this unique trophy becoming the equivalent of the Heisman Trophy in football.” A selection committee has now been established within the United States Figure Skating Foundation to select future recipients of the trophy.  With the trophy to be awarded in each year of the Olympic Winter Games.

The first public recipient of the Button-Salchow trophy is Jason Brown, who was honored during the Exhibition Gala at the 2024 U.S. National Championships.  Brown, the 2015 U.S. National Champion, while consistently among the elite international competitors during his eleven seasons as a senior never has won a World or Olympic Singles title, but is recognized as having made an indelible mark on the artistic development of skating, and is widely revered for his dedication, integrity and enthusiasm as a competitor.

Trophy photos and group photo courtesy of U.S. Figure Skating.

Presentation photos copyright 2024 by George S Rossano.

The writer of the Skating Magazine article was the U.S. Judge at the competition, something that would never be allowed today!

Scoring then consisted of the figures getting a mark from 0 to 6, multiplied by a difficulty factor, and then the points added up.  The free skate was also marked from 0 to 6. Ordinals were determined from the total points from each judge.  The order of finish was determined by the sum of the ordinals, the lowest sum being first.  Majority principle and total factored place were not used at that time.