Early North American Champions

Championship skating in North America traces is origins to the mid-1800s.  We take a look here at the individuals and organizations that were the founding fathers of organized competitive ice skating in North America before there was a USFSA, Skate Canada or ISU.

1863-1885

Prior to 1886 there were no national or regional association that formally regulated skating competition in North America.  Competitions in this period were held under the rules selected by the club organizing the competition.  In the absence of regional or national associations, many individual clubs in the mid-1800s (and even into the early 1900s) maintained their own rules for skating standards, tests and competitions.

The Skating Club (of NY), established in 1863, was a leader in this period in developing a standard list of figures and movements to be skated in competition.  In 1867 the club prepared a recommended standard that was accepted with minor modifications by the American Skating Congress held in Pittsburgh, PA in 1868.  This congress was a one-time convention of representatives from clubs in existence at the time, with a championship competition held in conjunction with it.  Competitions thereafter used the standard adopted at the congress or variations of it for the next 20 years.  Competitions during this time consisted of required figures and movements only, without a free skating program being skated.  The required figures, however, were not the figures used in ISU and USFSA competitions in the 20th century as those figure requirements were not adopted until after the formation of the ISU in 1892.

Records from this era are incomplete and contradictory.  In some cases one can find references to more than one champion in a single year.  These competitions were probably open to skaters from both the United States and Canada, though whether any Canadians actually competed in any of them is not documented.  These competitions were skated in the American Style of skating which was used throughout North America up until the early 1900s.

The following table is derived from material in the various editions of Irving Brokaw's "The Art of Skating" (a) and from "Willy Boeckl on Figure Skating" (b).

1886-1913

The formation of regional and national associations for the regulation of skating competitions began in the mid-1880s.  The regional associations were akin to the regional interclub associations that exist today in many parts of the U.S. and operate within the USFSA.

The first skating association in North America to consider itself national in scope was the National Amateur Skating Association (sometimes referred to as the National Skating Association) which was formed in 1886.  The competitions listed below were open to skaters from the United States and Canada, and as such should be considered North American Championships.  Louis Rubenstein of Montreal, a prominent individual in the development of skating in Canada and the United States, was a three-time winner of championships in this period.  He was a founding father of the National Amateur Skating Association (NASA), and of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada (ASA of C) in 1888 (some sources list formation in 1887).  He served as president of the ASA of C and, after 1914, the Figure Skating Department of the ASA of C.  During this era, and up through the years just after WW I there was close contact and cooperation between clubs in the U.S. and Canada, particularly among clubs in Boston and Montreal.

Records from this era are contradictory and incomplete.  Many of these competitions were held in New York City or the surrounding area.  Prior to 1886 competitions were held on frozen ponds in the open air and subject to availability of ice.   The opening of indoor ice arenas in the late 1800s, such as the St. Nicholas Ice Arena in New York City in December 1895, allowed the holding of indoor figure skating competitions.  Competitions in this period were skated in the American Style and consisted of figures and movements derived from The Skating Club (of NY) standards for competition elements, or the standards adopted at the Pittsburgh congress of 1868 or a later congress held in New York City in 1891.  The St. Nicholas rink occupied one floor of an ice making factory in Manhattan, and used the factory's refrigeration system to keep the rink cold.  During this era a number of  hotels in New York had small roof-top rinks for public skating, but these were not used for competition.

Competitions in this era did not included a free skating program.  George Dawson Phillips, a multi-year champion in this period, was also a champion speed skater and was active in both speed skating and figure skating competition from about 1866 through 1897.  It was not uncommon for skaters in this era to participate in both figure skating and speed skating.  For example, Axel Paulson, the originator of the Axel jump, was an International champion in both figure skating and speed skating.

From 1905 through 1913 separate Canadian Championships also took place (referred to prior to WW II as the Dominion of Canada Championships).  Those championships were likely organized by the Amateur Skating Association of Canada prior to the formation of The Figure Skating Department within the ASA of C.   Following the formation of the International Skating Union of America (ISU of A) in 1907 they technically would have been under the control of that body with the actual organization of the competition delegated to the ASA of C.  The ASA of C was a member of the ISU of A up until the disbanding of the ISU of A in 1927.  The ASA of C was also a member of the ISU (of Europe) as early as 1905 though Canadian figure skaters did not compete at the World Championships until 1928.  U.S.-only Championships were not held in this period.

In describing competition in the American Style at the beginning of the 20th century, Irving Brokaw wrote "I felt we were too concerned with marks on the ice, with rules of carriage that stifled appropriate gesture and pose, with small, kicked figures in small area. ... To go through the American championship programme of 1906 I had to skate a full half-hour or threes alone, and another half-hour on spins.  It made for endurance and stamina, if nothing else.  But it utterly lacked grace, beauty of carriage, rhythm, and the long flowing curves inseparably connected with sweeping strokes on ice.  As an artist, I rebelled against the cramped and restricted style."

The following table is derived from material in the various editions of Irving Brokaw's "The Art of Skating" (a), "Willy Boeckl on Figure Skating" (b), and "Cambridge Skating Club 1898-1948" (c), and from other source material ca 1900.

1914-1921

During this period championship competitions were sanctioned by the International Skating Union of America.  They were North American Championships open to skaters from the United States and Canada, and were skated in the International Style.  The International Style of skating was introduced into the United States by George H. Browne in the early 1900s, and into Canada by Louis Rubenstein in the same period.  By 1914 it had become the style of skating used in championship competition in North America.  North American Championships continued to be held under that name after 1921 in odd numbered years, with the site of the competition alternating between the United States and Canada, beginning with Canada in 1923.  From 1914 through 1927 the North American Championships were sanctioned by the ISU of A.  Afterwards they were jointly conducted by the national governing bodies in the U.S. and Canada.

Browne and family spent the winter of 1902/03 in Davos, Switzerland, and there first learned the International Style, having previously been a skater in the English Style.  Upon return to Cambridge, MA he began to promote the International Style, apparently with only limited success.  On Washington's Birthday, 1908 Browne arranged three exhibitions in Cambridge comparing the old and new styles.  For these exhibitions he enlisted the aid of Karl Zenger, German Champion of 1906, and Irving Brokaw, American Champion of 1906, who demonstrated the International Style.  Demonstrating the American Style was J. Frank Bacon, the American Champion of 1893.  The involvement of these prominent skaters went a long way in bringing U.S. converts to the International Style.  Brokaw was the first American skater to qualify (pass tests?) in the International Style, and later in 1908 competed in the Olympic Games in figure skating.  (Prior to the creation of the Winter Games, figure skating was a part of the Summer Games.)  In 1920 he and Gerturde Cheever Porter were champions in the Fourteen Step, an early set pattern dance.

From 1914 through 1927 the ISU of A also sanctioned separate Canadian Championships.  While technically under the control of the ISU of A, the actual organization of the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in this period was through the Figure Skating Department of the Amateur Skating Association of Canada which was created in 1914.  Since the demise of the ISU of A, the Canadian Figure Skating Championships have been sanctioned and organized directly by The Figure Skating Department of the ASA of C and its successor (mostly renamed) organizations, the Canadian Figure Skating Association of the ASA of C, the Canadian Figure Skating Association, and now Skate Canada.  Skate Canada designates the Canadian Championships of 1914 as the first official figure skating championships of Canada, though championships known as the Dominion of Canada Championships were held as early as 1905.

ISU of A rules allowed for separate United States Championships, but none were ever held.  In 1921 the ISU of A delegated the regulation of domestic figure skating competitions in the United States to a new association established for that purpose named the United States Figure Skating Association of the ISU of A.  In 1922 the United States Figure Skating Championships were held for the first time under the rules of the new association.  The USFSA was a member of the ISU of A and its successor organization, the Amateur Skating Union of America, until the late 1940s when the USFSA became the sole national governing body for figure skating in the United States.   In 1941 the USFSA designated the North American Championships from 1914 through 1921 as United States Championships although some of the medalist were actually Canadian.

Championships in pairs and dance were first held in this era.  During this period, dance consisted of competition in specific set pattern dances, and not as a comprehensive dance event made up of several different dances.  The first ballroom dance to be skated as a set pattern dance, beginning in the late 1800s, was the waltz.  In the early 1900s a livelier dance skated with ten steps to the pattern was introduced, the Ten Step.  Shortly thereafter two steps were added for a Twelve Step, and then two more, for the current form of the Fourteen Step.

During its existence, the ISU of A claimed governance of all sports on ice in North America, meaning figure skating, speed skating and hockey.  As described above, over the course of time the ISU of A delegated the regulation of figure skating to the national governing bodies for figure skating that were ultimately created in the U.S. and Canada.  The ISU of A also gave up control of hockey and after 1927 morphed into the governing body for speed skating in the U.S.  In this way, the U.S. ended up with separate governing bodies for figure skating and speed skating.  In comparison, the ISU (the one still in business today) started out in 1892 as the international governing body for both figure skating and speed skating, and so remains.

The Skating Club of New York referred to in the following table is not the same organization mentioned in the 1863-1885 era.  This club, which is still in existence, was formed in 1911.

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Copyright 2004 by George S. Rossano
(14 March 2004)