Button, "Dick" (Richard T.)
Figure skating
b. July 18, 1929, Englewood, NJ
When Button was eleven, he wanted a pair of skates for Christmas, and got them. But he was disappointed. His father had bought him hockey skates instead of figure skates. The skates were exchanged. Button at the time was a chubby 160 pounds at only 5-foot-2 and his first teacher said he would never be a good skater.
So his parents took him to another teacher and within five years Button won the first of his seven straight national championships, 1946 through 1952. He also won five straight world championships, 1948 through 1952, and two Olympic gold medals, in 1948 and in 1952. He won the 1949 Sullivan Award as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete, the first time it had ever gone to a figure skater.
Never willing to rest on his laurels, Button consistently developed new moves during his championship years. At the 1948 Olympics, when he was a Harvard freshman, he did a double axel for the first time just two days before his free skating performance, and he did it flawlessly in competition to win first place from eight of the nine judges.
Button held such a commanding lead at the 1952 Olympics that he could have ensured himself of another gold medal by skating a safe, simple free program. Instead, he chose to attempt a triple jump, which had never before been performed in competition. He executed it perfectly and was the unanimous choice of the judges.
After retiring from amateur competition, Button toured with the Ice Capades while studying law at Harvard. He later formed his own television production company and worked as an expert commentator for televised skating competitions. In 1981, he won an Emmy Award as the Outstanding Sports Personality-Analyst for his commentary during ABC's coverage of the 1980 Winter Olympics.