Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The 1961 US Figure Skating Team

Episode Date: September 21, 2021

In 1961, the United States figure skating team was one of the top programs in the world. The year before at the 1960 Olympics, they took the gold in both the men’s and women’s competitions. Then on February 15, 1961, the team suffered a terrible catastrophe. One which took the better part of a decade for the US program to recover from. Learn more about Sabena Flight 548 and the fate of the 1961 US figure skating team, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1961, the United States figure skating team was one of the top programs in the world. The year before the 1960 Olympics, they took the gold in both the men's and women's competitions. Then, on February 15, 1961, the team suffered a terrible catastrophe, one which took the better part of a decade for the U.S. program to recover from. Learn more about Sabina Flight 548 and the fate of the 1961 U.S. figure skating team on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. into bed, ready to sleep, only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension, nothing you need to follow

closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest. It's about rest. and millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. I wanted to give everyone an update on the upcoming Everything Everywhere tour. I've made quite a bit of progress.

I've been talking to some suppliers. I have some preliminary pricing, and we're coming closer to nailing down an itinerary. Just a reminder, the tour is scheduled for next year in Rome. The plan is to have a 10-day tour where we can explore the city at a level that few visitors ever get to see. We'll be doing excursions every day with top experts in history and art who will be able to get us access to places where few people ever get to go. We'll also be doing online meetings before the trip starts to give you some background on Rome and the things we'll be seeing while we're there. I'm going to try to keep the group small, and if there's a lot of people who are interested, then I'll give you. just make a second tour rather than pile everyone into one group.

If you want more information for when it's available, just leave your email address at everything-everywhere.com slash tour. Once again, that's everything-everywhere.com slash tour. Or just keep listening to the podcast, and when it's ready, I'll let you know. As I mentioned in the introduction, the U.S. figure skating team was doing quite well in the early 1960s. At the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, David Jenkins took home the gold medal in the men's competition. Carol Heist took the gold and Barbara Rolls took the bronze in the women's competition,

and the husband and wife team of Nancy and Roddle Luttington took the bronze medal in pairs figure skating. Given the strict amateur eligibility rules back then, most athletes in Olympic sports didn't stick around after achieving some success. They couldn't make any real money competing, and they usually had to go get a real job. The team going into the 1961 World Championships was on a par with the 1960 Olympic team. The U.S. championships took place from January 25th to January 29, 1961 in Colorado Springs. Bradley Lorde won the men's competition. Lawrence Owen won the women's competition. And Maribel Owen, her sister and Dudley Richards won the Paris competition.

Diane Sherbloom and Larry Pierce won the ice dancing competition. The top three competitors in each division qualified for, for the World Championships, which were to be held a month later in Prague, starting on February 22nd. The U.S. team traveled to Prague as a group. There were 34 members of the United States contingent, 18 competitors, six coaches, the team manager, two judges, a referee, and six family members. The team flew on Sabina Flight 548. Sabina was the Belgian National Airline, and it operated until 2001. The airplane was a Boeing 707-329. The 707 had been put into service only 28 months before the trip, and up to that point

it had a perfect safety record. The flight had 61 passengers and 11 crew on board, with the U.S. team making up over half the people. The flight left New York's Idlewild Airport in the evening before, and Idlewild was the name of the airport before it was called JFK. The entire flight over the Atlantic went without incident, and neither of the pilots, both military veterans, reported any problems. As the plane approached Brussels at approximately 10 a.m. local time, it had to abort its landing because a small plane was still in the runway. Then it tried to land on an unused runway and had to abort that as well. The plane circled the airport three times. Observers on the ground noticed that the plane appeared to be struggling to keep control. Eventually, the plane banked up before stalling out and then plunged to the ground nose first. It crashed about two miles or three kilometers away from the airport in a giant explosion.

Everyone on board was killed instantly. In a single, terrible moment, the entire U.S. figure skating program was gone. All its top skaters and its best coaches were lost. The skaters were all young, with most of them in their late teens or early 20s. Just that week, 16-year-old women's champion Lawrence Owen was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The crash was so violent that one piece of shrapnel killed a man working in a nearby farm field. A cause for the crash was never officially determined, but some think that it might have been a problem with the tail stabilizer. At first, the International Skating Union declared the competition in Prague would continue.

However, after consulting with various national organizations, the decision was made to cancel the 1961 World Championships. The only person who placed in the top three at the United States Championship who wasn't on the plane was men's bronze medalist Tim Brown. He couldn't attend due to illness. While still grieving, days after the accident, the U.S. figure skating committee established the 1961 U.S. figure skating memorial fund. The mission of the fund was to rebuild the U.S. figure skating program and provide funding for promising young skaters. At the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, the United States did respectable considering the situation. They took bronze medals in men's figure skating and in pairs. The men had won every Olympic gold medal since 1948, but the United States did win every Olympic gold medal since 1948,

but they wouldn't win another until Scott Hamilton in 1984. The return of the program was considered complete when Peggy Fleming won the gold in the women's competition in 1968. The figure skating memorial fund still exists today, and in the 60 years since it was established, it has distributed over $15 million to eventual gold medalists such as Peggy Fleming, Christy Amaguchi, Scott Hamilton, and Parr skaters, Merrill Davis, and Charlie White. While the 1961 U.S. figure skating team crash is one of the worst acts to involve a sports team, it wasn't the only one. In 1970, the Marshall University football team was on a plane that crashed,

killing 37 players as well as the coaching staff and boosters. In 2016, the Brazilian soccer team, Chappecuosi, lost 42 members of their team in a crash near Medellin, Colombia. The cause of the crash was attributed to a lack of fuel. In 2011, 37 members of the Russian hockey team, Locomotif Yaroslavl, were killed in a crash. after their flight took off. And in 1976, all 24 members of the Cuban National Fencing Team were killed in a terrorist bombing on a flight in Barbados. While it's something which is seldom

talked about, all major sports leagues in the United States have a contingency plan in place if such an event were to occur. Most of the league plans are similar. Basically, the commissioner in consultation with owners and players associations would determine if the team could continue the season. If they could not, then a special draft would be instituted to get new players for the team to compete in the next year. In Major League Baseball, it's called Rule 29. Thankfully, it has never been invoked. If it ever should happen, it would require every team to provide a list of five players who are currently on their active roster who would be eligible for a special draft. The rules state that each team, quote, shall include one

pitcher, one catcher, one outfielder, one infielder, and a fifth player of any position, end quote. That rule has been in the books since 1965. In 2001, a monument was erected to the victims of the crash in Belgium, and in 2009, a documentary was released by the U.S. Figure Skating Association, which told the story of the team. Finally, in 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the crash, the entire team was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame. The associate producers of Everything Everywhere Daily are Peter Bennett and Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please join the list of patrons over at patreon.com. And also remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you two can have it read on the show.