If you were at a figure skating competition in Canada in the 1960's, you really had to watch yourself. The very last thing you probably wanted to catch yourself doing was yelling out "hey, Don!" and causing a buzz of absolute confusion. In total, four men named Donald all won Canadian Figure Skating Championships in a decade. What are the odds of that even happening? What's in a name though, right? Apparently in this case, a lot. Let's take a look at the four incredible champions of Canadian figure skating that shared the same name, all won national titles in the swinging sixties and all left the sport better than they found it:
DONALD JACKSON
DONALD KNIGHT
After winning the Canadian junior men's title in 1961, Donald Knight of Dundas, Ontario went on to win a bronze and two silver medals on the senior level before winning three consecutive Canadian senior men's titles from 1965 to 1967. He represented Canada at the 1964 Winter Olympics where he finished in the top ten, won the bronze medal at the 1965 World Championships and the 1967 North American Championships in Montreal as well - not at ALL bad for a skater who faced an enormous amount of competition from the other Don's (and 1964 Canadian Champion Charles Snelling) at home in Canada. A student of Ellen Burka and Sheldon Galbraith, Knight turned professional following the 1966/1967 season and toured for eleven years with Ice Capades and Holiday On Ice in Europe. He coached in both Burlington and Oakville, Ontario for many years. Knight was well known throughout his career for being an exceptional skater when it came to school figures as evidenced by this anecdote from legendary coach Sheldon Galbraith: "In 1967 at the North American Championships in Montreal, I was working with Donald and he had just performed the forward change bracket school figure for the judges. He had drifted off axis after the backward change of edge and missed his alignment, but had received good marks. It was the same figure Donald Jackson had skated poorly in 1962 at Prague, just five years earlier. I told Don that the American coaches had noticed this and had gone rallying to their judges. I told Donald 'you had better skate a cracker jack of a double three change double three because those coaches are after your hide'! Donald did just that! He was one of the few men in Canada that I had seen who could skate the 24 turns absolutely clean! Donald was a rarity."
DONALD MCPHERSON
Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission.
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Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library, from Toronto Star Photographic Archive. Reproduced for educational purposes under license permission. |
DONALD PHILLIPS
What's in a name? If it's Don and you're talking Canadian figure skating, the answer to that query appears to be greatness.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html..
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html..