Boston Skating Club Trained Olympic Champions. It Has Also Shared In The Sport's Pain

The history of the Skating Club of Boston is the history of American figure skating - in good times and in bad.

For more than a century, the club has launched the careers of Olympic medalists and world and national champions while also serving as a training ground for young skaters just learning the sport.

And when sorrow hits the skating world - as it did, doubly, this week - the Boston club feels the pain, as well.

Two teenage skaters, their mothers, and two coaches from the Skating Club of Boston were killed Wednesday night when the plane bringing them back from a national development camp in Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army helicopter and fell into the frigid Potomac River. Even as skaters and their families mourned, news came that alumnus Dick Button - a two-time Olympic gold medalist for whom the club's trophy room is named - had died at the age of 95 .

"This is a club of excellence. It has been for over 100 years," said Paul George, a former USOC vice president who trained at the club on his way to the 1962 U.S. pairs championship. "We have produced countless talented skaters. - I think we will continue to do it."