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Stars align for Glenora reunion
| Source: |
Edmonton Sun |
| Date: |
May 20, 2011 |
| Author: |
Terry Jones |
EDMONTON - In a way it's sort of sad because it reminds them all of
what once was and is no more.
Once Edmonton's Royal Glenora Club was the epicentre of figure skating
in Canada and, to some extent, even the world. Some incredibly bad
management mistakes made it all disappear.
On the other hand, it's a wonderful reminder of an era in Edmonton
when City of Champions included some of the greatest skaters in the
world whose Canadian, World and Olympic championship banners used to
(and should still, but don't) hang from the Royal Glenora rink walls
like the Oilers banners at Rexall and the Grey Cup banners at
Commonwealth. And you wonder if it might be an inspiration to begin a
new era.
It's amazing to have four-time world champion Kurt Browning, Olympic
and world champions Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, and Canadian
champion and Olympians Michael Slipchuk, Susan Humphreys and Cody Hay,
and Annabelle Langlois together on the same ice in the building where
they skated almost every day, winter and summer, for years as they
became champions.
"That so many of us came back is a testimonial to how important the
Royal Glenora Club was to us," said Browning.
From that point of view it's too bad Kristi Yamaguchi, the two-time
world champion and Olympic gold medal winner for the U.S.A., who
trained for those titles out of here, weren't part of the show,
too. She had a conflicting event on her schedule but sent a video
message.
There are others with names you don't recognize who were part of the
scene, too.
"I keep looking around and saying ‘You came, too," said Sale.
"We're doing this for Jan Ullmark," she said of her former coach. "And
we're happy and excited to be doing it. We may never do this
again."
Ullmark was the man most responsible for getting the skaters together
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Glenora and put together the
five shows there this weekend — featuring parts from the annual club
shows over the years.
"I'm doing a bit from the Les Miz show we did in 1989," said
Browning. "I found the outfit at the back of my closet."
They're doing the show in the same 600-seat environment on the club
ice where their lockers used to be located.
"My locker isn't there anymore," said Browning. "I'm disappointed by
that."
"It's so much fun to be back, there are so many of us who went our
separate ways," said Slipchuk, the man who is now high -performance
director of Skate Canada.
"We spent our youth there," he said. "It was the best years of all our
skating careers. For all of us, the club was our home. We all became
better because we fed off each other, we respected each other and we
were friends of each other. And boy, the stuff we did around that
club.
"We gave George Pinches, the G.M. at the time, gray hair. We used to
play shinny in there. Not a good idea with all the glass and
mirrors. The memories are endless."
Slipchuk said they did everything but break into the bar.
"Never did that. But we did find it unattended at times."
Browning said they had a sense of adventure.
"We all knew how to get into the place after hours, whether it was to
sneak through the vent in the roof and into the kitchen to make
ourselves a sandwich, jump into the pool or whatever crazy things we
decided to get up to that night. We went through hard times, we worked
hard and we played hard."
Sale was a 10-year-old little girl when she made the scene.
"Those guys were so bad," she said of Browning, Slipchuk, and that
crowd.
"They kinda got away with stuff. They were real trouble makers. But as
hard as they played, they all worked hard."
Browning said the biggest attraction for him is the reunion on
Saturday night.
"Having us all in one room together when somebody tells a story that
makes somebody else remember a story."
Browning they all look back at it like a lot of people remember
college.
"We did the kind of things there that you do in college. We had a lot
of fun. And we really worked hard to learn what we had to learn," he
said.
"This weekend reminds me of how it was for me when I came to the
club. I'd stay late just to watch Kurt walk in. I see little girls
here doing it right now. That was me as a little girl. Sitting in a
corner giggling and saying ‘There he is!' "
Follow me on Twitter.com/sunterryjones
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