U.S. Olympic Figure Skating Legend Dead At 95

The United States figure skating world suffered a major loss on Thursday with the death of Dick Button.

Button, who won gold medals at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics and later became a popular skating commentator, died earlier today at the age of 95, his son confirmed to the New York Times. A World Champion for five straight years from 1948-52, Button became the only non-European man to become a European champion.

“I lusted for skating,” Button once said. “The only Christmas present I ever remember getting was a pair of ice skates. They’d broken through the box. The teeth were sticking out on the end, and I was so excited about it I ran around the house showing them to everybody without even taking them out of the box. I couldn’t wait to get on the ice.”

While he first became famous for his work on the ice, Button became an institution for his work as a figure skating broadcaster. He covered the sport for 50 years on the air, working for CBS, ABC and ESPN during that time span.

“He was like a professor,” his longtime broadcasting partner, Olympic gold medalist Peggy Fleming, told USA TODAY. “He taught audiences how to watch skating. He also sometimes was like a professor sitting next to me as a commentator. If I said something that he thought was grammatically incorrect, he would literally write a note as we were on the air to tell me about it.”