ICE CASTLE NEWS
For Immediate Release July 4, 2000 Contact: Cindy Lang (909)
318-6117, (310) 745-8558, CastlePR@aol.com
OLYMPIC BRONZE MEDALIST JAMES
GROGAN DIES
Lake Arrowhead, CA
Jimmy Grogan, 1952 Olympic bronze figure
skating medalist and four-time world silver medalist, died Sunday
at the age of 68.
Grogan began skating at the age of eight in his
hometown of Tacoma, Washington. He was coached by Edi
Scholdan at the Broadmoor Arena in Colorado Springs, Colorado and
won numerous figure skating titles including: a US National
Junior pairs gold medal and a bronze and four silver US National
singleā€™s medals. Grogan won the world
silver medal four years consecutively, the first coming in Milan,
Italy in 1951. He placed sixth at the 1948 Olympic Winter
Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland then won the Olympic bronze
medal in 1952 at Oslo, Norway.
Grogan began his professional skating career
with Arthur Wirtz's "Hollywood Ice Review" in 1954,
then went on to star in Ice Capades starting in 1956. He
served in the US Army where skating was a part of his duty.
He was pulled out of his basic training when chosen by Sonja
Henie to star in her European troop show.
He was Director of the James Grogan Skating
School at Squaw Valley in the mid-sixties and went on to coach in
the US and Japan. During the span of his teaching career he
worked with students such as Midori Ito, Charlie Tickner, Julie
McKinstry, Ricky Inglesi, Atsushi Oshima and Nobuo Sato, father
of World Champion Yuka Sato. He was inducted into the US
Figure Skating Association Hall of Fame in 1991.
Grogan had coached at Ice Castle since 1985. He
regularly brought large groups of Japanese skaters to Lake
Arrowhead, and was instrumental in helping to establish Ice
Castle as an international training mecca. In 1997, Grogan
founded the Lake Arrowhead Skating Foundation, which gave
financial support to skaters in training at Ice Castle.
He is survived by his wife Yasuko, son J.D. and
daughter Roko. In lieu of flowers the family has asked that
donations be made to the STARS Foundation, PO Box 4612, Blue Jay,
CA 92317
Memorial Services are to be held Wednesday, July 5 at 2:30 at the
Church of the Woods, 1410 Calgary, Lake Arrowhead, California
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Read July 4, 2000 article from ESPN Magazine regarding Jimmy
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