Wagon Wheel - Revisiting the Past

Skate for More Glory This Week...
Seeking titles in this week’s United States Figure Skating Championships at Assembly Center in Tulsa, Okla., will be this contingent of Wagon Wheel Figure Skating Club members. The group includes, from left, Roger Glenn, Nancy Glenn, Janet Lynn, Sue Susic, Kathy Malmberg and Chris Kales. They have been working out at Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., under the watchful eye of their instructor Slavka Kohout, front. The meet opens Wednesday. Miss Lynn will defend her United States women’s title and is an overwhelming choice to repeat. (Rockford Morning Star special photo)

Five Join Janet Lynn for National Championships---
Wagon Wheel Has Biggest Day

Wagon Wheel figure skating professional Slavka Kohout thought she’d seen her biggest day six weeks ago.

That was the day seven of her skaters finished high enough in the Upper Great Lakes championships to qualify for the Midwestern championships at Troy, Ohio.

But she was overwhelmed by the successes at Troy last week in the Midwestern Figure Skating Championships.

(continued)

To Dennis Ervin, the Wagon Wheel Ice Palace in Rockford, Ill., was more than an ice skating venue.

“I was on a winter vacation with my family when I was about 12 years old,” Ervin said. “That was the first time I laid eyes on my future wife. She was in a skating competition there.”

Ervin’s story has a somewhat bittersweet ending, however. The sweet part is that he grew up and married the former Sue Susic, but the bitter part is what has happened to the Wagon Wheel.

Skating passion filled by Milwaukee event

Memory of Wagon Wheel Ice
Palace pushes Ervin
By Dan Manoyan

(continued)

Click here for more Wagon Wheel photos and articles.