1963 Canadian Championships at The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins
Held in Edmonton, Alberta, at the Royal Glenora Club, a private sports and social club, the 1963 Canadian Figure Skating Championships were marked by a high quality, multi-color pin in enamel. The crown motif atop the pin hints of royalty, and over the club’s 60-year history, it certainly can boast about figure skating royalty having trained at its skating center. Many top contenders—Kurt Browning, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, and Kristi Yamaguchi, to name a few—have called the Royal Glenora Club their home training ice over the years.
The 1963 Canadians is one of the earliest known national championships of Canada to have been commemorated with an event pin.1 The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins acquired the pin shown in the gallery below in 1999 as part of the Bill Neale collection. Bill was a Canadian competitor in the 1960s and competed in the 1963 Canadians where he placed third and earned a trip to the 1963 World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The 1963 Canadians pin is of excellent design and quality, another marker of a time gone by when event pins were things of beauty and were made to mirror the importance of an event.
The 1963 Canadians pin is of excellent design and quality, another marker of a time gone by when event pins were things of beauty and were made to mirror the importance of an event. The shield-style design of the pin is not typically seen, and it is both creative and visually appealing. At the base of the crown is “C.S.F.A.,” the abbreviation for Canadian Figure Skating Association (today more simply named Skate Canada). The main body of the pin, divided horizontally in blue and red, features a semi-circular banner in white with the event name: “Canadian Championships.” Just below the banner and in the center is an illustration of a 1960s-style boot and blade, also in white and slightly angled to lend interest. Anchoring the bottom are the club name, location, and year: “Royal Glenora, Edmonton, 1963.” The city name is enclosed in a contrasting white banner that extends left and right beyond the shape of the shield. The year is tucked into the point of the shield with letters contoured to the shape. On a gold-color base metal, the pin measures approximately 13/16” x 1-1/4” (2.1 cm x 3.2 cm).
This blog about the pin from the 1963 Canadian Figure Skating Championships is the first on this annual event to be featured at The Netropolitan. Additional blogs about pins from Canadian Championships will appear in the future.
Enjoy The Crown. 1963.
1According to several Canadian collectors, this pin is generally believed to be the first (or among the first) issued for a Canadian Championships. If anyone has information to either corroborate or refute this statement, please email The Netropolitan.
1963 Canadian Figure Skating Championships Pin Gallery
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