1985 U.S. Championships at The Netropolitan Museum of Figure Skating Pins
Starting on January 30 and over the next four days, the city of Kansas City, Missouri, extended its hospitality and welcomed the 1985 U.S. Figure Skating Championships to town. By all accounts, everyone in the greater metropolitan Kansas City area embraced the Championships, pushing attendance to record levels for the annual event, held at Kemper Arena, just a long stone’s throw from the Kansas River behind it.
Like other figure skating pins that commemorated U.S. events in the 1970s and 1980s, a decidedly patriotic motif was used for the main logo pin from the 1985 U.S. Championship pin. A flag in red and white defines the diminutive pin, measuring approximately 1/2″ x 7/8″ (1.3 cm x 2.2 cm). But the focal point of the pin combines iconic local footwear—a cowboy boot—with a figure skating boot and blade to create an exceptionally tall boot. It is quite unusual, to be sure.
The white skating boot and blade design creates a strong and memorable logo, standing off nicely from the gold-color base metal of the pin. At the bottom of the pin, on a blue background, are the year, event name, and location: “85 Nationals, Kansas City.” A small heart, a symbol long associated with the city because of its location in the middle—or “heart”—of America, is used between “Kansas” and “City.” And as seen on other U.S. Championships pins (and as noted in other blogs at The Netropolitan), the colloquial term “Nationals” is used in place of the formal event name.
The focal point of the pin combines iconic local footwear—a cowboy boot—with a figure skating boot and blade to create an exceptionally tall boot. It is quite unusual, to be sure.
Also commemorating the 1985 U.S. Championships is a mascot pin featuring Kaycee, a somewhat oddly proportioned penguin wearing strap-on skates. Although the organizing committee did an excellent job overall on the Championships, the name Kaycee—really just the phonetic forms of the letters “K” and “C”—may have been a bit too on the nose. The mascot pin measures approximately 3/4” in diameter (1.9 cm) and, like the logo pin, is on a gold-colored base metal.
Although not exhibiting the same patriotic flair, the mascot pin is more colorful, produced in two different tones of blue, black, white, yellow, and red. In all, six enamel colors—perhaps the most ever used on an enameled pin issued for a U.S. Championships. Around the circumference are the event name, location, and year: “Nationals in Kansas City 85.” The heart shape is again used between the words “Kansas” and “City.”
Enjoy In the Middle. 1985.
1985 U.S. Figure Skating Championships Pin Gallery
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