Although the Buffalo Skating Club was formally organized in 1928, our roots reach back to 1921, when two separate groups of skaters who had been skating on ponds in the city joined together to form what was then called the Figure Skating Club of Buffalo. An informal organization without a home rink or artificial ice, this club presented many exhibitions of what the newspapers at the time called “fancy skating.”
In 1926 the club hosted its first competition, held in Niagara Falls, which drew skaters from Western New York and Ontario. This competition featured one class for both men and women, consisting of School Figures and Free Skating. Since that first competition, the club has gone on to host several regional and sectional championships, and in 1971 the club hosted the US Figure Skating Championships, which were held at the Dann Memorial Rink (now the Nichols School Ice Rink) and the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo.
The club began hosting its own competition, the Niagara Invitational, in 1949. Sanctioned by both US Figure Skating and Skate Canada, this competition is now held biennially and celebrated its thirty-fifth year in 2018. Since 2017 the club has also hosted the annual Lockport Invitational. As of 2018, both competitions are held at the Cornerstone CFCU Arena in Lockport, New York.
The Buffalo Skating Club has been the home club to skaters competing nationally and internationally. Perhaps the most well known are Louise, Estelle, and Mary Weigh, who brought the club to national prominence in the 1930s. Louise was a member of the 1932 and 1936 US Olympic Figure Skating teams, 1932 US Junior Ladies Champion, and runner-up in the US Senior Ladies Championships in 1932 and 1935; Estelle was 1933 US Junior Ladies Champion and a member of the 1936 US Olympic Figure Skating team; and Mary was 1935 US Novice Ladies Champion.
Other notable past and present members include:
- Andree Anderson Jacoby and Donald Jacoby, 1958 and 1959 US Dance Champions
- Stanley Urban, 1963 US Dance Champion (with partner Sally Schantz of the Skating Club of Boston)
- Susie Wynn and Joseph Druar, 1981 Dance silver medalists and members of the 1988 US Olympic and World teams
- Jocelyn Haines, 2017 US Novice Dance Champion (with partner James Koszuta of the Glacier Falls Skating Club)
Ninety years old in 2018, the Buffalo Skating Club is still going strong, providing a fun, family-oriented environment in which skaters of all ages and levels—from the newest beginners to competitive skaters at the Senior level—may develop their skills in the art and sport of figure skating. We can’t wait to see the history our current skaters—and those yet to come—will make over the next ninety years!