The Kirby family in 1976 — Nora, David and Michael


GROWING UP ISI(A)


The writer (David Kirby) and his father, Michael Kirby, a founding father of ISI and the originator of the ISI learn- to-skate program, the first learn-to-skate curriculum in the United States.


by David Kirby I


N 1959, IT was almost impossible to obtain ice skating information from any central source.


Roller skating rinks were very popular


back then and ice skating rinks were a novelty.


Te first ISI(A) Conference in July


1960 was held at the Conrad Hilton in Chicago. Te main agenda included: ice skating rink insurance (separate from roller rinks), methods for building better rinks dedicated to the recreational skater (ice skating was a bit elitist at the time) and most importantly, how to encourage a repeat customer base at rinks.


Te Ice Skating Institute of America


(ISIA), as it was first named, was conceived in Chicago 60 years ago during an annual convention of the National Recreational Association. My father, Michael Kirby,


along with other skating visionaries of the time developed the basic concept and principles of the ISIA. Tis was the birth of what is now known as the Ice Sports Industry (ISI).


Te early visionaries in 1959 who


created the ISI(A) included: Frank Zamboni (today the most recognizable name in our industry), Art Goodfellow (New York publisher of the 1950s World Ice Skating Guide — first of its kind), Russell Perry (Chicago rink owner) and Louise Hoggan (Salt Lake City rink owner).


Tese early pioneers wanted the ISI(A)


to define the skaters it served in a way that precluded the influence or effect of the traditional classifications of ‘amateur’ or ‘professional.’ Today, those restrictive classifications are basically gone and illustrate the global influence ISI(A) has had on our sport.


MICHAEL KIRBY SKATING SCHOOL


In 1959, my skating career also began as a ‘tiny tot’ at my father’s Chicago ice skating rink, the Michael Kirby Skating School.


One of my father’s goals for the ISI


was to establish a standard curriculum for teaching beginners (of all ages) in a group or class setting (a novel idea in the 1960s). Expensive private lessons at exclusive clubs were the typical progression back then. Tis idea created a perception that Michael Kirby was at odds with the established United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA) — nothing could be further from that perception and I’m living proof.


From 1960 to 1969, I was allowed My father was a true ice-skating pioneer. In a 2018 interview, Scott


Hamilton said, “Michael Kirby basically invented learn to skate.” To me, this is a compliment to both my dad and the ISI because without the ISI my father’s teaching methods may have never taken hold.


22 SUMMER 2 019


only group lessons under my father’s new curriculum (later known as Pre-Alpha through FS 10). Ten one day in 1969, I said to my dad, “I want to go to the Olympics.” He was very supportive and explained to me that the fundamentals I learned with the ISI prepared me for, as he said, “graduating to USFSA.” My father recognized a need for both organizations and felt the ISI would actually create a larger market for the USFSA. He was right.


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