Winter Olympics 2002 Part 2
Published on February 27th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - For a town that has been known for the shoes it has produced, it should not come as a surprise that the Olympic glories felt by three certain Stoneham Olympians had much to do with the blades affixed underneath their feet.
In last week’s edition the all-time highs of Olympians Edwin Hartwell Frazier, Josephine Madden and Francis O’Grady were charted. This week we offer you a glimpse at three more local Olympians, all of whom demonstrated grace and agility on ice and skated their way into the hearts of the folks back home.
•Don Whiston, who grew up in the Stoneham neighborhood abutting Wakefield, was a goalie for the United States hockey team during the Sixth Winter Olympic Games that were held in Oslo, Norway. Before heading to Europe, though, he learned his way around the ice on the ponds of Stoneham at age five and played hockey at schools throughout the local system. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Andover once his stint in the Coast Guard was finished and then went to college at Brown University, an institution at which he would play hockey and one day coach it.
In 1951, with dreams of the up coming Olympics filling his head, Whiston gave it his best and spent every day during a five-month period at the Boston Garden, where he hoped his try-outs would land him a spot on the American hockey team.
"I virtually went to the Boston Garden every day, even though I was married and working at the time," Whiston once told local historian Joanne Harriman, during an interview on the local cable access channel in the early 1990s.
His persistence paid off. In December of 1951, Whiston was chosen to be one of 17 hockey players who emerged as most dedicated and skillful after a match between eastern and western divisions in the United States. A trip to the Olympics is a costly one, of course, and Whiston, and his teammates paid their way by playing exhibition games in such foreign locales as London, Paris, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Germany.
Whiston played goalie during the Americans’ opening game against Norway in the Olympics and then managed to fend off incoming pucks during every other game that followed. The opening game, which Whiston has called his "most exciting moment," helped kick off a run of victories that would secure the United States a silver medal.
Early in his hockey career, Whiston proved to be a bit of a pioneer when it came to the protective gear worn by players, particularly goalies. Believe it or not, there was a time when goalies did not wear masks to protect their faces while they in turn protected their goals. At one point, when Whiston was a sophomore in college, Whiston was nailed in the mouth by a puck and several of his teeth were knocked right out of his gums. Fortunately, a surgeon named Dr. Ed Crane had been travelling with the Brown University team.
"Dr. Crane put my jaw together and put my teeth back in their sockets and wired me up," Whiston recalled to Harriman during the aforementioned broadcast.
Sure enough, Whiston was back on the ice the next night, wearing a football helmet and nose guard in a match against West Point.
And Dr. Crane? He went on to develop one of the first face masks, the descendants of which are worn by hockey players to this day.
•Nancy Rouillard Ludington, who in later years became known in Stoneham as Nancy Graham, participated with Ronald Ludington, her figure skating partner, in the Eighth Winter Olympics under the sunny skies of Squaw Valley, California in 1960. By the time the duo skated their way to a bronze medal at the Olympics, they had already acquired greatness in that they were named National Senior Skating Champions during every year from 1957 to 1960.
It was the practice that made her perfect. With the tremendous support of her mother, whom she had called a "peppery lady," her father and her brothers, Ludington took to the ice at the age of 11 and skated her way through a childhood in Stoneham that she says was a "wonderful experience." She began as a singles skater, competing in champion ships at the junior, New England and Eastern levels, and eventually paired up with Ronald Ludington for events in the Boston area.
Both Nancy and Ronald were maverick skaters, pushing the envelope on the ice by creating moves that put judges in a hot spot because they were "illegal" at the time, yet were so beautifully carried out. For Ludington, her proudest moment came during those 1960 Olympics when she stood on a podium as the American flag was proudly raised before her.
"There is nothing more thrilling than standing there near your flag," Ludington beamed during a televised interview. "After all of these years, I still have the same emotion."
It was almost a moment that Ludington tried to escape, for, initially, she was terrified about having to perform her five-minute set before an Olympics crowd of tens of thousands.
"On my way to the competition, from the Olympic village to the rink itself," Ludington told Harriman, "I remember seeing a tractor that was pulling logs by a chain. I had a flashing thought that if I jumped between the tractor and the chain, then maybe I wouldn’t have to compete."
But Ludington did compete, skating alongside her partner on her way to that bronze medal.
•Stoneham’s most recent experience with the Olympics occurred during the early 1990s when Nancy Kerrigan attended not one, but two Olympics in 1992 and 1994.
Kerrigan, who lives in Lynnfield and who is married with the last name of Solomon, won the bronze medal during the 16th Winter Olympics in Albertville, France in 1992 and the silver medal during the 17th Winter Olympics that were held in Lillehammer, Norway in 1994.
Residents of Stoneham most likely vividly and fondly recall the homecoming with which they greeted Nancy when she returned from the Olympics in 1992. During a parade that marched through Stoneham Square, Nancy waved to the crowds alongside her cousin, Allison Schulz, as those on the sidelines held up and waved a placard that read, "We love you, Nancy."
Ever wonder where that placard went?
Currently, it is on display at the Stoneham Historical Society, which is located across the way from the Central Street School that is located on Central Street. In fact, the placard sits in a case alongside other such mementos, such as the skates and costume worn by Nancy in 1992, the team coat that Francis O’Grady wore to the Olympics, and the jersey worn by Don Whiston while he tended goal.
Those who are interested in beholding these glimpses of Stoneham’s historic ties to the Olympics can do so when the Historical Society holds its next meeting at 7:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 14. The public, who are most certainly invited, are welcomed to show up at 7 p.m. to view the items on display and see photographs and memorabilia from yesteryear.
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