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Clinton News-Record, 1977-03-24, Page 211R CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, MARCH'24,1977—PAGE 21 Olympic gold was only a fewdollars away for skater It is 1936. Orel Duffey has won nine speed skating championships and set seven world records along the way. He is a five -time North American champion, and winner of the Canadian Open, the Western Open Indoor meet and the US Open. At the age of 17, Orel Duffey is Canada's speed skate King and his goal is to win a pair of gold medals for his country in the 1936 Olympics in Ger- many. But times are hard with the depression and the Amateur Athletic Union of Still bitter Orel , once billed as the "ten -year-old wonder skater" is now 60, and living semi -retired, south of Bayfield. His incredible feat of winning a speed skating championship every year that he was involved in the sport, made him an item for newspaper column, `Ripley's Believe It or Not.' (News -Record photo) Duffey Canada decides it cannot afford to send a team to the Olympics. Bitterly. disap- pointed, at the height of his career, Duffey hangs up his speed skates, vowing never to skate again. It is 1977. Orel Duffey is 60, semi- retired from the insurance business and living a few miles south of St. Joseph in a house overlooking Lake Huron. Of the seven world records he set by speed skating over a span of nine years, three remain unbroken. Duffey still remembers the disappointment of not going to the Olympics but "a lot of water has flowed under the bridge" arid now, most of "the memories from his speed skating career are housed between the covers of numerous scrapbrooks that were kept by his mother: "I was qualified for the Olympics. The Olympics had been my goal since I was nine and began to speed skate," Duffey said. "I was the champion in my class from the time I was nine until I turned 18 and I was very frustrated and disap- pointed in not being able to compete." Adding to the frustration, was having to watch Leo Freisinger of Chicago, Duffey's closest rival, compete in. the Olympics and return home with two second place medals, and one third. Considering that he had beaten every one of Freisinger's- records, Duffey said he would have probably made a better showing at the Olympics if he had gone. As it turned out, he would have to be ctntent with. the 144 medals, numerous trophies and nine titles that he picked up over nine years of competition. Although he began to speed skate at nine, Duffey became interested in the sport at five, when he attended a speed skating exhibition in Kitchener and watched the 12 -year-old junior champion from Toronto. "He made an impression on me and I knew then that I wanted to skate just like him," he said. Duffey took the juvenile championship in his first year of skating, the first of a string of titles that would make Duffey an item for Ripley's "Believe It or Not" a newspaper column, in 1935. In his second year of skating with one championship to his name he appeared at a skating exhibition in Wingham billed as the "Ten -year-old . wonder skater". Training himself against a stop watch, Duffey, and his trainer Basil Cosgrove could be found practising under the floodlights of Varsity Stadium in Toronto R a stNxpr fur two to three hours each day. The stop watch substituted for the competitors in his class who could never stay close to him. "It wasn't that there was no good competition in Canada," he said, "it was just that I was better than they were, that's all there was". Duffey jokingly suggests that having to skate out in sub -zero weather was probably the reason behind his ability to skate so fast. "Sometimes it woifld be so cold that I'd feel numb even before the race," he said. "I skated fast tube able to get back inside where it was warm, .that much faster." The only competition he had had was lyeo Freisinger, who like most of the skaters who racedagai;nst Duffey, was two years older than "the wonder skater". Freisinger was usually in the last year of his class when Duffey would graduate into the age level and better all of the records set by the Chicago youth. Friends and even roommates off the ice, Duffey and Freisinger related as strangers when competing on the ice. Duffey and Freisinger truly were the King and Crown Prince in the world of speed skating, as a newspaper reporter once wrote of the two. The year of the Olympics changed all that. -Cahada's decision not to send a team to the games, however, did not slam the door on Duffey's chances to attend. Sponsored at the time by Toronto millionaire promoter and investor F.G. `Teddy' Oke, Duffey could have been financed to the Olympics. "Teddy Oke could have sponsored me to the Olympics'but he didn't feel it was right since my own country wouldn't send me," Duffey said, adding that the millionaire suggested he hang up his speed skates and try hockey. Duffey was 19, had never worn a pair of hockey skates on. his feet or held a hockey stick in his . hands. He went through the summer on roller skates, trying to control a rubber ball with his hockey stick as he, practiced on a dead end street. A year later he was playing amateur hockey with OHA Jr. A Toronto Lions; and two years later he was playing professional with the Chicago Black Hawks and later the Miami Clippers. In each ease, it was his skating speed that made him a valuable team asset. "No One on my team or on the op- posing teams could keep up with me on the ice," he said. Duffey had finally achieved an early dream to play hockey, but the ac- complishment was short lived when he was hook -checked from behind and the stick caught his right eye, during a game. ., .His hockey career had drawn to an abrupt end. Sightless for six months, it was another five years before the eye had healed enough to allow Duffey its full use. The eye injury prevented him from following his two brothers into the air force, so Duffey followed in his father's story by Chris Zdeb of .the News -Record footsteps and entered the insurance field. Although golf is his main sport these days, he still follows' speed skating, which he says is a dying sport. "Back''when I was skating, there was more outdoor skating. There were old fashioned winters that had most of the ponds frozen by, December," he" said. "Winters were longer - they came earlier and stayed later. "Artificial ice rinks were expensive and very few and far between". Duffey sees the coming of the artificial ice rink as the end to ,the popularity o. speed skating. Speed skaters, racing on straight quarter -mile tracks could not race in the confinement of indoontracks that lacked the required ,111ide-ang4le turns. People wanted the' warmth and con- venience of an enclosed rink and there were fewer and fewer souls, hearty enough to stand out in sub -zero weather to watch speed skaters. Even the spectator aspect of the sport was losing its aPpeal. "Speed skaters used to watch skater competing against skater, today they compete against the stop watch," Duffey said. "The only person who knows what's happening during the speed skating race today is the stopwatch official." Duffey said crowds of up to 1,500 people would line the ice track to see him race against competitors that were usually American. "It was me against the world, in a way," he said. "There was competition- in man Against man; there is no competition between man and stopwatch." Even so, he still watches the efforts of such speed skaters as Sylvia $ur-ka with interest. Lookingback'oh-his life with its three careers, Duffey has no ragrets. He excelled in just about everything he applied his talents to spurred on by the desire to be first. "I never did like to be second," he says. In 1935, when Orel Duffey was 17, he took the North American speed skating championship, as well as the Canadian, U.S. Open, and Western Open meets. Above . he poses in ,the speed skating prise comfortable for long distances - hunched back to cut wind resistance; arms folded behind the back for balance. • For shorter distances he would skate with arms swaying from side to side, in rhythm with his strides. Thepicture also shows the 14 -inch flat skate blades he used, compared to the curved, rockered skate blade used for hockey. Join us this Sunday in Mrs.Watkin's Counfry Kitchen VANASTRA at the i Full -Course BRING NE FAMILY TO OUR At the age of 16, Orel Duffey's collection of medals, plaques and trophies was far from complete. By the end of his speed skating career, the following year he would Opootion k Don't eat more of any food than is necessary - ex- tra food, even the healthy kinds. turns into fat. Fat is both unattractive and un- healthy. "H&R Block has seventeen reasons why you should let them prepare your income tax return.' Reason Number Fourteen: • H & R Block people are human and once In a great while they may make an error But if that.error means you have to pay additional tax, you pay only the tax H d R Block pays any Interest and penalty. They stand behind their work. H&R BLOCK THE INCOME TAX PEOPLE 30 ISAAC ST. CLINTON Open: Mon. Tuds. Thurs. Frl. 10-5:30 p.m. Sof. 10-1 p.m. Phone 454.36=6 have a total of 144 medals. After a brilliant nine years of skating, he retired from the sport when his goal to represent Canada in the 1936 Olympics was frustrated. Roast Beef and Gravy, Roast Turkey and Dressing, Sliced Ham, Meat Loaf and Gravy, B.B.Q. Spareribs, Sauerkraut, Mashed Potatoes, Vegetable, Boston Baked Bean, Bread and Butter, Coffee or Tea, Dessert. Plus .. , Huron County's Largest Salad Bar THE NEW SOUND OF CKNX .. . beautiful music in Stereo FM . music for all tastes .. . Sweet strings ... countryr:& folk sacred and secular .. rock and pop classics and big bands .' Get involved . write for a . program .schedule .. . ... starting mid-April .. . SUNDAY, APRIL 10 Reserve Now! 482-3644 PANCAKE & SAUSAGE BREAKFAST: 8 A.M.-11 P.M. 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