Hamilton skating in the moment

Copyright 2001 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.

Jan. 19, 2001 - Scott Hamilton disembarks from a leased jet in a different city three times a week to perform in "Stars on Ice," a figure-skating show that Hamilton has headlined since he helped create it in 1986.

But this tour is special. When it ends April 7 in Portland, Maine, Hamilton skates off the ice for the last time as a regular cast member of "Stars on Ice," which visits the Pepsi Center at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Olympic gold medalist said it remains undecided if he will take on a production role in future tours.

But one thing is for sure; he is not retiring.

"It has been so many years, and I just felt like I needed to shift gears a little bit. So, this is my last full tour. I don't have any idea what I am going to do after this year, but I am not retiring," said Hamilton, who owns a home in the Denver area.

He plans to be rinkside as a NBC commentator covering the figure skating competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

And he has talked about wanting to create a Broadway show that would feature ice skating.

Otherwise, he turns away questions about the future.

"I get asked the question a lot, "What's next?' But I really try to focus on now. I am in Tucson today, and I have to do a show tonight. That is what I am focused on. I am trying not to think beyond April 8 or May 2. I am just trying to take it one day at a time, one show at a time and focus on each individual performance."

His day-at-a-time outlook is not surprising, given that Hamilton is a cancer survivor. Doctors used chemotherapy and surgery in 1997 to help him battle testicular cancer.

The cancer diagnosis came in March. He resumed skating privately that August and two months later he taped the CBS special "Scott Hamilton: Back on the Ice."

Shortly before that taping, he talked about his illness with Denver Post sportswriter Terry Frie. He said one of his inspirations was the memory of how strong and brave his late mother was in her futile fight against cancer.

"Another was, I just don't like losing. ... I don't want an illness or this episode to stop me from skating," he told Frie.

He tapped into that same competitiveness in 1986 to start Stars on Ice after another skating show, Ice Capades, let him go.

Hamilton joined Ice Capades in 1984 after winning the gold medal for figure skating at that year's Olympic games in Sarajevo.

"I did two years with Ice Capades," he said. "Then they were going through a sale. The new owner felt that men didn't sell tickets, and didn't want to have any part of my continued involvement. They basically said, "thanks for the time, thanks for doing what you did. Thank you very much, and goodbye.' "

Hamilton's skating, his pixie-like stature - he's 5-foot-3 - and his boyish good looks had endeared him to Americans during the Olympics, but when the Ice Capades fired him he wasn't well-off financially.

"I was not in a financial place where I could really take a lot of time and wait for the next thing to come along. Or start dropping any kind of financial demands to nothing just to stay in business," he said.

Hamilton understood he was an entertainer and that to achieve longevity he had to build an audience. He knew that would be easier to do while the glow of his gold medal was still fresh.

So he and his manager, Robert Kain of IMG, decided to start an ice tour that would star Hamilton and carry his name. But both men saw it as something more than just a way keep the skater working.

"With "Stars on Ice' it was done in way that we didn't let anything get in the way of what was best for the show. It was built as a business first. It wasn't built of as an extention of somebody's desire to work just for the sake of working. It was put together with the idea we have to find a way to make this thing last. And we have to find a way to grow this tour so it will be accessible to the future generations of skaters," Hamilton said.

They put on 15 shows the first year. The first five were theatrically produced and done under the name "The Scott Hamilton American Tour."

"Then we did another five, which were called "Stars on Ice,' but it was done more with just arena lights," he said. "That tour just didn't feel good to anybody. It didn't nearly have the impact the other show had."

They kept the name "Stars on Ice" but returned to the more sophisticated style to do another handful of shows that year. This year's tour consists of 66 shows.

He remembers well the first show he did with his own company:

"The very first show, the building (managers) didn't quite understand our power requirements for our lights. They put a 100 amp wire on 350 amp beam. So it exploded in the finale. There was smoke everywhere. One of the spotlight positions caught on fire. I am on the ice yelling at the spotlight guy, "Hey, your platform is on fire.' It was kind of scary for a few minutes, but everybody was fine."

Fortunately for Hamilton and the others, the incident was not a harbinger of what was to come.

"We were kind of holding our own for the first few years," he said. "Then we started to kind of catch on in years five and six."

Kristi Yamaguchi and Paul Wylie joined the tour after the 1992 Olympics where they won gold and silver medals, respectively. And Sandra Bezic signed on that year as director and head choreographer, Hamilton said.

Also, IMG, which owns "Stars on Ice," bought out another touring skating show that year.

"It became one of those interesting situations where we grew, immediately and drastically on every level. Not only with the current Olympic champions but also with a whole new style of production and a whole new financial commitment. And with that came a bigger audience and a lot more financial interest. Since then we've had a few spike years, but generally we have grown very steadily," Hamilton said.

Yamaguchi is still with the show, but Wylie retired from touring in 1998.