Scott Hamilton parents, Scott Hamilton: I was adopted at six weeks old by two school teachers. My father was a professor of biology at Bowling Green State University. My mother was a second grade school teacher. As my skating got more expensive, she became an associate professor at Bowling Green in the home economics department. I was adopted because my parents had trouble having children. My sister is from my parents, and my brother and I were both adopted. I grew up blessed with loving parents and a great household.
We were in and out of hospitals, and I was on all these restricted diets. Finally, we went to see Harry Schwackman in Boston and he said, "It's not Schwackman's Syndrome. We've run every test, we can't find anything wrong with him. Let him lead a normal life and see what happens."
Scott Hamilton: I was nine years old when I first put on skates. It was a Saturday morning junior club at the brand new ice skating facility at Bowling Green State University. They wanted to have a hockey team. The trendy thing in a small town is, "Let's use the new place." So I was going out there every Saturday and I just picked it up. I improved rapidly. It was just something that I did.Scott Hamilton: No, it wasn't like, "He looked across the room and saw skates glowing in the corner. He stepped out of his wheelchair and it was a miracle!" It wasn't anything Hollywood like that.
What was really funny is that as I got older all those guys who called me a sissy in junior high school wanted me to be their best friend because they wanted to meet all the girls that I knew in figure skating. "You know that little blond from Cleveland? Can you get me a date with her?" Life changes. It's pretty funny.
I graduated from high school, which was a negotiation, because I had switched schools so many times in my senior year that I missed some credits. I won the National Junior Championship in '76, the year I graduated from high school. I went into the principal of my school and he said, "You're about a credit and a half short. You need to figure out how we're going to get you out of this high school." And I said, "I'm threatening you right now.
If you don't give me Physical Education credit, I'm coming back next year." He said, "That's enough for me. We don't want you back." So I got PE credit, which they had never given me before, because I was skating all the time and they figured, "You won a national title, I guess you're physically educated." So I just barely graduated high school.
I was an okay student, I wasn't gifted or anything. I got through with Bs and Cs, and a few As here and there, if it interested me. I was more interested in skating and the girls and traveling than I was in calculus. My education was in the rink. I considered the four years from '81 to '84 to be my college education. I graduated a the top of my class in the '84 Olympic Games; I won a gold medal. I went undefeated for four years. From the fall of October, 1980 to March, 1984 I never lost a competition. That was probably the greatest accomplishment I could think of, and it set up the rest of my life.
Was there a particular teacher who inspired you?
Scott Hamilton: There were a lot of teachers when I was growing up. I don't think most teachers realize how much impact they have. I had a ninth grade teacher who told me I was much smarter and much better than I was allowing myself to be. She was basically calling me a slacker. I always remembered that, because when I'd start getting ready for the season, I knew what I had to do in order to be in the right shape to be competitive, or to be better than I was last year. She gave me that sense of responsibility, to really follow through.
Another teacher I had was for eighth grade history in Ohio. He called everybody Mr. this, or Miss that. It was a sign of respect that no other teacher gave us. It was something that I always appreciated. I always liked being treated with respect at that age. Now I try to treat younger people with respect when I come into contact with, whether it be for charity events or whatever. I try to treat them as adults and not as little kids or children.
There were other teachers who would really go out of their way to entertain and to keep the classes interesting. I had an earth science teacher in tenth grade who was awesome. You just couldn't wait to get in there every day, because he had a great sense of humor, and he'd give you images of hillside creep. When you look at the soil coming down the hill and the trees are still staying up, and you couldn't figure out why they would do that, he'd explain all that. He'd draw monsters coming over the hills and he made everything entertaining and fun. He trusted his students not to cheat on tests, so half the time he'd leave the classroom to honor his confidence in us.
