Dick Button, America's first Olympic gold medalist in figure skating, is dead, and the legend's passing comes on what was already a dark day for the sport.
Button died Thursday in the Upstate New York town of North Salem ... according to his children, who first confirmed his death in the Washington Post.
Perhaps no one in history's had more of an impact on U.S. figure skating than DB, who first dominated as a competitor in the 1940s and 1950s ... and then became a longtime broadcaster covering the sport around the world.
Dick almost literally put America on the figure skating map -- at a time when European countries dominated -- when he won his first of 5 consecutive world figure skating titles in 1948.