WHERE ARE THEY NOW? A LIFE IN SPORT


TIM WOOD WORKS TOWARD THE PROJECT OF A LIFETIME by LOIS ELFMAN


in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., the youngest of four brothers. Teir father, a surgeon, encouraged them to be active in sports, although he probably didn’t realize how seriously each of them would take it.


T When Wood was around 3, another doctor


invited the family to the Detroit Skating Club, where she was a member. Everyone en- joyed it and going skating soon became a family activity. “Usually, it was just on Sundays,”


Wood, 63, said. “Tey would have a pot- luck food thing and families would come and skate. Ten it became Wednesdays and Sundays. Tat’s how it started.” In time, Wood gravitated to figure skating and his older brothers started playing hockey. Eventually, they pursued sports outside the rink. One brother be- came a skier and the other two went into competitive sailing. Wood remained on the ice and began taking lessons around age 6. His first coach, Ronnie Baker, re- mained his coach throughout his amateur career. Wood said Baker, whose name is not as well known as other coaches of the time, was one of the masters of his era. Te 1961 plane crash that killed


the entire U.S. World Team along with coaches, officials and family members had an immediate impact on Wood. Doug Ramsay, who was a member of the De- troit Skating Club, was killed in the acci- dent along with his coach, Bill Swallender. “Doug was our idol and he was a


great kid,” Wood said. “He worked with us all the time and was encouraging. He was terrific. He was the first person in my life who had ever died. It was a shock. I think it taught me something I used the rest of my career. I remember going to the club that eve- ning. Of course, everybody was in shock and sad. I went out on the ice and had one of the best skating sessions I’d ever had. I couldn’t do any- thing wrong. I took the emotional energy that I was feeling and pushed it out through my body into the sport.


“Tat taught me that with the emotional


side of what we live through, you have a choice of how you use that energy. You can use that en- ergy to propel you to higher levels — not only in sport, but in all areas of life. Tat’s a significant learning lesson at a very young age.”


12 FEBRUARY 2012


hree-time U.S. champion (1968– 70), two-time World champion (1969–1970) and 1968 Olympic silver medalist Tim Wood grew up


Wood progressed up the skating ranks, win- ning the U.S. novice title in 1962 and the U.S. junior title in 1964. In 1965, he took the bronze medal in the U.S. senior division and earned his first trip to the World Championships. After high school, Wood followed Baker to Cleveland, also enrolling in John Carroll University. Eventually, they moved to the renowned Broadmoor in Col- orado Springs, Colo., and Wood transferred to Colorado College. He described himself as a driven young man,


Tim Wood and his wife of 41 years, Taffy


and despite skating in the time of compulsory school figures, he managed to balance college with training. Wood wouldn’t trade the countless hours he spent on school figures for anything, he said, because the figures provided the foundation of skating that enables him to continue skating to this day. “All of that body positional work creates an


PHOTO COURTESY OF TIM WOOD


edge or it creates the spin or it creates the jump,” he said. “Te jump doesn’t exist without that mechanism. If you take the mechanism com- pletely away, people don’t even know that you’re supposed to be doing mul- tiple things with your body at the same time. “Number one is the intellectual under- standing of how the body is supposed to work to make that happen. Te second is the training of the body to make it happen. Te third is the muscle develop- ment to make it all happen.” Wood cannot cite a favorite moment


from his competitive days, because he simply doesn’t remember any U.S., World or Olympic performance. When he competed, he was so focused on the job at hand that when his skate was done he forgot the details. Following his second World title,


Wood decided to turn pro for a variety of reasons. His father was financially drained from having put four sons through sports and college; emotion- ally, Wood was ready for a change; and he’d gotten engaged to his longtime girl- friend, Taffy, whom he married in 1970. During the next five years, Wood skated with all the skating shows of the day: Ice Capades, Ice Follies and Holi- day on Ice. After five years on the road, he and his wife put down roots in Cali- fornia. He produced a couple of his own ice shows, including one at Knott’s Berry


Three dogs help


keep Wood smiling and loving life.


Farm and one that traveled the West Coast. After he sold the show, he went back to school and he earned a master’s degree in finance and account- ing. He spent about 10 years after that working in international finance. Tese days, Wood’s professional life con- nects him to his passion for sports. He’s the managing partner and president of TLW Sports Company, LLC, and he’s developing a project called Te Sports Resort. Te master project design is based on 3,000


acres and includes a planned community with about 4,000 homes and many sports, recreation and family entertainment facilities. Tere will be


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