Bradley J. Zimmer

(1945-2022)

Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame Inductee 1986

Category:  Roller Skating

An avid and accomplished roller skater, Brad was a national skating champion.

Bradley J. Zimmer

Circa 1958

Skate Magazine Photo

Circa 1959

Bradley J. Zimmer

1964

Bradley was not only one of the top local roller skaters in the 1950s and 1960s, but also one of the top competitors in the nation.  Zimmer's father, the late Oscar Zimmer, owned the roller rink at Celoron Park and taught him to skate at the age of one.  Zimmer was  one of the youngest skaters and eventually became one of the youngest in each age group as he entered competition.  

His list of titles was impressive when he was became the Junior Men's Singles National Champion in 1959 in Lincoln, Nebraska.  He was only 14 at the time. In 1958, he and Darlene Edwards won the Eastern Regionals Junior Pairs Championship in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1959, he also won the Junior Freestyle National Championship in Boston, Massachusetts. The previous year he had begun training with Edward "Fuzzy" Bossart who was coaching in Pittsburgh.  Zimmer would go to Pittsburgh once a week and was pleased later when Bossart moved to Erie, Pennsylvania.  He was responsible for training numerous national skating champions. 

In  1960, when Zimmer was 15 and a ninth-grader at Southwestern Central School, he teamed with Darlene Edwards of Erie to win the Junior National Pairs Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas.  To reach the Nationals they won the Junior Regional Pairs Championship at Norfolk, Virginia and Pennsylvania Junior Pairs Championship.  They won the latter three times in Reading, PA and in Philadelphia, PA.  

Zimmer won the Pennsylvania State Senior Men's Singles title three times, the first time was when he was only 13. He also won the Eastern Regional Junior Singles three times.  He claimed the Eastern Regional Intermediate Men's Singles and was a runner-up in the National Intermediate Singles.  The intermediate division was a new group added between junior and senior competition.

Zimmer's last solo competition was in 1963 at Lincoln, Nebraska when he finished third in the National Senior Men's Singles.  Zimmer's last competitive action was in 1965 in Fort Worth, Texas when he and Edwards finished fourth in the National Senior Pairs Championships.  At that time, Edwards was one of the youngest competitors in the Senior Pairs.  Edwards, who is now Darlene Edwards Walters, went on to win a title at the 1975 world skating meet in Rome, Italy.  

In 1965, Zimmer graduated from Jamestown Community College and began working for the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities.  When he was a youngster he always wanted to be a teaching pro and that became his occupation in his spare time, both in Jamestown and in Erie.  He became part owner of Westlake Rink which became known as Evan's Skateland West in Erie.  Westlake Rink is where he won his first meet at the age of 12.  

Jamestown Post Journal

May 13, 1958

When interviewed by the Jamestown Post Journal in 2019 Brad recalls day of being a competitive roller skater on a national level and of spending hours at his parents' Celoron Park and Evans Skateland Roller Rink. Celoron Park was an amusement attraction attracting thrill-seekers and Brad was lucky enough to get to enjoy the park for free with his parents having owned the park. Brad recalled the Phoenix ferris wheel which used to be the largest ferris wheel and the ride on the island.  He got to enjoy them all plus sell French fries at his mother's park.  These days, couples can get married on the island which is now located behind the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel in Celoron, NewYork.  Brad told the Post Journal that he "always knew a hotel would spring up along the waterfront eventually".  To spruce up the hotel's Carousel Bar, he delivered the picture of Lucille Ball riding one of the ceramic horses during her mid-1950s visit.  

The First Lady of Comedy riding 

the

Lead Carousel Horse 

at 

Celoron Park