Yesterday in La Crosse
We were crazy about ice skating, and it wasn’t Olympic season, 37 years ago
In 1981, the Ice Capades announced it would do seven shows at the La Crosse Center, only open a year. The long run was the result of high audience interest in previous Ice Capades productions. One star of the ’81 show was Sandy Lenz of Illinois, who skated on the 1980 U.S. Olympic team at Lake Placid.
Ice had to be cut out of the Mississippi River between Prairie du Chien and Marquette in the winter of ’81, to allow ferry boat service. The 7-year-old bridge at Prairie was shut down suddenly in January, and remained closed for repairs for several months. Inspectors found the bridge was built with weak steel, and had been in danger of collapsing from the day it opened.
There weren’t many specialized cable TV channels to choose from in 1981. Teleprompter’s offerings in La Crosse were mainly broadcast channels, including WTBS from Atlanta, but they also had HBO, the USA channel, and Nickelodeon. MTV debuted later that year…1981, 37 years ago, yesterday in La Crosse.
