Ice fans give shoes the boot - Weather brings a rough but rare treat for area's skaters

It's rough, uneven, and unkind to the slightest of missteps.

But outside is the closest to a dream-come-true the ice skater in Oklahoma gets.

"You can't do spins because the ice will break and you'll trip," Madison Brown, 11, said.

She was out of breath after skating on the frozen tennis court in her family's south Tulsa backyard.

"But you can do jumps. We might even attempt a double Salchow."

FYI: A Salchow is an ice-skating jump named after Ulrich Salchow, a skater from the early 1900s.

Before flying to Milwaukee in July, 2005, Michael McFadden slipped on a pair of well-worn, well-polished, up-scale business shoes.

It was a choice worth millions.

McFadden had come to meet John Stollenwerk, owner of the Allen-Edmonds Shoe Corp., who had decided to sell his company. Stollenwerk was pleased to see that McFadden was a customer. McFadden, managing director of Goldsmith, Agio, Helms & Lynner, a business brokerage in Minneapolis, also impressed Stollenwerk with his knowledge of commerce and his sunny, open style. Together with his footwear, that led to a successful pitch for the job of representing Allen-Edmonds.