TAKE FIVE: GRANDMA RETURNS TO ICE AFTER 45-YEAR BREAK

Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007 | 7:48 a.m.

No slight to Big George Foreman, Frank Reich of Maryland Terrapins and Buffalo Bills fame or Converse All-Stars made of canvas with Chuck Taylor's autograph on the ankle patch.

But the mother of all sports comebacks belongs to a grandmother named Sheila Cluff, who this weekend will be skating figures at the 2007 Ice Skating Institute Adult Championships at Fiesta Rancho's SoBe Ice Arena.

As a youngster growing up in Ottawa, Canada, Cluff was one of the top pairs figure skaters in the Great White North and eventually turned pro before taking some time off.

Forty-five years off.

She was in her early 20s when she retired from competitive skating. She was 67 four years ago when the Holiday Magic on Ice coordinators in California's Ventura County talked her into skating as Mrs. Santa Claus in the annual Christmas pageant.

She's 71 now.

"I kind of thought it would just be fun to do a little ice dancing," she said of the motivation for putting her skating career back on ice.

But, as you will read, there's a lot more to Sheila Cluff than school figures and a well-worn sequined dress.

1. Well, Sonja Henie's out

That's what Ty Webb, Chevy Chase's character in "Caddyshack," said when told to select an alternate playing partner. But Sheila Cluff has been around long enough to skate with Sonja Henie, at least in a roundabout way. During her skating prime, Cluff performed in an ice show owned by Henie, the 10-time World Figure Skating champion, and Arthur Wirtz, a National Hockey League pioneer who owned the Chicago Blackhawks.

"I can't say I trained under her because she was in the middle of a legal battle when I joined the show," Cluff said. "But I met her."

2. Mammoth undertaking

In addition to resurrecting her figure skating career, the mother of four and grandmother of seven has embarked on a new pastime - downhill skiing. Her husband, Don, is a former instructor for the Canadian ski team. "I tell you, I can ski corners at Mammoth " Mountain, she said. "I like the intermediate slopes where you can go faster." Let's see Picabo Street do that when she's 71.

3. Jane's addiction

If Jane Fonda is the mother of modern aerobic exercise, then Sheila Cluff is the grandmother. In the 1950s, while teaching physical education at D. Roy Kennedy, an intermediate - junior high - school in Ottawa , Cluff introduced a new form of exercise to keep some of her more sedentary students interested in physical fitness. She called it "cardiovascular dance" - the precursor to what the rest of the world calls aerobics. She combined her ice skating routines with rhythmic exercise and put it all to piano music, most likely because drum machines hadn't been invented.

4. Ojai times

Cluff's background in physical education - she once lost 40 pounds and at 5-foot-2 and a svelte 105 pounds still can wear the skating costumes she competed in as a teen - led her to found one of the first fitness and destination spas, the Oaks at Ojai in the tranquil Ojai Valley near Santa Barbara, Calif. The Oaks features just 46 guest rooms but a lot of repeat customers because of Cluff's limited frills approach to running a successful - and affordable - spa. "I figure people don't care too much about designer curtains when they are sweating," she said.

5. Degree of difficulty

Because 71-year-old figure skaters are tougher to fi nd than Olympic judges from France with integrity, Cluff will be competing against women 20 years her junior at Fiesta Rancho. But she said she will keep the Kristy Yamaguchi stuff to a minimum. No triple jumps, no double axels.

Not even a solitary Hamill camel. "Only single jumps and half-jumps," she said with a chuckle. "My coaches don't want me skating too fast backwards at my age."

Ron Kantowski can be reached at 259-4088 or at ron@lasvegassun.com.