THE OTHER ROLLER RINK

As many bid farewell to White Rock Skate Center and bask in shared nostalgia, let us roll back the calendar to the 1940s-70s, when another rink ruled in what is now the Lake Highlands area.

At the time, the region around Greenville-Royal was known as Vickery, and the place to be was Deuback Skating Rink, located at 7800 Greenville Ave.

Back in 1939, a young John Deuback, whose parents owned the rink, was one of our city’s top skaters, according to a 1939 Dallas Morning News article. He won a race against Dallas’ champion speed skater, but not the official championship race, held that year at Fair Park.

In 1954 John Deuback and his brother Victor acquired the rink from their parents; John lived with his family in an upstairs apartment, and Victor lived in a guesthouse next door.

The whole campus burned to the ground in 1956, causing an $80,000 loss to the uninsured business, not to mention serious injuries to John, who crawled