The Detroit Curling Club will
host the 1989 USCA National Men's Championship and the National Ladies’
Championship concurrently, March 5th through 11th.
The Detroit Curling Club is no
stranger to hosting national events. The DCC has hosted two Men's (1962, 1975);
one Ladies (1957); two Senior's (1983, 1988); one Mixed (1985) and one Junior's
(1977). Mr. Jim Oliver is the General Chairman of next year's event. More information concerning these
championships will appear in future issues of the North American Curling News.
Any authentic record of the
introduction of the grand old Scottish game of curling in Detroit and its
vicinity must start with the activities of the Orchard Lake Curling Club. This
club was organized in the winter of 1881-32 by a group of loyal-hearted,
sport-loving Scotsmen from Fyfe and Ayrshire Scotland, who had located on the
banks of the beautiful lakes adjacent to the present city of West Bloomfield.
To these hearty and robust pioneers belongs the credit of introducing, and for
many years maintaining enthusiastic interest in the game in this locality. It
has been often asserted, on good authority, that these same men were the first
to introduce the game of curling to the United States.
For several years they curled
with wooden blocks sawed from hickory trees and shaped with ax and chisel to
resemble a curling stone. The handles were made from small limbs of the same
material.
The earliest record of curling in
Detroit dates back to the winter of 1836-37 when a number of enthusiastic
Scottish lovers of the game' began friendly contests among themselves, and
later in the season journeyed to Orchard Lake. They were warmly received and
though defeated in the contest, they returned home with an experience that
contributed largely to their success in later years. In the early forties the first Detroit Curling
Club was organized, when the city contained about 35,000 inhabitants. Later, a
club was formed by the employees of the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway Co. and still
later the Thistle Curling Club was formed. These three clubs either disbanded
or merged into the Granite Club which was organized in 1867. Prior to the Granite Club, all the curling of
the older clubs was done on the Detroit River or elsewhere on outdoor rinks.
The present Detroit Curling Club
originated with a handful of enthusiasts in the winter of 1885. They did most
of their curling at night, by the light of four or five big lanterns and a
large arc electric light, at the southwest corner of the grounds occupied by
the Detroit Athletic Club. After three winters in the open, it was decided to
build a covered rink and combine skating with curling, to help defray the
expenses. The financing of this project was made possible through love of the
game and the desire to encourage and perpetuate it. The contributions assisted
in the erection of a building at the corner of Fourth and Gold during the summer
of 1888. This building was thrown open to its members in December of that year
and proved a source of great enjoyment to them, while it materially assisted in
popularizing these winter sports.
In those days friendly
competitions were had with the clubs of London, Sarnia, Chatham and Thamesville,
all in Ontario, Canada. In 1895 the Club had grown and prospered sufficiently
to permit the purchase of enough land on Forest Avenue at Fourth Street to
provide six sheets of ice. This land was bought and the club building was
removed to and rebuilt on this new property. In 1906 this old building was
replaced by a substantially larger building, It required several seasons of experimenting
with different materials to demonstrate that a cement floor was necessary to
ensure proper ice facilities. This floor was laid in 1908 and besides providing
a proper foundation for ice; the investment had annually benefited the Club by renting
the building for storage purposes during the summer months.
The Club joined the Ontario Curling
Association in 1889 and has continued its membership up to the present time.
The Club had annually participated in the Tankard and other competitions of
this Association. While the Club failed to win any of these events, its
hospitality and good fellowship had been acknowledged by winning the Russell
Cup (a trophy given to the club entertaining the largest number of curlers
annually) for a period of three years. In 1897 the club inaugurated an annual
International Bonspiel. The first year saw twelve clubs from Canada and the
United States participate in the games, which took two days to determine the
winners. Detroit succeeded in winning the first prize, the Hiram Walker Cup,
one of the oldest International trophies still in use today.
The uncertainty of winter weather
conditions brought forward the proposition of installing an artificial ice
plant. The results of this installation had been most gratifying. The success
enabled the members to curl at any time they may desire from early November
until the middle of March.
In 1945 a meeting at the Detroit
Club, chaired by Detroiter Ewart Watson, led to the formation of the Mid-West
Curling Association. This Association originally had 36 clubs from the states
of Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. In 1957 another
Detroiter, Paul Moreland chaired a meeting in Chicago that led to the formation
of the United States Curling Association. Detroit curlers have represented
their region many years at the US Nationals, winning twice and going to the
Scotch Cup once.
Ladies started curling in Detroit
in February 1943. Prior to this time the women had been restricted to card
playing and viewing the games (on specified nights). Membership was down during
the war and Women were demonstrating daily their physical strength and
abilities by building tanks, planes and ships. Thus "mixed" curling
started and the drawmasters were careful to keep married couples on different
sheets of ice. By 1952 the ladies had formed their own division within the Club
called the Rockettes.
In 1971 the City of Detroit
purchased the Club's property and buildings, though curling would continue
there until the spring of 1979. In 1978 the Club discovered the West Bloomfield
facility in receivership and for sale. A monumental task faced the Club in the
summer of 1979, that of getting the facilities ready, after a long period of
disuse. Throughout the summer of 1979 volunteer members worked long and hard,
putting in thousands of hours of labor. By November 25 the Club was ready for
full operation. During the summer of 1986 the members once again dedicated
hundreds of hours to rebuild and expand the clubhouse
.
Today, The Detroit Curling Club
has a strong, active membership keeping a six sheet facility quite busy. During
the week, there exist two daytime ladies leagues, one seniors' league. The
evenings consist of two nights of men's curling, two nights of mixed and one
night ladies' league. Saturdays vary throughout the season with many special
and open curling nights. Sunday mornings
the Club is taken over by the famous Detroit Sinners and Sunday afternoons the
juniors nearly fill the ice every week. Two years ago the Club acquired a set
of "Tot-Rocks" (17 lbs.) and we now have curlers as young as four and
five.
Bonspiels flourish at Detroit.
There exists annually: The Men's International, The Rockettes Bonspiel, The Mixed
International, Bed 'n Board, Cherry
Spiel, Senior Mixed, Senior Men's, Business Ladies, Family Spiel, Battle of the
Sexes, Champagne Spiel and others. Annual curling exchanges have long been
established with other clubs, notably: Kitchener-Waterloo, Sarnia and Roseland
(all in Ontario).
The current interest in curling,
a spin-off of the Olympics, and our strong and dedicated membership will insure
that the Grand Old Scottish Game will continue in Detroit for generations to
come.
(Sources for this article: Wm. MacLachlan,
D.M. Sgriccia, J. Taylor, T. Williamson, National Curling News, USMCA Annuals)
