Where to Curl in Detroit

That depends upon when you lived in or around Detroit…

1832 –   Pine Lake & Orchard Lake:  Orchard Lake Curling Club (wooden ‘stones’)

1843 –   Detroit River:  Detroit Curling Club (iron ‘stones’)
1845 – Milwaukee Junction (near East Grand Blvd & St. Aubin):  Detroit & Milwaukee Railway   employees
1864 –   Woodward Avenue Skating Rink: Granite & Thistle Curling Clubs (iron ‘stones’)
1868 –   Woodward Skating Rink:  Granite CC (covered building)
1868 –   Jefferson Avenue Skating Park: Thistle CC (granite stones from Waterloo, Ont. replaced irons)
1870 –   Woodward Skating Rink hosted The Western National Curling Tournament:  Milwaukee City Club,     Buffalo Queen City Club, Detroit Thistle CC, Buffalo Caledonia CC, Orchard Lake CC, Detroit Granite CC,   Cleveland CC, and Hamilton CC.
1875 –   Peninsular Cricket Club (Woodward Ave original site of the Detroit Athletic Club):  Granite CC (covered building 160 x 35 feet)
1884 –   Detroit Zoo (Michigan Ave. Corktown):  Granite CC, Thistle CC
1885 -    The Granite Rink:  Granite CC
1887 –   Detroit Athletic Club (Woodward Ave.):  Detroit Curling Club
1888 –   Forest & Gold:  Detroit CC
1895 -    Forest & Fourth Ave:  Detroit CC
1898 –   Belle Isle:  Detroit CC (International Bonspiel)
1898 -    Pontiac (not sure where):  Pontiac Curling Club formed
1902 -    Detroit East Woodbridge St:  Detroit Racquet & Curling Club
1916 -    Grosse Pointe at the home of Horace E. Dodge on Lake St. Clair:   Detroit CC
1941 -    Ann Arbor (U of M Coliseum Ice Arena):  University of Michigan
1958 -    East Lansing:  Michigan State University (42 DCC members attended)
1970s – Birmingham Skating Rink:  Birmingham CC
1970s – Southfield (Beechwood Ice Arena):  unknown if a club existed
1980s – West Bloomfield (Drake Rd.):  Detroit CC
1980s -  Jackson:  Cascades CC
Present – Ferndale:  Detroit CC
Outside the greater Detroit area curling clubs have been or still are in:
                Toledo, Lansing, Flint, Midland, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lewiston, Sault Ste. Marie, Port Huron

Can you name another place or two?  Please send us a message.

2013 Men's International Bonspiel

The Bonspiel is ON

“FOURTEEN CLUBS REPRESENTED IN THE COMPETITION”

The Detroit Free Press January 7, 1897

“Unfavorable weather caused the committee of the Detroit Curling Club to advise several of the teams entered in the Bonspiel not to come, but a change in the atmosphere occurred just in time to bring the near-by teams here for the opening.  The Club held off until Tuesday morning before being certain of ice, and then it was too late to reach some of the teams in time to bring them on, yet fourteen are on hand and the play will continue through two more days at the rink on Forest Avenue.

“The ice was made under difficulties and had to be built almost sheet by sheet.  There was not time to flood the place and be sure of its freezing; hence on the opening yesterday the surface was not as smooth as is desired.  The cold of last night, however, allowed the flooding of the rink, and the ice will be all that can be asked when the merry Scots assemble this morning.

“The Bonspiel is the greatest ever undertaken by a club.  The prizes are the finest and attracted some of the best curlers in the United States and Canada.  The curling began late yesterday morning and continued throughout the day.

“Windsor and Grand Rapids have new clubs and the games between the rinks representing them were interesting.  The Windsor club is but two weeks old, and the victory over Grand Rapids will materially help the organizers. 

“There was not only good curling but plenty of fun watching and hearing the curlers.  The play will resume this morning and continue all day.  The rink is located on Forest Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets.”

Ed Note:  The drawing above appeared in the Free Press with the article.  It is the only image of the inside the original Detroit Skating & Curling Club that we have seen from the 1800’s.

Good Curling, Angus MacTavish

TV Ads about Curling

This post has nothing to do with Curling in Detroit.  We were surfing You Tube on a cold snowy day.  Searched for Curling Advertisements.  Here are a few of those we found...

The first is from the Manitoba Curling Association, I like this dated clip - especially the worn out shoes, since I had a similar pair in about 1986.

The next one is just plain funny.  A BIC ad:  'The Toughest Sport on Ice', posted by CulturePub (a French TV show).

"Hurry - Hard" is from the series of 'Start Curling' ads published by the Canadian Curling Association.

And last, but not least, an Advert for Navibot from Norway.

We thank the people who posted these videos on YouTube and allowed us to re-post them here.  If you go to YouTube you can find many more.

Happy Holidays and Good Curling

Preparations for the Men's International Bonspiel

Not this year, but in 1897…the First International Bonspiel at The Club.  From the Jan 3, 1897 Detroit Free Press:

“THE ICE IS PROMISED.  Curlers prepared for the Bonspiel this week.  Twenty clubs have entered the contests.  Splendid Trophies for the Winners.

 

“Just now there is great activity among the members of the Detroit Curling Club, and especially those who are on the ice committee.  The International Bonspiel is to begin here on Wednesday and it is the duty of the committee to provide ice.  Committeemen were racing up to the weather office yesterday and members of the club were burning up the phone wires in quest of anything but rain.  When word came that there is a wave pointed at us and which will avenge the premature advent of spring there was happiness.  Everything else has been provided and if the cold snap strikes here and throws out the anchor there will be plenty of fun for the curlers this week.  

“The prizes are the finest ever given at a club Bonspiel.”

“The invitations have been responded to from all quarters, and, although entries will be accepted up to noon tomorrow, there are twenty in now.  Each club will send an eight men and this will make 160 in play.  The first round will start at 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning and play will continue until midnight each day until the games are played off.  The entries up to date are as follows:  

“Chatham, Embro, Forest, London, London-Forest City, Petorlia, Ridgetown, Sarnia, Stratford, Thamesville, Glencoe, Woodstock, Wallaceburg, Toledo, St. Thomas, Berlin (Ed note:  This was the name of Kitchener before 1912),   Simcoe, Grand Rapids, Windsor and Detroit."

Good ‘Spiel’n, Angus 

Women Polish The Ice - Detroit Free Press: Feb 4, 1917

“They can hurl 50 pound curling stones, too.

Believe this girl reporter who scoffs at “He-Chickens”.

“Dear City Editor: - I adore writing letters – ‘specially fault finding ones.  You men are so selfish… You see, the women came down to eat – the men gave them a banquet – and they went right out and began to shinny those enormous stones about and in another minute the first women’s curling match ever held in Detroit was on.  My gracious, but it has been a long time coming to that.

“Maybe it is because of their knowledge that they look such “ducks” in Scotch bonnets that caused the women to wrestle with those 50-pound chunks of granite, but the fact remains that they did do it and threw them a very long way, swept just as madly as the men, got just as red-faced and excited and strained 17 parts of the anatomy to prove their ability.

“Why can’t the women have space and be made to feel they are worthwhile in athletics and then maybe we can have a regular women’s curling club and go about the country getting cups and prizes and frost-bitten ears and glory and sore throats and publicity and everything.

“Among the women who showed skill on the ice were Mrs. J.A. Bucknell, Mrs. E.R. Treble, Mrs. Herman Sanderson and Mrs. J.V. Gurney.

“Yours athletically, BUDA STEPHENS”

Ed. Note:  Ms. Buda Stephens was a tennis champion and a sports reporter for the Detroit Free Press.  One of her more famous articles was an interview with Babe Ruth.  Her unflattering article, titled RUTH JUST A BIG JUNGLE INFANT, was published on page one.  She pronounced Ruth as lacking in sophistication.  “He doesn't know the answer to anything if it’s more than one syllable”…”He is not suave and intellectual”…And finally, “Babe Ruth possesses none of the Ty Cobb charms.”

Women on the Ice

The Grand Rapids (Michigan) Women’s Curling Club claims to be the first curling club for women in the USA in 1908. The women’s curling team was a notable exception to the turn-of-the-century attitude that women should not participate in competitive sports.  They curled at the Grand Rapids CC (founded in 1902) located at the corner of Lake Drive and Norwood Avenue in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Note the ‘T’ shaped rock handles.

Lang may ur lum reek, Angus MacTavish