Spirit of Curling

In the Beginning

Curling began centuries ago in Scotland where it was played on frozen rivers and streams by people seeking not just competition, but the friendship and camaraderie that comes with a team sport. By the mid-1800s, cold winters and the popularity of the game drove curling indoors and necessitated a uniform set of rules.

 

In the late 1700s, Scottish immigrants introduced curling to Canada. In 1832, Scottish farmers, immigrating by boat to Chicago, were shipwrecked on the shore of Lake St. Clair and decided to stay there. They formed the first U.S. curling club, shaping blocks of hickory to use as “stones.” Other clubs followed, formed primarily by people seeking sport and friendship in areas where lives were shaped by harsh winters.

 

The first curling club in Chicago was formed in 1854. The first U.S. curling championship was held in 1957 when winners from ten state competitions met on the ice at Chicago Stadium.

 

Olympic Fame

Curling gained Olympic status with the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan. The 2002 games in Salt Lake City gave great impetus to the sport, and many United States curling clubs have grown substantially since then.

 

Today there are some 20,000 registered curlers in the United States. More than a million participate in the game in 35 countries, with 90 percent of these in Canada, where curling continues as a major national pastime.

 

“The Roaring Game”

Curling is a game of finesse, strategy, talent, and etiquette that is played on a sheet of ice, 146' long and 14-15' wide. Two teams of four players each try to get as many “stones” as possible closest to the center of a horizontal bull’s eye, or “house.” The leader of each team, called a “skip,” stands in the house and calls the game; all players take turns delivering a 44-pound honed granite stone with a handle on top. While one person calls the game and one delivers the stone, the other two members of the team, equipped with special brooms, travel alongside the stone and help determine its speed and path by sweeping the ice in front of it to reduce the friction of the moving stone.

 

As the stone turns and moves down the ice, it makes a grumbling sound, and from this has come the nickname, “the roaring game.”