The history of the Blue Water Curling Club in Owen Sound.
December 18th, 1962 – December 18th, 2012
50 Years of Ice, Broom & Stone
In the late 1950’s, a group of enthusiastic and dedicated individuals commenced curling in the Coliseum located on the Agricultural Society Fairgrounds at the top of the 10th Street East Hill in our City. Names such as Claire Armstrong, Charlie Cameron, Helen Kruger, Ethel Henderson, Tom Stewart, Len Bye, Doug McCulloch, Elgin Hutchinson and of course the Graham families Archie, Neil, Hugh and Jim and some of their respective spouses were among the early curlers at this time. The club was known as the Owen Sound Coliseum Curling Club. Due to an increase in the rental cost and the limited availability of ice time with the popularity of hockey and ice skating, these original curlers decided to move their curling activities over to the building know as the “Horse and Cattle Pavilion” located in the northwest area of the fairgrounds. Spring came early one year and of course the natural ice melted prior to the curlers being able to complete their schedule and/or the playoffs. The curlers decided that now was the time for change and to take action in purchasing a property of their own with the vision of constructing a proper curling facility. At this particular point in time, the property located on the south west corner of 19th Street East and 7th Avenue East owned by George A. VanWyck was advertised for sale. The building was currently used to house the storage of block ice as well as a cold locker operation.
This group of motivated curlers took official action to form the original Blue Water Curling Club executive comprising of President Howard Henderson, Vice President, Doug McCulloch and fellow Board Members Jim Graham, Eric Showell, Bill Loney, Archie Graham, Louis Graham, Irvine Brown, Ray Logan, Wilbur Stonehouse, Hugh Graham, and Secretary-Treasurer, Helen Kruger. President Henderson arranged for a loan of $50,000 with Bob Archer, Manager, of The Bank of Nova Scotia located within our City to purchase the property and begin construction of a new curling rink. The VanWyck property was purchased for $4,250.00. Under the executive’s direction, the construction of a new concrete block structure housing four sheets of curling ice and attached to the original building was awarded to Len Bailey Construction from Shallow Lake. The original ammonia refrigeration plant used to cool the ice house and cold locker portion needed to be replaced. Archie Graham & John Rudolph approached Harry Gardiner soliciting his support to purchase and replace the old ammonia plant with an updated freon type ice making system. Mr. Gardner granted a loan to the curling club and in return took back a mortgage on the property for $13,500 with a verbal understanding that he was not at all interested in purchasing a curling club. This refrigeration project was completed by Canada Ice from Toronto for a cost of $13,000.00. George Ross supervised some of the refrigeration work and Louis Graham arranged with Dominion Electric to supply the electrical material required within the new building. The original contract for the
arena structure was in the neighborhood of $35,000. The original “ice” storage building would continue to serve as our club house and change rooms for several more years.
The Blue Water Curling Club was officially approved as a Non Profit Organization by the Province of Ontario on December 18, A.D. 1962 and was recorded on the 18th day of January A. D. 1963 as Number 38 in liber 1175. Our curling club was accepted as a member of the Ontario Curling Association on December 31, 1963. An official opening was held on Saturday, January 26, 1963 at 2:00 P.M. The first annual meeting of the new organization was held on October 21, 1963.
At a shareholders meeting held on April 16, 1973, the members voted to demolish our
original club house building and erect the current facility according to a design and specifications produced by Henderson, Paddon and Associates. The estimated cost for this project was to be $48,000. The contract was awarded to Clarence Graham Construction. The structure comprised of a concrete block structure housing an entrance and clock room, 2nd floor men’s and ladies locker rooms, washrooms and the clubroom, kitchen and bar area on the first floor. During the summer of 1994, our club installed a complete new refrigeration plant under the direction of President Glen Boyd, Vice President Scott Wilson and our resident ice technician Scott McCrae. At this particular point in time, the directors also considered replacing the brine pipes at a cost of $19,400; but, decided it was too much financially for the club to assume. The contract for the replacement of the ice making machinery was awarded to CIMCO Refrigeration of Toronto at a cost of $69,400. Funds received from hosting the 1991 Blue Light Tankard were used to pay for this project.
In 2005, the members voted to renovate and update our present club rooms with the receipts from hosting the 2004 Ontario Men’s Curling Championship. These hall renovations were completed by the fall of 2005 by JA/Land Ltd. Upon completion of our interior club renovations, the Board of Directors decided to upgrade the arena portion of the curling club. The original sand and ammonia pipes were replaced, the arena walls were painted, new carpet was put down and a low emissivity (Low E) ceiling was installed over the ice surface. The removal of the sand and original pipes was completed by member volunteers under the supervision of Bill Hutchinson and Murray Cox. Both Bill and Murray dedicated a great deal of their volunteer time and effort to the completion of this project. CIMCO Refrigeration completed the installation of the plastic pipes and the replacement of the brine to our refrigeration system. This work was finished prior to the start up of the 2006 curling season. The Blue Water Curling Club has served the residents of the City of Owen Sound and surrounding curling fraternity well. Currently, our active members curl at 7:00 P.M. from Monday to Friday. We provide daily ice rental time for several curling leagues during the season. The Farmer’s Curling League curls Monday at 12:00 Noon & 2:00 P.M., the Kemble Curling League curls on Friday at 1:00 P.M. and the Owen Sound Men’s Industrial Curling League occupy our facility for play on Saturdays from 11:30 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. We provide free ice time for the Owen Sound Special Olympic curlers on Tuesday afternoons and continue to provide a successful Junior Curling Program on Sundays at 1:30 P.M. Several Owen Sound elementary and secondary schools make use of our facility for their student electives, team practices and interschool curling competitions. The club also offers for a minimal fee a fun “Pay As You Curl” to the general public on Wednesday mornings at 9:30 A.M. Everyone is welcome. The hall and/or ice are available for rent to outside groups during the winter months and our hall is available in the off season. Since our inception, we have been fortunate to maintain an active and steady membership within the club. We encourage new
curlers to join without regard to his or her level of experience or playing ability.
The Blue Water Curling Club is proud and appreciative of our present and past
members who have devoted many volunteer hours of their personal talent, time and energy to the operation and/or maintenance of our curling club; thus, contributing to the continuing success of our club. A sincere “Thank You” goes out to the many member volunteers for their work and dedication in making our curling club what we enjoy today.
The Blue Water Curling Club has been privileged and honoured over the years to host some of Ontario’s premier curling events:
The 1991 Men’s Ontario Labatt’s “Blue Light Tankard”
Chairperson – Fraser Wilson
The 1996-97 “Teranet” Junior Men’s and Junior Women’s
Provincial Curling Championship
Chairperson – Jane Keeling
The 2000-01 “Pepsi Cola” Ontario Bantam and Junior Mixed
Provincial Curling Championship
Chairperson – Mike Armstrong
The 2004 Ontario Men’s Curling Championship
Chairperson – Scott Wilson
Our members look forward to many more years of good curling, fun and socializing.
Perhaps, we may again have the opportunity to host another Ontario major curling competition in Owen Sound.
“Wi’ Besom an’ Stane”
Blue Water Bits & Bites:
q The original steel for the arena frame arrived on October 6, 1962 and was purchased from Beaver Lumber in Owen Sound.
q John Rudolph arranged to purchase some used bowling lanes from Nails Daigneau to install as our flooring in the original club house.
q Bill Cadesky donated steel products for use in the arena from his metal scrap business located down on Third Avenue East.
q The entrance to the original curling club was on 19th Street East and the address of 651 19th Street East remains as is today.
q The first few years the club rented cold storage lockers to individuals.
q There was a 2nd story apartment over the original club room.
q The 2nd floor apartment and part of the club house caught fire in 1965.
q The initial Blue Water curling fees were $35.00 for a debenture holder and $20.00 for the spouse of a debenture holder.
q The three vacant lots to the south of our building were purchased for $2,250.00 in 1967.
q The club paid off a mortgage held by Harry Gardiner in 1969 for monies previously loaned to the club.
q During the formative years of operation, Saturday night jitneys were quite common at a cost of $1.00 per curler including lunch.
q Jim Graham put forth the initial idea to create an Owen Sound Men’s Industrial Curling League on Saturdays which still remains quite active today.
q Bill Morrison solicited curlers from the Department of Highways for teams in the Highways League.
q Lou Arnett started the Br. #6 Legion Curling League on Saturday mornings at 9:00 A.M.
q Wib Arnett solicited curlers from Edwards of Canada for teams in the Industrial League.
q Bill Gardhouse Men’s Wear donated suits to the Men’s club champions each season.
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q In February, 1982, the curling club made application to the LCBO to obtain a liquor licence for our facility.
q The initial curling stones in 1962 were hand me downs left by curlers at the coliseum and/or the horse and cattle pavilion. A second set of used curling stones were purchased from the Stratford Curling Club for $2000.00 in the summer of 1963. These rocks remained in use at our club until we purchased a complete new set of curling stones and handles in October 1985. President Wayne Connolly ordered 64 matched Elisa Craig tremor granite curling stones with blue honed inserts from Fred Veale at the Canada Curling Stone Company located in Kamoka, Ontario. As well, a new plastic header was installed at this point in time.
q The Blue Water Curling Club was one of the first curling clubs within Grey and Bruce Counties to purchase a cordless battery operated ice scrapper and a pebble nipper for ice surface preparation and maintenance.
q The initial Blue Water ice maker in 1963 was George Bell, followed in a line of succession by Clayton Boyd, Doug McCulloch, Harold Ceaser, Harry McGregor, Clyde Rourke, Marty Goetz, Scott McCrae, Murray Cox, Murray Cox/Bob Ford and our current OCA ice technician’s Bob Ford and Mike Malloy. The ice technician’s work extremely hard to provide us with good clean playable curling ice.
q Our ice crew has had excellent communications with and assistance from various icemakers from the surrounding curling clubs throughout the years.
q Al Hutchinson has competed in most major Men’s and/or Mixed OCA curling competition with the exception of the men’s “Masters” and the ladies “Tournament of Hearts”. He claims because of his youthful age and the inability to fit into his grandfather’s kilt has kept him from competing in these two major Ontario competitions.
q In 1994 the Blue Water team of Rob Lipsett, Brent Keeling, Troy Ford and Andrew Linthorne was the OCA Zone 11 B winners coached by Dr. Alex Klym.
q The OCA awarded Dr. Alex Klym with the Labatt Achievement Award for outstanding service to the curling community for 1998/99.
q On February 7, 2002 the team of Peter Eller, Bob White, Mark Gamble and Randi Harwood were fortunate to obtain an 8 ender during a game in club play.
q An OSCVI team of Blue Water curlers comprised of Derek Abbotts, Mitchell Gillespie,
q Brett Abbotts and Greg McArthur coached by Past President Jim Abbotts won the Ontario Gore Mutual Schoolboy Championship in 2003.
“Page 6”
q The team of Jeff Armstrong, Cody Maus, Derek Abbotts and Mark Gamble won the OCA Teranet Junior Men’s Ontario Championship coached by Dr. Alex Klym. This team went on as Ontario Junior Champions to compete in the Canadian National Junior Curling
Championship in Summerside, Prince Edward Island
q The Blue Water team of Al Hutchinson, Barry Middleton, Steve Greig and Randi Belrose won the 2010 Best Western Intermediate Men’s Ontario Championship
q Several club members have served in the position of Secretary and/or Treasurer over the years commencing initially with Helen Kruger; followed in a line of succession by Hugh Graham, Doug McCulloch/Hugh Graham, Doug McCulloch, Clarence Angell/Jim White, Clarence Angell/Marianne Lewis, Irma Stewart, Gayle LaChance, Mary Lou Radecki, Gayle LaChance, Mary Clements, Marion Koepke/Glen Boyd and our current Secretary/Treasurer/Club Manager, Fraser Wilson.
q In recent years, some of our cleaning staff comprised of Bob Ambro, Murray and Shirley Cox, Karen Elliott. Our current cleaning guru is Ms. Patricia Eames. Each of these custodians, past and present have done an excellent job is keeping our club clean and ready for use by our members.
q The club house and arena roof cover was replaced with new shingles by A M Roofing Grey Bruce Ltd. in the summer of 2011.