// TALES FROM SHEET NINE
Explore St. Paul's history in roaring good book
By David Garber, Emeritus Editor,
dj.garber@
tds.net
100 Roaring Years on Selby Avenue: Te St. Paul Curling Club ($40, 248pp, hard cover, Beaver’s Pond Press), by Jane McClure and Tim McMahon, with Carrie Maciej Benton and Greg Walsh. What a marvelous job they’ve done! Many curlers will recognize many of the people pictured and written
T
about. From the legendary Bob Dunbar and Ker Dunlop, to current legends Mike Farbelow, Paula Arnold and Jim Dexter, the competition and social side of curling comes alive. In spite of the club’s travails – and there were periods of near despair about the club’s future – the reader will learn how the spirit of curling and volunteerism kept the club afloat and thriving. From the time the Capitol City and Nuschka curling clubs merged in
1912 and built the oſt-refurbished modern facility we see today, St. Paul has been a key hub in American curling, hosting many state, national, Olympic and international curling events. Te St. Paul Curling Club has the largest membership of any U.S. club,
more than 1,000 strong. Since 1912, thousands of curlers from around the world have visited the grand old building to bonspiel. Historic notes abound in this volume here are but a few: n Te club’s early key supporters included the son of railroad robber
baron James J. Hill. n Ken Watson, perhaps the world’s foremost curler from the 1930s
through the early 1950s, attended the St. Paul Summer Bonspiel several times in the mid-1940s (yes, a summerspiel, held at a skating ice arena.) n Bob Dunbar set the world record for the old solo “Points Game” scor-
ing 66 of 72. n Te Arden Hills club, north of Minneapolis, was established in 1973
and disbanded in 1980, with many of their members joining (or re-joining) the SPCC. n Men from Scotland toured North America and stopped at the SPCC in
1903, 1912, 1949 and many times since the formal Herries-Maxwell Trophy USA Tour began in 1952. n Women started curling in St. Paul in 1952, a little behind some other
clubs, but have made up for that late start with great achievements ever since. n Te original Selby building had six sheets of natural ice. Refrigeration
on two sheets came in 1939; on all eight sheets by 1963. n Te first notable publicity about curling in the Twin Cities was an ar-
ticle in Harper’s Weekly in 1893, covering the Northwest Bonspiel. Te 1912 ‘Spiel used the club’s six sheets plus six outside in tents. n In 1925, the club pioneered rating of league curlers to help match
teams more evenly. n Tere were periods of hard times, including the shortages of men and
materials during World War II; slumps in membership and finances; urban renewal; and the constant concern with the health of the stately but aging building. Tis well-written book is an essential library component for any curler
USA Curling (( 21
he column title above was influenced by, among other things, the St. Paul Curling Club’s once infamous sheet eight. You can learn why an eight-sheet club had a “sheet nine” with the publication of
interested in curling’s history and people. Tere are scores of wonderful photographs that document people, clothing and equip- ment, for Mid-Westerners and Scots, over the century of development. Tere are stories of family legacies and service to curling from the local to the international level. Some things don’t change department: During development of this arti-
cle, I called the St. Paul club for information. Club co-manager Jim O’Leary answered. I called the club for information in 1983, and Jim O’Leary an- swered. Well, as usual, we had a nice chat. When one guy has 50+ years of curling and the other has over 60, there is plenty to reminisce about. Jim recalled, “My dad started me curling in 1950 at the old Duluth Curl- ing Club, with 12 sheets of curling on the first floor and a skating arena on the second floor.” I grew up in a two-sheet club. Jim said he hadn’t curled in a two-sheet club (more common in Wisconsin) until a few years ago in Columbia County at the Senior Men’s National Bonspiel. So what about the name, “sheet nine?” Tere was a time that St. Paul’s
sheet eight was so bad the members tore it down and remade it, walls, roof, base and all. I think the scene was something like the villagers with their torches at the conclusion of Frankenstein. So the re-constituted and now normal sheet was labeled “sheet nine” at least for a few years, so visiting curlers would not dread a draw on that sheet. Or something like that. Just to be sure, ask a St. Paul curler or better yet, buy the book! By the way, the term “reading the ice” had a more complicated meaning
when dealing with sheet eight at St. Paul, sheet seven at Hibbing, and many more irregular monsters back in the day. To order your copy of 100 Roaring Years on Selby Avenue: Te St. Paul
Curling Club, visit
www.stpaulcurlingclub.org and click on the book cover on the home page to order. Te club will FedEx the book anywhere. Curling News readers may contact co-author Tim McMahon at 763-546-2228. n
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