// TALES FROM SHEET NINE


1965: Young ‘pups’ capture world championship title


By David Garber, U.S. Curling News Columnist, dj.garber@tds.net


readers (scads of them?) the Dave Clark Five were victors on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and later headlined with the Lawrence Welk band. Teir waltz and foxtrot music will forever inspire us! U.S. men win worlds


“ Te Dave Clark Five were really big in 1965,


arguably second only to the Beatles. Teir hit, Glad All Over, was controversial in those more innocent days. My younger brother and I saw them live at the Eagles Club in Milwaukee, aka “Devine’s Million Dollar Ballroom” on Wiscon- sin Avenue across from the Ambassador Hotel – huge crowd – I put bro on my shoulders so he could see. You couldna hear nuthin’ what with the screaming. On the curling scene, young Bud Somerville,


Bill Strum, Al Gagne, and Tom Wright of Supe- rior, Wis., won the U.S. Nationals and then the Scotch Cup, as the Men’s World Championship was called then. Te Somerville four were called “Te Kid Rink” then – their average age was 25 – since the average age of championship curlers was about 10 years older. Te U.S. men’s national championship format


was then round robin only. Some would argue that makes sense today to select the best team in the field. Wisconsin and Illinois finished 10-1, with the former winning a playoff game. North Dakota, Minnesota and Washington rounded out the top five teams. In the Scotch Cup at Perth, to quote the


then-named North American Curling News, the “Crew cut crew … twice downed Canadian Brier champions to head the six-nation field including Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. All previous Scotch Cup competitions had been won by Canada.” As a teenaged curler, I remember realizing that the Canadians could be beaten. By the way, the event name was not a misspelling of Scots, but the name of the sponsor, the Scotch


Bits and Pieces, 1965” with apologies to the Dave Clark Five, is my theme for this column. For the benefit of the younger


Whisky Association. And “Whisky” is Scottish for “whiskey.” Great Curling Names Department


As now, the Curling News in 1965 listed bon-


spiel winners’ names, and some were apt for curling, like “Skid” McComb of Exmoor, Ill. One wonders if “Skid” was teased aſter games should any of his draw shots be heavy and go too deep. L.T. “Tink” Kreutzig


“Tink” Kreutzig was editor of the Curling


News from 1959-1979 (preceded by founder Glenn Harris and succeeded by Frank and China Rhyme). “Tink” was an entrepreneur and a good writer, whose Tinkerings column was always a good read (like the later Rhymestones). He wrote, in the April 1965 issue, that Fairbanks, Alaska, flew two delegates to the United States Men’s Curling Association (USMCA) meeting in an effort to have the 1967 national championship transferred to their “country” (Tink’s word, per- haps tongue in cheek) as part of the observance marking the 100th


anniversary of the purchase


of Alaska from Russia. Curling has been in style since the 1904 gold rush – two sheets were put under one roof in 1906, and the Fairbanks club grew to six sheets. Te club offered to pay trav- el expenses of all competing rinks and run the event concurrently with the North American dog team championships. Unfortunately, hosting for the next three years had been granted. It wasn’t until 1981 that Fairbanks would host the men’s national championship. USWCA All-American established


Te U.S. Women’s Curling Association (US-


WCA) directors decided to sponsor an event dubbed the All-American, scheduled during the 1965-66 season. Each club was to be responsible to make ice time available per local needs. Te USWCA will provide award pins. Te event must be independent from the USWCA National Bon- spiel and cannot be used as a playdown for that bonspiel. Minimum four local rinks, with three- game minimum to determine the local winner. Te USWCA was founded in 1947, 11 years be- fore the USMCA. In about 1980, the USMCA was renamed the USCA and in 1986, women direc-


tors were added to the USCA to encourage equal gender represen- tation. Te USWCA remains a separate, active, vibrant organization with programs promoting a variety of women’s and children’s curling events. Sweeping news


In the publication Duck Soup for Ardsley Curl-


ers, its editor called attention to a Jan. 25, 1965, article in Sports


Illustrated which discussed


sweeping. “At the recent Tournament of Cham- pions in Toronto, Canada, a machine delivered a series of stones with exactly equal velocity. Stones that had the benefit of sweeping travelled as much as 12 feet further than those leſt on their own.” Te Ardsley bulletin noted the importance in skip judgment on when to sweep. No mention of who swept. No mention of the person with great draw weight dubbed, “Te Machine.” Now back to Dave Clark


OK, so much for bits and pieces of old-time


curling. But, how dare I not mention the Stones were in the mix with Dave Clark as being popular runners-up to the Beatles? Well there you are, I mentioned ‘em. As one who has been in the origi- nal Liverpool Cavern Club cellar at 10, Mathew Street (a facsimile was built two doors down us- ing original bricks aſter the original was demol- ished in 1973), I like to claim authority on this sort of thing. n


Te Dave Clark Five (above) did not feature Curl- ing News columnist David Garber, as rumored.


USA Curling (( 31


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