Curling in Sweet Home Chicago

World Curling is running an Olympic Celebration Tour at the Chicago Curling Club (CCC) in Northbrook, IL today and tomorrow.

I agree with the choice, having dropped in to visit CCC as well as the Exmoor Country Club (just six miles away) a few weeks back.

Chicago is referred to as “that toddlin’ town” in the famous song written by Fred Fisher in 1922. The rendition by Frank Sinatra reached No. 84 on the charts in 1957. It is not to be confused with Frank’s other classic tune “My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)” which reached No. 110 in 1964.

The nickname “Second City” originated as an insult from a series of New Yorker articles written by A.J. Liebling. A comic acting group called the Compass Players came out of the University of Chicago and chose the self-mocking name for their theatre company in 1959. Expansion to Toronto led eventually to Second City Television (SCTV) and this classic curling comedy sketch.

Though not confirmed, it is possible Ol’ Blue Eyes and founding members of The Second City may have put on a slider and tossed curling stones in Chicago, once upon a time.

Founded in 1948, the Chicago Curling Club was formed by members of local country clubs who wanted a dedicated curling facility with artificial ice. First club president Hughston McBain called it “a club nobody wanted.” Curling on natural ice was provided during the winter at the Indian Hill, Exmoor, Skokie and Glen View.

Most golfing members of these clubs had a general lack of interest and regarded curling as “a temporary fad.” For the die-hard curlers, being limited to 45 days of curling over the winter of ’45-46 was not going to cut it.

Following the success of the CCC, the same country clubs that had dismissed curling’s appeal eventually built their own facilities. Over the next two decades, Oak Park, Barrington Hills, North Shore and the Saddle & Cycle Club added curling rinks as well.

Hughston Maynard McBain’s impact on curling reaches beyond the borders of Illinois. He was CEO of Marshall Field & Company and Director of the First National Bank of Chicago but also loved curling and all things Scottish.

He was instrumental in establishing the United States Men’s Curling Association (USCA) and the formation of its national championship.

The first men’s U.S. nationals were held in Chicago in 1957, with McBain as chairman.

The event was held not on the sheets of the CCC, but in Chicago Stadium, home to the National Hockey League’s Chicago Black Hawks.

A decade later, CCC member Dar Curtis gave a grant of $400,000 (about $3.9M today) to the Wilmette Park District to build a new six-sheet rink.

The Curtis Curling Centre opened in 1968 as a municipality-run facility, with a pay-as-you-go model, similar to public golf.

Gerry Duguid, older brother of eventual two-time world champion and longtime CBC broadcaster Don Duguid, moved from Winnipeg with his wife Betty to operate the new curling centre.

Betty was a year removed from winning the 1967 Women’s Canadian Championship, the last “Diamond D,” titled after its Dominion Stores sponsorship. She would go on to win two USWCA national bonspiels (1972, ’75) and represent Illinois at the first two official US women’s championships in 1977 and ’78.

In 1978 deficits forced the closing of the Curtis Curling Center only a decade after it first opened. Beginning in the 1980s, the downward trend continued, and most country clubs eventually closed their facilities. CCC and Exmoor are the only curling facilities left standing from that era.

During my recent visit, I was able to drop by these two legendary clubs. Windy City Curling Club opened its doors in 2019 – at the back of a strip mall no less – but I was unable to make there it on this trip.

Windy City CC made a comeback from fire in 2024 – they shut down in March of that year, but reopened in November. Bravo.  

This Chi-town curling mini-pilgrimage began with an unexpected drop in at the Chicago Curling Club. After devouring a classic Italian beef at Barnaby’s, I realized the CCC was a short walk up Skokie Boulevard.  A lone car in the parking lot belonged to ice technician Ryan Murphy who was just arriving as I came towards the front door.

Ryan started curling after watching it in the Winter Olympics, a common theme I heard from many people during my visit. He’s been the club’s icemaker for eight years.

Ryan skips a team that usually competes locally but a 2-2 record in the Duluth Cashspiel last season netted team ranking points. Team Murphy may not be aware they currently sit 265th in the world.

Ryan provided me with a little history of the club and searched for a book for more details, but we could not locate a copy. Word spread and after an email or two, author Jim Klann offered to leave a copy of “Shots to Remember: The Story of the Chicago Curling Club” the next evening.

He would leave it in an apt location, the “American Curling History Museum.”

Many thanks to Jim as the book was an invaluable resource for this article.

Later that evening, I headed to the Exmoor Country Club to meet Anthony Fowler and his wife Gloria Chao for dinner.

The club began in 1896, opened nine holes in 1897 and its 18-hole golf course was completed in 1915 by famed architect Donald Ross.

This ends part one. Tomorrow I’ll have part two – Exmoor, then back to Chicago CC for more fun.