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• The club’s first site was on a parcel of land just east of Queen’s Park, the provincial legislature. The land was leased and the club built for $700. In future years, the club moved to locations on Church Street, north of Wellesley, and then, in 1926, to St. Clair Avenue, just west of Yonge. Its current location is on Bayview Avenue.

• One of the main reasons to build the facility on St. Clair was to install artificial ice. In 1924 and ’25, because of mild conditions, there had been almost no curling at the Church Street club, which had natural ice. When completed, the new rink was called “the largest single covered expanse of artificial ice on the American continent.”

• Curling was only one of many sports available to members of the Granite Curling Club. Tennis, golf, swimming, bowling, badminton, and skating were all part of the lineup although curling remained the primary focus for many years.

• A hockey team from the Granite Curling Club won the gold medal at the 1924 Olympics.

U.S. COLLEGIATE CURLING

While it’s not quite on the same level as the Rose Bowl, there is a U.S. collegiate curling championship held annually. College curling began with the Illinois State Curling Foundation, which was established to administer a trust left by Darwin Curtis, an enthusiastic curler from Wilmette, Illinois. It started with a program to introduce college-aged curlers to the game in the mid-1980s and has grown into a true national bonspiel. In 2007, 30 teams were in the event, now held annually in Madison, Wisconsin. Among the schools that field teams are Harvard, MIT, Rutgers, and the University of Minnesota.

SIX-SHOOTER

Only once has a Brier held in an arena had more than five sheets of ice. In Hamilton in 1991, because the ice surface was built to handle international hockey (which has a wider rink than North American hockey), six sheets of ice were built on the floor of Copps Coliseum. That allowed organizers to run an event with no morning draws, the only time that’s happened. In total, only 14 draws were held, and attendance reached 88,894.

Curling Quote

“I’m sure it was boring to watch. We could hear some people yelling down at us on the ice. It was frustrating for us too.”

—British Columbia skip Rick Folk commenting on his 3-2 loss to Pat Ryan in the final of the 1989 Brier, regarded as one of the most uninteresting, boring Canadian finals ever

OUT OF THE COLD

The first indoor curling rink with artificial ice opened in 1907 in Crossmyloof, Scotland.

CROWDED HOUSE

Brier attendance records have been kept since 1946, although in the early days, they were little more than estimates. The highest attendance came in 2005 in Edmonton when 281,985 people watched the competition. The lowest was in 1971 in Quebec City when just 8,501 fans showed up. That’s the only time since ’46 that fewer than 10,000 people watched the Canadian championship, although it should be noted that a major snowstorm limited travel for much of the week.

KEN WATSON, MR. CURLING

In the 1930s and ‘40s, Ken Watson was known across Canada as Mr. Curling, and a look at his record shows the name was justified. Watson won three Briers as well as a host of other notable events, and was instrumental in starting the Scotch Cup, which was the forerunner of the world championships. Here are some facts about Watson:

• He was born in 1904 in Minnedosa, Manitoba, the son of a reverend.

• He started curling at 15, and his first curling prize was a butter knife.

• He skipped the Brier-winning rink in 1939, ’42, and ’49.

• Many felt he would have won more Briers, but the championship was put on hold from 1943 to 1945 because of the Second World War, right at the peak of Watson’s career.

• He was one of the first people to slide while delivering the rock. He accomplished this by taking off his rubber, which all curlers wore on their shoes at the time, and sliding on the sole of his shoe. In later years, he affixed solder to the bottom of his shoe so he could slide even farther. He was roundly criticized