Our Club History
In 2002, America started to pay serious attention to an Olympic sport that had been fairly obscure. Curling -- stones launched down the ice by one team member while others direct its trajectory by sweeping the ice in front of it -- became a cult passion. Clubs began to spring up in parts of America that had never before heard of curling. Today, the Dallas/Fort Worth Curling Club stands as an example of how far south the appeal of this sport has reached.
Our club started in a coffee shop on St. Patrick's Day after the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. David Villegas, Keltysue Harris, Mark Parker and Dan Johnson gathered to talk about the possibility of starting a club. As the club's first officers, they plotted a course to put curlers on the ice in North Texas. They found an unlikely ally in a local radio show that had also been obsessing about the sport. Mark Davis from WBAP (AM 820) brought his colleagues and more than a few listeners into the fold.
Spreading the news about a new club is one thing. Having the facility and equipment to actually do it is another. Securing a home at the Dr. Pepper StarCenter in Duncanville, (just south of Dallas), and borrowing stones from the Houston Curling Club, we held summer open houses that gathered enough people to begin league play in the fall of 2002.
Six successful seasons followed as our club grew and became more committed. The Winter Olympics in 2006 naturally attracted attention and curling interest grew locally - 700 people showed up for our 2006 "learn to curl" sessions!!
2008-09 will be the seventh season for the D/FW Curling Club. Our passion and our membership continue to grow and so does our pride now that we have successfully hosted the Texas Open Bonspiel (with one of our own teams winning). We look forward to welcoming new members during the off-season at open houses and special events.
The D/FW Curling Club is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to furthering the amateur sport of curling. We do this by increasing awareness of the sport, attracting athletes interested in local, national and international competition and by training those athletes for competition.
