Oklahoma Curling Club

About Oklahoma Curling Club

Oklahoma Curling Club: Prairie Curling Born of the 2010 Olympics

Oklahoma Curling Club was founded in 2010, riding a wave of interest after the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Its first president, University of Oklahoma political science professor Jonathan Havercroft, had moved from Montreal, and the club’s launch was remarkably fast: more than 70 people signed up for its first spring league. The club plays on arena ice at the Arctic Edge Ice Arena in Edmond, sharing the rink with hockey and figure skating.

League play runs in fall, winter and spring sessions of eight to nine weeks, usually on Sundays, with two leagues of eight or nine teams each season and a three-week social league on Saturday evenings. Learn-to-curl sessions led by certified instructors come before each league, adaptive options are available for players with mobility limitations, and a University of Oklahoma college team curls as part of the club.

Members travel to bonspiels across the country, and the club sent teams to the USA Curling Arena National Championships three years in a row. Its members like to quote the game’s tradition: it starts with a handshake and ends with the winning team buying the first round.