Celebrating Over 100 Years of Tosa Curling
Located just west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Wauwatosa Curling Club boasts four sheets of ice, a fun and friendly membership, and some of the best bonspiels in curling. The year 2021 was a big one for the membership, as it marked the 100-year anniversary of the club.
A Century of History
The Wauwatosa Curling Club played its first game in 1921 in a shed that was part of Stickney Field Club on Stickney Avenue, just south of where Wauwatosa's City Hall stands today. In 1925, the shed was moved to the confines of what is now Hart Park, a 19.5-acre plot of land nestled on the Menomonee River in the Village (now City) of Wauwatosa.
Hart Park, first dubbed City Park in 1921 until it was renamed in 1960, bears the name of Charles Hart, Wauwatosa’s founder. Over the years, the park grew to house a football/soccer field, baseball diamond, field house, tennis courts, a skate park, and nature trails. While the Wauwatosa Curling club took up residence in Hart Park in 1925, indoor curling wouldn’t come to Wauwatosa for another sixteen years.
In 1941, the club adopted its current home, also in Hart Park, in the then newly-constructed Muellner Building.
In the wake of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal employment and infrastructure program which sponsored several public works projects, including the construction of public buildings. The program brought improvements to the park which included stone walls, a new football field with bleachers, parking areas, and finally – with a refrigeration plant supplied by the club – indoor curling in the Muellner Building, the very first artificial indoor curling ice in the state of Wisconsin.
The Hart Park Howard Muellner Building, formerly the Wauwatosa Recreation Building, exists today, as it did in 1941, as a shared-space recreation facility. In addition to the Wauwatosa Curling Club, the Wauwatosa Senior Center, Hart Park staff offices, and city meeting rooms reside in the Muellner Building.
In addition to four sheets of ice, the club enjoys a clubroom and locker room on the lower level of the building. Spectating is possible with the use of a shared-space room on the main level, adjacent to the ice.
Changing Times
For many years, women in Wauwatosa curled as a separate group called the Wauwatosa Granites. A men’s team and their wives traveled to the Toronto-based Granite Curling Club, where they witnessed indoor artificial ice and women's curling for the first time. Both indoor ice and women’s curling were introduced to the Wauwatosa club within two years of that trip. The women’s curling group at Wauwatosa adopted the "Granites" name in recognition of the club where they first saw women's curling.
During this time, Wauwatosa became a founding United States Women's Curling Association (USWCA) club and held the very first U.S. women's bonspiel.
The Granites combined with the Wauwatosa Curling Club beginning with the 1989-90 season.
Challenges
The club experienced a near-fatal blow in 1998 from a massive flood – the second of its kind in the greater Milwaukee area in less than two years. Referred to by club members from that time as simply, “The Flood,” the clubroom and locker room, located on the lower level of the Muellner Building, were destroyed when the Menomonee River overflowed and completely submerged the club’s space.
Since that time, hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in the greater Milwaukee area to better protect the Menomonee River valley from flooding. As for the club, the membership pitched in to rebuild in 1998, and longtime members often share stories of the time and talents of members who rebuilt the club’s broomstacking, kitchen, locker, storage, and bar spaces.
With the clubroom rebuilt, the next challenge became clear: rebounding the membership numbers. As with many clubs in the United States, the return of curling as an official Winter Olympics sport in 1998 added a much-needed exposure boost, and the club’s numbers have climbed consistently ever since.
100 Years, and Counting!
In addition to a robust membership engaging in leagues and bonspiels, the club boasts lively participation in programs including Adaptive Curling, Try Curling, and group/corporate events. The club membership welcomes any and all opportunities to introduce the best sport in the world to future die-hard curling fans.
The Tosa Juniors program also celebrated a milestone in recent years – the 75th anniversary of juniors curling at the club.
Many curlers have visited Wauwatosa a time or two for the Valentine Open or Men’s Invitational Bonspiel. If you haven’t had the pleasure, ask around curling circles – you’re likely to find someone with rousing tales of Tosa’s signature hospitality.
Quick Facts:
Pronunciation: wah-wah-toe-sah
Behind the Name: Founded in 1842, the name Wauwatosa comes from the Potawatomi Chief Wauwataesie and the Potawatomi word for firefly. Today, visitors to Wauwatosa, lovingly shortened to "Tosa" by its residents, will find several firefly references throughout the city, including the name of the main floor room that overlooks the curling club's icehouse — the Firefly Room.
Membership: A normal membership year totals 350-375 members, with the season prior to the coronavirus pandemic reaching nearly 400 active members of the club.
Organization: The club is organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and the club's operations are governed by a board of directors.
Families of Note: The Brenckle, Dunlop, Grant, Hipke, and Rowland-Elwing families include 3rd and 4th generation curlers with the Wauwatosa Curling Club.