Fond farewell for campus curling

With the venerable old hockey rink set to close when the University of Saskatchewan Huskies move into state-of-the-art Merlis Belsher Place, the aging curling facility will also be decommissioned as the Campus Recreation student leagues and U of S staff leagues make the most of this final season.

“We will have a social (Friday, April 6) when the league is done and invite anyone who has ever curled there, for our last hurrah, kind of thing,” said university faculty/staff league president Louis Roth, who has been curling on campus since 1982 and taught in the College of Engineering for 34 years before retiring in 2016.

“After 30-plus years of curling at the U of S, it will be nice to reconnect with past curlers for a meal and drinks to reminisce about the early days of our club,” he added.

The six-sheet curling rink—located adjacent to the hockey rink—was originally built in the 1960s, with the facility now well past its prime. While it was home to recreational curling, no academic programming will be affected.

“Since the hockey and curling rinks are served by the same outdated ice plant, the curling facility will be shut down when Rutherford Rink is closed and hockey is moved to its new home, Merlis Belsher Place,” said Chad London, dean of the College of Kinesiology. “Unfortunately, we will no longer have our own facility for the curling club, although there are a number of excellent community facilities that welcome new members.”

Tickets for the staff curling league windup are $20 and available by emailing Roth at: louis.roth@usask.ca