Angus MacTavish

Special to the Detroit Free Press

In curling, it is customary for competitors to shake hands before each match and wish each other "good curling." This year, the Detroit Curling Club and the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club are celebrating a century of such sportsmanship.

Several Detroit rinks will travel to Waterloo, Ontario, on March 17-19 to renew a convivial competition that, according to the KW Granite Club website, "began in 1917, when four gentleman curlers (two from the old Waterloo Curling Club and two from Kitchener) traveled by horse-drawn cutter and train to curl in Detroit. It turned out to be a two-week trip because they made several side stops before ending up at the Detroit Curling Club. … The event was such a success that the cross-border clubs reunited in Kitchener later in the year for another weekend of fellowship and curling."

The DCC-KW Exchange, as it came to be known, has been going strong ever since. In curling parlance, an exchange is different than a bonspiel, which uses an elimination bracket to pair up the top two teams for the championship. In an exchange, teams from the visiting club play an equal number of rinks from the host club, and the winning club typically is determined by the cumulative score of all games.

In the early 1900s, the DCC held exchanges with curling clubs throughout Ontario, Michigan and Ohio. But the exchange with the Kitchener and Waterloo clubs, which merged in 1927 as the KW Granite Club, was the one that endured.

"I firmly believe that exchanges like this solidify the fellowship of curling," said Joe Livermore, 91, who has attended most of the DCC-KW exchanges since he joined the Detroit Curling Club in 1963. "It's not just about throwing a stone or having a beer and a nice dinner. It's about curlers gathering to form lasting friendships and celebrate their sport."

Livermore remembers a time when Detroit curlers loaded several cases of beer aboard their rail car for the trip to Kitchener. By the time the train got halfway there, the men were so rowdy that the conductor decreed that either the beer or the curlers must get off at the next stop. The beer was left behind.

About 40 members of the Detroit Curling Club will travel to Waterloo this month to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the exchange, according to Dallas Schneider, a longtime DCC member who is helping organize the trip. KW Granite Club members will make a reciprocal visit to the DCC clubhouse in Ferndale on Nov. 10-12 -- and the DCC-KW Exchange will go rollicking into its second century.

Detroit Curling Club member chosen for Scottish tour