SWEEP, THEN PUSH

For many years, push brooms were used almost exclusively in Europe, while North American curlers played with corn brooms. But in the 1970s, the tide turned, and much of the impetus to switch was the result of play at one curling club. The Calgary Winter Club was one of the first facilities in Canada to offer up push brooms for club use, putting them into play in the late 1960s. Curlers at that popular rink found that the push brooms were more effective because they never left the ice surface, less taxing on the body, and far less messy. Not surprisingly, the brooms took off.

The peak of success may have been 1975, when three teams from the club won national championships—all sweeping with push brooms. The rinks won the Canadian mixed, Canadian junior boys, and the Canada Winter Games.

“They are made right in Calgary and I think they are comparable to the corn brooms in effectiveness. There are places where you can keep working with the push broom when you couldn’t with a corn broom. You don’t wear yourself out as much in a long playdown, and you don’t get arm weary,” said Les Rowland, who skipped his team to the 1975 national mixed—the first Canadian championship team to use push brooms.