History of the Detroit Rockettes

While the Detroit Curling Club is 125 years old, the history of women at the DCC is notably shorter. From the time of the Detroit Curling Club’s founding in 1885 to 1943, women were not allowed on the ice. They attended social functions as early as 1890; however, they were not allowed in the taproom or in the main bar when the club was located in Downtown Detroit. Instead, women gathered in the Club’s “basement” on Thursday nights, chatting and playing cards while their husbands curled. Drinks from the taproom were sent down to the ladies via a dumbwaiter, a practice that continued until the late 1960s or early 1970s.

On December 6, 1941, Ruth Brown approached the DCC Board of Directors to institute a ladies curling night. The earliest record of women curling at the DCC is February 10, 1943. Board meeting minutes from April of that year mention a ladies’ curling committee. It consisted of four men.

In 1952 Ruth Brown, Eleanore Fisk, Gladis Hile, and Grace Wilder founded an organization called the Detroit Rockettes, with the stated mission to promote good fellowship through curling. Since its early days, the Rockettes have provided a social network for the DCC’s female curlers, organized women’s bonspiels, and raised funds to support Detroit Curling Club events, building repairs and improvements, and other Club needs. The Rockettes also worked to represent the interests of women curlers in the DCC, who were not considered full voting members until 1991.

One of the Detroit Rockettes’ early achievements was the 1957 Ladies National Bonspiel. That same year, the Rockettes began an annual bonspiel that attracted American and Canadian teams from throughout the region. Ultimately becoming a 2-day event, the Rockettes hosted the event until 1997. In 1958, women joined men on the DCC ice for a Mixed International Bonspiel.

In 1985 the Rockettes began an annual Ladies One Day bonspiel, an event that is now spread over two days and draws American and Canadian teams from throughout the region to this day. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Rockettes took turns hosting the Friendly Bonspiel with the ladies of Bowling Green Curling Club and the Kitchener Exchange with the women from Kitchener, Ontario.

In 1988 the Detroit Rockettes amended its bylaws to allow the Rockettes Board of Directors to appoint a representative to serve on the Detroit Curling Club Board of Directors. This gave women more franchise in the Club than they had previously, although the Rockettes representative did not have full voting privileges on the DCC Board until Nina Sgriccia served in that position during the 1990-1991 season when women were admitted as full members of the Club. Women achieved another first in the Club in 1997 when active Rockettes member Linda Handyside was elected President of the Club. In the 2022-2023 Season, women comprised the majority of the DCC Board with an all-female Executive Board of Stephanie Whitmore (President), Maryanne Wessels (Vice President), Diana Jankowski (Treasurer), Catherine Haggart (Assistant Treasurer), and Marta Bauer (Secretary).

The Rockettes remain active, hosting the Ladies’ Two Day Bonspiel, social activities year-round, and holding fundraisers to support both charitable causes and club operations. These funds support activities such as purchasing new furniture, hosting the Scottish women in the decennial Scot Tour, and supporting club members traveling to national competitions.