December brings the Calder Trophy Men’s Bonspiel to Norfolk. Established about 1960, the trophy is named after John Walcott Calder of Utica, NY, a veteran curler who curled in the first-ever Olympic demonstration at the 1936 Winter Games in Lake Placid. Calder’s daughter, Elisabeth, introduced the sport to Norfolk when she married Ted Childs, and the couple founded the Norfolk Curling Club. In 1956 the first shed was constructed, a wooden building with openings to let in the cold air. At that time there was no equipment to make ice. Pictured in this photograph competing against the Ardsley Curling Club is Richard I. Barstow, who practiced medicine in Norfolk for 50 years. Many teams return year after year to Norfolk to compete for the Calder Trophy. Fortunately, in 2011 the trophy was in the hands of the winning Schenectady Curling Club team and survived the fire that destroyed the Norfolk club that December.

Ann Havemeyer

Photo copyright Norfolk Historical Society