History of the Wausau Curling Club

Note: The above was written in 1986. If you want to have a look at the entire book, you can download a PDF copy (41 pages, 14,000 KB). This is a large file, so it would be best to do a right click on the link and save it to your computer to read at your leisure.  Our history continues below...

1980s…

Our Bob See and Doug Seeber were instrumental in developing the idea that Wausau could host winter games similar to the Badger State Summer Games held annually in Madison. With curling as one of the sports, the local organizing committee worked with the Badger State Games staff to add cross country skiing, downhill skiing, youth hockey and figure skating to the list and host the first Badger State Winter Games in February, 1988. The winter games have continued here ever since.

1990s…

Champioinship-level individual curling highlighted the 1990s, with our Marcia and Cal Tillisch curling on the U.S.National Championship Mixed curling team in 1991. They repeated this awesome feat in 1993. In 1995, Marcia was the lead curler on the Women’s National Championship rink, and went to the World’s where they finished fifth. In January of 1993, the Scottish Ladies Curling Tour Team came here for competition as part of their international tour. Somewhere in the ‘90s, maybe 1995, stick curling was introduced to the sport, enabling senior citizens—past their sliding days—to keep on throwing rocks.

2000s…         

The year 2000 ushered in a huge new century for curling worldwide and in Wausau. In 2002, Wheelchair curling was introduced in the U.S. In 2012, buoyed by generous community and foundation support, we opened the state-of-the-art, 8-sheet Wausau Curling Center on Curling Way. We were out of the old barn!

2020s…

Curling was suspended at the Curling Center for all of the 2020-21 season because of the COVID pandemic, although the U.S. Men’s and Women’s national competition was held in Wausau in May, 2021. We celebrated our 100th year of curling in Wausau. The Tietge High School bonspiel became one of the longest-running and the largest bonspiel for high school curlers in the nation. Our Matt Thums became the U.S. Open Wheelchair champion and became “skip” of the U.S. team which finished fourth in the 2021 World Championships and qualified for the Olympic-sanctioned Paralympics in Beijing, China, in March 2022.  In October, 2022, we were proud to be a host club on the Lady Scots U.S. tour. 

In 2023, the Wausau Curling Club membership and participation rebounded. In March, we hosted the U.S. National Club Championships, entering men’s and women’s teams against the best in the country. Teams from New York State and Colorado won the exciting competition.

Our younger curlers came through big time, too, A team skipped by Wausau West High School graduate Wes Wendling won the U.S. junior men's championships. Later in the year, his sister Ella curled on the winning U.S. junior mixed doubles team. Both headed for international competition where Wes’s team finished fourth and Ella and her partner Benji Paral brought home a bronze medal.

Their dad and curling coach at Wausau West, Jim Wendling, was named a “Coach of the Year” by USA Curling.

Matt Thums participated in the 2024 World Wheelchair Championships in South Korea.

In the fall of 2024, our club was selected as the site of the USA Curling Arena National Championships. In November, the Can-Am Cup of Curling brought a match between our curlers and the Canadian men to our ice.