Curling Glory In Vermilion

While it wasn’t an Olympic gold medal in curling, the White Trophy in Vermilion was a pretty big deal for curlers over 100 years ago.

Back in February 1909, the Vermilion Curling Club took on several other clubs for the right to hold the White Trophy. This was the first year that the trophy was available to win and several teams were hoping to capture it.

The teams that competed were from all around eastern central Alberta including Vermilion, Fort Saskatchewan and Vegreville. Multiple rinks form each community also competed.

The trophy was created thanks to the generosity of William Henry White, the Member of Parliament for the area. He was brand new to Parliament, having been elected in 1909. While he was the Member of Parliament for Victoria, he was from the Fort Saskatchewan area and had served with the North-West Mounted Police. He would serve in Parliament until 1921.

The four rinks competing were all evenly matched, and in the first match between Vegreville and Fort Saskatchewan, both were tied after 12 ends. Each rink played an extra end and Fort Saskatchewan won by two points.

The winners then took on the Vermilion rinks, and even though the Fort Saskatchewan team had members of the Royal North West Mounted Police, that wasn’t enough to beat the Vermilion rinks. The rinks from the community won three out of four events, winning by 10 shots on the total, 41 to 31.

It was the first time the trophy was available to win, and while it would eventually disappear as a trophy, it was something for Vermilion to celebrate.

At the time, the community was relatively new, having only been born four years earlier, but it was able to defeat older communities and become the first-ever White Trophy Champions.

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