Sandy James was at a summer sale in Vancouver when she stumbled upon a unique piece of Calgary history.
It’s a silver trophy she believes is related to a curling team or tournament from the 1930s.
“When I looked online, it looked like there was a whole series of some curling games that happened around southern Alberta,” said James.
“It’s kind of neat to see something come out at a time that’s so similar to now.”
The trophy has several engravings on it including William A. Rogers Ltd. Toronto; a silver producer, the names of the winning team, as well as the name Calgary Brewery across the top of the cup.
For some time, James has been researching the names engraved on the trophy in attempt to track down the families.
She said that one of the names is related to Calgary’s heritage.
“The Otteson name is a very old pioneer name in Calgary,” she said.
“Someone has taken the time to carefully engrave all the names on it, and you just don’t see that.”
She hasn’t yet been able to find anyone who might be related to those who won the cup.
History is brewing
In a tweet, local Calgary musician Matt Masters said that the Calgary Brewery sponsored a few Curling trophies in the past.
“The Brewers Cup was a local challenge cup awarded intermittently from 1918 until the 1950s,” he said.
Others have also taken to Twitter to try and help James’ quest to return the trophy to the families of the teams.
The @yycbeltline hosts an annual Neighbourhood Curling Bonspeil at @Lougheedhouse every Feb, and I think it’s possibly connected to the old Brewers cup (the Neighbourhood bonspeil had also become defunct, and BNA revived it!) – they may have some contacts to follow up with.
— Stacy McFarlane (@stacemcf) November 3, 2020
The Calgary Brewery went through several changes through the 20th Century. After being taken over by Molson in 1989, they stopped production in 1994.
“I just thought it would be really fun to get it back to the rightful owner,” said James.
“It’s a lovely, silver, classic cup.”
