When the 1998 Winter Olympics were held in Nagano, Japan, they brought with them a curious sport that quickly caught on as a fad in the United States.
That fad continued at the next Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City four years later. Curling solidified its status as one of America's most loved foreign sports - or at least the one that they're most fascinated by -when it became a subject of one of David Letterman's "Top Ten" lists that year.
Four years after serving as a punch line on late-night talk shows, curling has finally caught on at Penn. In a culmination of years of work, the school's curling enthusiasts celebrated the official creation of the Penn Curling Club last week.
What, for the uninitiated, is curling? It's a question to which even its biggest fans don't have a ready-packaged answer.
"It's actually a combination of bowling, shuffleboard and chess, in a way," College senior and team creator Jason Reminick said.
Curling involves sliding a granite stone across an ice strip, while other team members guide the stone toward a bulls-eye target by sweeping the ice in front of it. These sweepers are not allowed to touch the stone at any time.
"It seems like an interesting sport, but once you've tried it it's even better than you would expect," Reminick said.
Like most Americans, Reminick took an interest in curling after watching it at the Nagano games, when it was reintroduced as an Olympic sport for the first time since 1924.
He followed it after that, and tried to start a curling club after seeing the various other clubs at Penn.
"Logistically, it wasn't feasible because of the [Class of 1923] ice rink and the rental fees," Reminick said.
But the idea was revived when Reminick stumbled on the Philadelphia Curling Club while browsing online. The Paoli, Pa., club, accessible by SEPTA's R5 regional rail line, gave Penn a much better rate than its home rink.
So after talking with the PCC and the College Curling Association, the concept began to take hold.
And last week, Penn joined such schools as Villanova, George Washington and Boston University by gaining an officially recognized curling team.
But Penn probably isn't at the stage where it can challenge established curling programs like Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Marquette.
For one, the Quakers don't even have any matches set up for the upcoming season, which officially starts when the ice is ready on Oct. 21.
Still, Reminick says he looks at the upcoming challenges with anticipation.
"Ideally, it would be nice to eventually go to the national championships," he said. "And we still have to raise funds, but it's an exciting time."
But the more pressing issue for a burgeoning club team isn't challenging top programs - it's recruiting and retaining new members.
"What's next for us is making our team larger, taking on more members who are really interested in curling . and developing the skills of the people that join," Reminick said.
Right now, the club has 12 members, all undergraduates, who have actually curled before. Eight more have shown interest, but they hope to increase that number in the coming weeks.
Oct. 21 is the Philadelphia Curling Club's open house, and Penn will be getting "as many people as we can" to come down for a Penn-only open house Oct. 28, according to Reminick.
"Curling is pretty unique, so if people just say, 'Yeah, I'll try it,' they're not going to come," College senior Megan Davidow, one of two women on the team, said. "But if you really drag them there, they're going to love it. It's really fun, and everyone who's come has come back."
