The Curling sport was, as in many other Central-European countries, introduced to Austria by Scottish winter sport tourists. In the 1930’s Scottish guests already played Curling behind the Grand-Hotel in Kitzbühel. However, at that time the locals were not interested in this new winter sport.

In the winter of 1951/1952 the Kitzbühel Director of Tourism, Mr. Carl von Menshengen, brought a Scottish coach, Jimmy Fleming, to Kitzbühel and the Kitzbühel Tourist Association bought stones and brooms and prepared 2 (later 3) rinks. Only then Curling really got going in Austria.

In 1955 the Kitzbühel Curling Club (KCC) was founded and the locals started practising this sport, too. Numerous tournaments were organised and a lot of Scottish winter sports enthusiasts came to play Curling in Kitzbühel.

At that time, similar efforts were made in St. Anton, St. Johann and Seefeld, but eventually only the KCC became member of the RCCC (Royal Caledonian Curling Club – the “Mother Club”) and the number of Curlers rose in Kitzbühel. At the beginning of 1960, several former ice-hockey players joined the Kitzbühel curlers and hence Curling boomed further.

Curling continued growing in Austria when the Curlers moved from the open-air rinks to the newly built ice-arena. Then however, the development of Curling in Austria suddenly stopped. In the winter of 1974/1975 a new Board started new initiatives. New members were found, clinics and tournaments were organised. Soon after that, the club again had over 100 members, who practised their sport in Kitzbühel. A second club (CC Halali) was founded in Kitzbühel, another club was founded in the neighbouring Kirchberg. Efforts to get Seefeld, Zell am See and St. Anton interested in the sport as well were not successful, but the foundation of an Austrian Curling Association now became a top priority.

July 11, 1980 was the day! The Austrian Curling Association (ÖCV) was founded in Kitzbühel and Günther Hummelt became its first President (and is President still today!). The Vice-President at that time was Dieter Küchenmeister, the then President of the Kitzbühel Curling Club.

Thanks to the excellent connections of the ÖCV-President, Curling in Austria developed much faster than in other countries. Already in 1981 a Women’s and a Men’s team participated in the European Curling Championships at Grindelwald, Switzerland. In 1982 at Kirkcaldy, Scotland the Women’s Team managed to qualify for the World Curling Championships. The men as well managed to qualify for the World Curling Championships in 1983 by winning their games against England and France.

In 1982 the Austrian Curling Association became a member of the International Curling Federation – today the World Curling Federation (WCF). In 1988 Günther Hummelt was elected WCF-Vice-President and in 1990 he became WCF President. During his 10 year term as WCF-President he managed that Curling was officially accepted as the 7^th Olympic Winter sport and that it was included in the programme of the 1998 Olympic Winter Games at Nagano, Japan.