Curling and I go back a long way, which is why I am unable to resist writing about the grand old game this week — Brier week.
The Brier’s uniquely Canadian. From its birth 98 years ago, it has changed names…from Macdonald to Labatt to Nokia to Tim Hortons to Montana’s, now in its sophomore sponsorship season. The constant has been “Brier”: the name of a tobacco brand Macdonald no longer wanted, a century ago. So right from its origins, Brier was more about curling than smoking.
For those of us who have been around for all the name changes, that word has a singular meaning. Google it and you’ll find it’s defined as either a prickly flower or Canadian curling but, really, it’s no contest.
My Brier connection is meaningful yet minimal. I covered three Briers, and the first of them launched my modest career as a sports broadcaster. My assignment at Winnipeg’s 1970 Brier was to join my sports editor Jack Matheson (aka, the boss), if I concurred with his ultimatum: I had to remove my facial hair (“no shave, no Brier”). Yes, it was a different time.
Since the Brier meant more than a moustache, I shaved. Before the first draw, the phone rang. The call was from Montreal where another sports department boss (one I’d never met), Dick Irvin, wanted me to file voice-only reports — for television! He must have known I had a face for radio, even though it was clean-shaven. Two years later, I was in Montreal, working as a sportswriter. Six years after that, I was a sports broadcaster and, by then, had become lifelong friends with the Hockey Night in Canada star.
My connection with curling ran deeper than the Brier. I wouldn’t say I dreamt of being the next Ernie Richardson (you can look him up) but I curled as a kid and even listened to high-school curling on the radio! That was before graduating to my career highlight, curling in the Newsman’s Bonspiel, an event which focused on the kind of rocks that cool drinks. And my wife-to-be and I regularly spent Saturday nights curling with transplanted Lakehead broadcaster Ken Nicolson and his wife — he and I really knew how to show girls a good time!
All that groomed me to fall in love with curling.
So covering the Brier became a thrill. After reporting on Don Duguid’s hometown victory in 1970, it was on to Regina in 1976, when Jack Macduff won for Newfoundland for the first time, breaking the ice that Brad Gushue has melted — taking six of the last eight Briers home to “The Rock.” In 1979, I was in Ottawa for the last “Macdonald” Brier, also the final one without playoffs, won by Manitoba’s Barry Fry, who went 10-1 in the round-robin.
Yet for me, it didn’t have to be the best. In Quebec, curling was always well down the list of popular sports but it gave me something to cover between Expos baseball seasons. Plus, nobody else wanted to do it. In fact, one favourite memory is taking phone calls and writing curling stories from my hospital bed after minor surgery.
You have to love the game to do that.
