Curling, Etcetera_ A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game - Bob Weeks [29]
Colleen Jones weather/sports presenter, CBC
Ed Werenich firefighter
Wayne Middaugh golf professional
Markku Uusipaavalniemi Member of Parliament, Finland
Glenn Howard beer store manager
Peter Corner Vic Peters police officer golf course superintendent
Pete Fenson pizza parlour owner
Hammy Macmillan hotel manager
WORLD SERIES CURLER
New Zealand curler Hans Frauenlob is the only player to compete in the World Curling Championships and have two Major League Baseball World Series rings.
Huh, you say?
Frauenlob, a competitive curler originally a Torontonian, worked for the Toronto Blue Jays in their IT department during the club’s 1992 and 1993 World Series victories. As was every other Blue Jay employee, he was presented with a World Series ring after each of the club’s wins.
He later moved to New Zealand where he continued his curling career, eventually making it all the way to the world championship.
MARKKU THE MAGNIFICENT
Markku Uusipaavalniemi is best known for winning a silver medal for Finland at the 2006 Olympics. But he has been around the game for a long time and worked harder than most to reach world-class status. Some things you might not know about Uusipaavalniemi:
• In 2007 he was elected to Finland’s Parliament.
• U.S. curler Pete Fenson nicknamed him M-15 because he was unable to pronounce his last name. He has also been called Uusialphabet.
• As a student, he once had the highest mathematics score in a nationwide test and has reportedly solved a Rubik’s Cube in 25 seconds.
• Following his silver medal at the Olympics, more than 1,000 people turned up for weekly clinics, encouraged by his team’s performance. He was fielding 150 e-mails a day and appeared on television weekly.
• Uusipaavalniemi played in the 2002 Olympics, finishing fifth. He won the European championships in 2000 and has finished third at the world championships on two different occasions.
• The gold medal game in 2006 between Finland and Canada drew a television audience of 5 million in Finland, where curling is not much more than a fringe sport.
• Uusipaavalniemi built his own curling club in his hometown of Hyvinkaa.
SLIDING ALONG
Many curlers may not realize the impact Arnold Asham has had on their games, but the Winnipeg entrepreneur is one of the largest suppliers of curling equipment in the game. Whether it be a slider, a broom, or some clothing, Asham Curling Supplies has touched curlers around the world. A few notes on the man behind the company:
• Asham is a Métis who grew up in Kinosota, Manitoba, and started curling at age 13.
• He started working for the Manitoba Department of Mines and Resources while curling competitively and stumbled upon a material that made for a great slider. He started selling his now famous red-brick sliders out of his basement but when demand took off, he left his government job and went into the curling shoe business full time.
• Asham didn’t come up with the original idea for the red-brick slider. A fellow club curler, who worked in the printing business and used this hard plastic material in his work, was the first to put the material on his curling shoe. Asham was attracted by the noise it made and he revolutionized the manner in which it was put on the shoe.
• He sold more than $1 million worth of red-brick sliders.
• He was one of the founders of the World Curling Tour. His company serves as title sponsor of the circuit.
• He founded a square-dance group called the Asham Stompers, which competed in festivals wearing, of course, Asham curling shoes (without the slider).
• In addition to five kinds of curling shoes, Asham also sells curling brooms, bags, slip-on grippers, gloves, slip-on sliders, and curling apparel.
ALL-IMPORTANT CLUB
The Duddingston Curling Society lays claim to being “the most important curling club in the world.” Formed in 1795, the club was the haunt of choice for curlers in Edinburgh, who used the Duddingston loch as their venue. The most distinguished curlers from all over Scotland joined