Curling, Etcetera_ A Whole Bunch of Stuff About the Roaring Game - Bob Weeks [32]
For the first six years of the Canadian championship, Purple Heart crests were not awarded. Each curler did receive a small pin.
At the seventh championship, Gordon Campbell and his rink from the Hamilton Thistle Curling Club arrived at the championship with lavish crests presented to them by the Ontario Curling Association proclaiming them to be Ontario champions. Senator Jack Haig of Winnipeg, who was one of the Brier trustees (essentially the organizers) noticed the crests and asked Campbell about them. “I think we should do something like that,” he said.
The next year, every participant received the famous heart-shaped crest. However the original ones were not purple, but red. The colour changed in 1940 and has remained purple ever since.
TANKARD TIME
The trophy presented to the winner of the Brier is known as the Macdonald Brier Tankard and has a long history, somewhat longer than the championship itself. It was not even created for the Brier but for the Manitoba Bonspiel where it was first awarded to the winner in 1925. Presented by Macdonald Tobacco, the cup itself was hand-tooled in Great Britain.
In 1927, however, Macdonald Tobacco, the sponsor of the Brier, elected to use the trophy for the new national championship. It remained the official trophy until 1979, when the tobacco company ended its sponsorship.
For the first 27 years of the Brier, the names of the four winners were engraved into a heart-shaped crest and affixed to a base. However, after that period, there was no room left, and the players’ names were put onto a single plaque on the back of the trophy.
When Labatt took over sponsorship in 1980, it brought in its own trophy, which was presented until 2000. At that time, Nokia assumed title sponsorship, and in consultation with the Canadian Curling Association, had the original Macdonald Tankard reinstated. It was upgraded to the tune of $10,000 and, with the addition of a series of new base levels, every winning team from 1927 onward had their names engraved onto a heart-shaped crest.
Curling Quote
“A match for money even though the sum be devoted to charity, would drag down curling to the level of baseball.”
—A director of the Grand National Curling Club (forerunner of the United States Curling Association) in response to an 1870 challenge from Scottish curler Sir William Elliot, who said he’d play any North American team for £500 sterling
SPONSORS
Curling has had a number of interesting sponsors over the years, and in comparison to many other sports, the sponsors have stayed for extended periods of time. Here’s a list of some of the leading sponsors of major events, and the length of their support:
Canadian Men’s
Macdonald Tobacco 50 years
Labatt 20 years
Nokia 4 years
Tim Hortons 4 years*
World Championship
Scotch Whiskey Company 9 years
Air Canada 18 years
Safeway 2 years
Ford 14 years*
No sponsor 5 years
Canadian Women’s
Dominion Grocery 7 years
Macdonald Tobacco 8 years
Scott Paper (later Kruger) 27 years*
No sponsor 6 years
*on going
BATTLE OF THE SEXES
As long as male and female curlers have been throwing rocks, a war has been waged as to which sex is the better at curling. Over the years, there have been a number of highly publicized battles of the sexes. Here are a few notables:
• In November 1972,Vera Pezer and her team of Canadian champions challenged reigning men’s Canadian and world champion Orest Meleschuk to a game, one that eventually found its way onto the CBC. Pezer ended up winning the game 4-3 when Meleschuk missed his last shot of the game. The announcers, Don Chevrier and Don Duguid, summed up Meleschuk’s sentiments:
Chevrier: “I’m not sure Meleschuck can really believe it.”
Duguid: “He’ll believe it tomorrow morning, Don.”
• In October 2005, multiple-Brier winner Randy Ferbey and his team took on Jennifer Jones, the reigning Canadian women’s champion, in a skins-format