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• Lang holds the dubious distinction of being the only Canadian curler to lose games at the world championship to both France and Italy.

• Lang’s wife, Lorraine, won two Canadian women’s championships. Together, they won the Canadian Mixed.

• In 2006, Lang and Hackner joined forces again to win the Canadian Senior Championship.

Curling Quote

“Curling is not a sport. I called my grandmother and told her she could win a gold medal because they have dusting in the Olympics now.”

—Former NBA star and now outspoken television commentator Charles Barkley

CUT SHORT

Curling is an extremely popular sport on television, so much so that networks and curling associations should know better than to mess with those watching. Two examples prove that out:

• In 1987, the CBC showed the semi-final of the Brier between Mark Noseworthy of Newfoundland and British Columbia’s Bernie Sparkes. The game went longer than expected, and the network elected to cut away from the curling in favour of the evening news. With five rocks left to play, the coverage left the curling to show the warm-up of a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Philadelphia Flyers.The CBC switchboard was flooded with phone calls from irate curlers, and a new policy was put in place to allow any curling game to finish, regardless of the time.

• In 2005, the Canadian Curling Association signed a new broadcast agreement with CBC that moved round-robin games away from fan favourite TSN to a subscription channel owned by the CBC called Country Canada. When the first game of the Canadian Women’s Championship aired and curling fans were unable to find it on TSN, the Canadian Curling Association’s head office received such an onslaught of phone calls, it shut down its phone line. A year later, under much pressure, the round-robin games returned to TSN.

THE ICEMAN CURLETH

Al Hackner was known in curling circles as “The Iceman” for the cool, emotionless demeanour he exhibited on the ice, even in tense situations. The curler from Thunder Bay, Ontario, won two Canadian and world championships and a great many cashspiels over his career. He is also credited with throwing the most dramatic shot in Brier history—a nearly impossible 10th-end double takeout that led to his second Canadian championship. And he never let a party stand in the way of a good bonspiel. Here are some notes about Al Hackner:

• He named his dog Tankard, after the trophy awarded to the Canadian champions.

• He played second in the 1976 Canadian mixed championship for Alberta, while living in Edmonton.

• He realized near the end of his career that he may have enjoyed himself a little too much during his heyday. “I’ll be the first to admit I probably wasn’t disciplined enough,” he said in Curling: The History, The Players, The Game by Warren Hansen. “When I played seriously, we’d always have beer and the stereo going.”

• After winning his first world championship, Hackner was voted the second most recognizable person in his home town of Thunder Bay. The mayor was first.

• At the 1980 Brier, Hackner and his team decided they wanted to see if Paul Gowsell, who represented Alberta and was the game’s leading money winner, was as wild a party animal as the stories made him out to be. For the first few days, Hackner and his front end of Bruce Kennedy and Bob Nicol went to Gowsell’s room every night to drink beer. On the fourth night, they arrived to find the door locked, and claimed victory in the party wars.

• Hackner started curling on natural ice in Nipigon, Ontario.

• He worked for more than 30 years for CN, serving as a switcher, trainman, and conductor.

MARILYN BODOGH

One of the most colourful figures in women’s curling is Marilyn Bodogh, a two-time World Curling champion from St. Catharines, Ontario. Bodogh won titles in 1986 and ’96, and was an active player on the competitive circuit for close to 20 years. A few notes about this lively lady:

• She made her first appearance at the Canadian