#TBT to 12 years ago, also in Calgary
12 years ago, Ontario skip Glenn Howard—currently riding the Brier pine as de facto Wild Card alternate—made a killer shot at the 2009 Brier, which was also hosted in Calgary.
It was a humdinger. It came during Ontario’s round-robin tilt against Saskatchewan’s Joel Jordison. It caused an explosive reaction from curling fans. It inspired our excited image folks to grab a bunch of TSN screenshots, slap them together and add arrows and whatnot.
The reaction prompted our on-site reporters to collect a pile of quotes in the immediate aftermath. Here are some.
An angle-raise, in-off double and stick it and throw your arms in the air and run around like an idiot. It was a one-in-a-million. (Glenn Howard)
I’m really sorry I’m the guy who set him up to play it. (Joel Jordison)
Collectively we weren’t our best. I let the boys down, it was my worst game of the week and somehow miracles happen. (Glenn Howard)
Call it an angle-raise double redirect. (Ontario third Richard Hart)
Makes me want to lose some hair and grow two feet. (Cheryl Bernard)
Our troops then jumped online and collected more from the masses.
Holy s**t, what a shot! (Jill Officer, Winnipeg, Man.)
In-off slash raised triple for the win, wow. (Darryl Nodwell, London, Ont.)
That’s a Tim Horton’s shot, a double-double! (Rich Ashford, Pittsburgh)
OMG, craziest curling shot ever! Glenn Howard is God! (Earl Andrew Washburn, Ottawa, Ont.)
Can’t believe SASK left that for him ... it was wired. (Brian Chick, Toronto)
I think I just saw about the best shot ever to win a curling game. (Dean Gemmell, Short Hills, NJ)
YouTube, which was only five years old at the time and far from ubiquitous, has it for you. Enjoy this #ThrowbackThursday moment.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kE5QzOprns[/embed]
For the record, Alberta’s Kevin Martin went undefeated (13-0) to win that Brier title, about eight months before he won the Canadian Olympic Trials en route to Olympic gold at Vancouver 2010. Manitoba’s Jeff Stoughton came second at 10-5 and Howard wound up third at 10-4.
Martin’s then-teammates are still rocking 12 years later, with John Morris reunited with Ben Hebert on Team Koe while Marc Kennedy plays third for Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs. Howard’s former second Brent Laing is also in Calgary, playing with Ontario’s John Epping.