Buried Curling Treasure: St. John’s 2017 Brier

ST. JOHN’S – The capital of Newfoundland and Labrador is hosting the 2026 Montana’s Brier for the third time. We previously looked at the 1972 Brier, the first held in St. John’s. This edition of Buried Treasure will go back less than a decade to 2017, before and after Brad Gushue won his first Brier championship title.

What was happening in the world in 2017?

• Expos fans and analytics nerds united in celebrating Tim Raines’ election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Donald Trump is inaugurated. HBO’s satirical white house comedy Veep ends its run in 2019 because they never intended to be a documentary. Veep executive producer David Mandel:  “They’re either taking from our show or doing their own version of it.” 

• Canadian golfer Adam Hadwin shoots 59 in the third round of the CareerBuilder Challenge at LaQunita Country Club.

• Serena Williams defeats older sister Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4 for her seventh Australian title and record 23rd Grand Slam event singles victory.

• Moonlight (2016) wins Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017 after a historic mix-up where La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner by Fay Dunaway and Warren Beatty. 

• The world’s oldest golf club, Muirfield in Scotland, votes to admit women as members for the first time in 273 years.

• Bob Dylan receives his Nobel Prize for Literature at a private ceremony in Stockholm. We have no confirmation that Bob ever curled in his hometown event, the Hibbing Last Chance Bonspiel.

2026 will mark the 70th time the bonspiel has been contested.

The Curling News

Volume 60, Issue 5

March 2017

The Brier preview issue of The Curling News (now in digital format too) has two Brad’s on the cover, and they are both Gushue. Terry Jones provides the cover feature on Brad but can’t stop himself from shifting the focus to Alberta by the time he’s done.

I suppose it’s difficult, considering he was likely working on a book for the Northern Alberta Curling Association (NACA) titled World Capital of Curling.

Cathy Cunningham, four-time skip of Team Newfoundland and Labrador and runner-up to Colleen Jones in the 2003 Scotties, shares how St. John’s was awarded the Brier and tells fans what to expect. 

The photo included is of the recently formed Gushue Girls. We ran into them at dinner this week, and when asked if they were also retiring after this season, we were advised to watch for their shirts to “appear on eBay.” 

When asked why they didn’t sit at dinner in order, the answer was “Sometimes you want to talk to someone else”.

Looking to the bottom left, you can find a young Matt Dunstone at 19th on the Gold Trail money list. Matt is 21 years old, one year removed from winning bronze at the world junior men’s  championship in 2016.

Warren Hansen has an article on athlete cresting in curling, sharing his perspective on the boycott that began in the 2001-02 season, what the issues are currently (in 2017) and how to deal with it all in the future. 

Next up is coverage of Rachel Homan winning the 2017 Scotties.

In the moment, it appears Homan is ascending to the throne of top Canadian women’s curling. However, it will be seven more years until Rachel wins another Scotties title. 

Homan defeated Michelle Englot, representing Manitoba, by a score of 8-6 in 11 ends. Englot will return to the Scotties the following year, but fail to make the playoffs.

The Curling News

Volume 60, Issue 6

April 2017

Terry Jones once again provides the cover story to Gushue’s triumphant Brier victory in his hometown. Brad’s quotes immediately following the win are prominent across the piece.

“I think the fact that we did it at home under the pressure that we had in front of family and friends and 6,000 other friends, I think it ranks right up there. 

“Obviously it’s a really difficult comparison with the magnitude of the Olympics. But the fact that we did it at home under the circumstances that our team had this year with injuries and whatnot, boy, it’s hard to top this.”

“I don’t remember feeling happier in a long time. It was such a feeling of excitement and relief to be honest. I’m not going to lie. The pressure we felt was intense.”

On his final stone: “It was incredible. I threw that a little lighter than I wanted.”

On wearing the Team Canada uniform: “It’s been 11 years, it’s pretty special. It’s always a nice feeling when you get that Canadian jersey and outfit. It’s a great moment when you get to see your name and the maple leaf on the back of that.”

Page 3 includes an advert for the ProSlide along with its inventor, Reid Carruthers. 

Page 4 features the end of the cover story plus a piece on the 1954, ’57 and ’58 Brier winner Matt Baldwin (Curling Legends Podcast episodes 13 and 14) and his thoughts on throwing the ceremonial first rock at the 2017 men’s world championship in Edmonton: 

“First, I could never get down to be in the hack to throw the damn thing. Second, if I ever did get down to throw it, I’d never be able to get up.”

Matt Brouwer has a report card of sorts on TSN and Sportsnet; an unabashed look at their efforts to cover curling on their morning highlight shows.

TSN, in particular, gets a failing grade.

Subscribers to The Curling News in 2017 received emailed digital versions of their paper copies, full of hyperlinked goodies and extra pages. 

This season-ending edition was a whopper, with 10 extra pages alone dedicated to a collection of “Photos Of The Year.” 

Here’s a three-page sample:

The digital edition provided subscribers with curling news usually unavailable in spring, due to print deadlines based on rural curling club closure dates.

The story of Rachel Homan and her first women’s world championship can be found on digital page 20.

Håvard Vad Petersson provides some thoughts on several topics of the day, most notably the sweeping situation from the previous season.  

The Norwegian men’s lead credits Gushue for exposing and not hoarding their discovery, which kicked off the entire Broomgate fiasco.

Guy Scholz has a feature on Tyler George of USA’s Team Shuster ahead of the world championship. Shuster will finish 8-3 and lose the bronze medal game to Peter De Cruz of Switzerland. 

A year later, the Americans will become Olympic gold medal champions at the Winter Games in South Korea.