Buried Curling Treasure: Werenich Against The World

The 67th Men’s World Curling Championship is taking place at the Weber County Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah. 

The Scotch Cup, as it was originally called, initially included Scotland and Canada in 1959, added USA in 1961 and Sweden joined the party in 1962. 

During the most recent Winter Olympics, Sweden and Canada had an in-game disagreement that led to colourful language, an officiating see-saw by World Curling, and more than a handful of index finger-influenced internet memes.

Inspired by these recent events, let us look back at another time when Canadians and Swedes exchanged words on curling’s world stage – the 1983 Air Canada Silver Broom. 

Team Canada (left to right in above photo) is skip Ed Werenich and the “Dream Team” of third Paul Savage (episodes 22-23 of Curling Legends Podcast), second John Kawaja (ep. 99) and lead Neil Harrison. 

Sweden was represented by (left to right in photo below) Stefan Hasselborg at skip, with brother Mikael at third, second Hans Nordin and lead Lars Wernblom.

Mikael is father to two-time and reigning Olympic women’s champion skip Anna Hasselborg, who is born six years after this event.

This is the first trip to a world championship for both teams.

Before we begin, a look at what else was going on in 1983…

• Swedish tennis legend Bjorn Borg retires at the age of 26.

• Penny LaRocque of Nova Scotia wins the second “Scott Tournament of Hearts” held in Prince George, B.C. Defending champion Colleen Jones is not competing as a Team Canada will not appear in the event until 1986 when Linda Moore finishes 10-1 and loses to Ontario’s Marilyn Darte (nee Bodogh).

• George Steinbrenner names Billy Martin as manager of the New York Yankees for the third time. Martin provides a display of gamesmanship to rival any of curling lore when, during a July 24 game against Kansas City, he requests umpires examine the amount of pine tar on the bat of George Brett, immediately following Brett’s two-run home run. Brett is called out in what has become known as the “Pine Tar Incident”. Billy will be fired in December and re-hired for the fourth time in 1985.

• The A-Team premieres on ABC. The show’s breakout star, Mr. T, will later become a superfan of curling.

• “Weird Al” Yankovic releases his self-titled debut album which includes Another One Rides the Bus, My Bologna and I Love Rocky Road. 

• The final TV episode of “M*A*S*H” airs on CBS on February 28. The two-and-a-half-hour special directed by series star Alan Alda titled “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” has a then record of over 105 million U.S. viewers.

• Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw undergoes elbow surgery. He checks into a hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, under the alias "Thomas Brady". The future 7-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is only 5 years old at the time. Cue The Twilight Zone theme.

• Laverne and Shirley airs its final episode in May. Leonard “Lenny” Kosnowski is absent for most of the show’s final season because actor Michael McKean is filming This is Spinal Tap with Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and director Rob Reiner, the movie that will forever change the meaning of the number eleven.

• The film Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life is released. It features the restaurant sketch “Mr. Creosote”, the only movie scene to ever make Quentin Tarantino gag.

Canadian Curling News

Volume 27, Issue 4

May 1983

The cover features a back-turned John Kawaja hugging Kathy Young (nee McEdwards). Kathy will go on to win the Canadian and world women’s championship as third for Marilyn Bodogh in 1986.

On the first page, Regina Leader-Post scribe Arnie Tiefenbach dives into the Werenich victory at the world championship. By the fourth paragraph, we learn that Ed “began simmering early in the week” over “rule violations by certain of opponents” and “It was reported the cloud of steam he let off could be seen as far away as Europe.”

In the following paragraph, Ed claims he was taunted and body-checked, and he condemns European teams for having, in his words, “win at all costs” syndrome. The Wrench “questioned their sportsmanship” and “expressed suspicion over the straw brooms being wielded by the Swedes.”

Looking to another literary source, further details of this conflict are disclosed in Jean Sonmor’s 1991 book Burned By The Rock. In one incident she reveals that Werenich showed Mikael the length of his broom and threatened to impale him on it, after Hasselborg had clapped his hands in frustration over what he considered Canada’s unnecessary slow play.

Going back to Arnie’s article, “It’s like playing the Russians – you know, Team Canada” Werenich said. “You order bacon and eggs and they bring you cold porridge.”

Tiefenbach goes on to cover a few other teams including the early success and late collapse of the team from Scotland; skip Grame Adam, third Ken Horton (Curling Legends Podcast episodes 95 and 96), second Andrew McQuistin and lead Bob Cowan. 

Bob was usually playing in the Brass Whisk competition at these events, as a member of the media. He later helps create the Curling History Blog in 2008. Bob sadly passed away in February of this year.

Bob Hughes has more on the Scottish rink and a spectacular shot from Graeme Adam against Don Cooper and Team USA in the opening draw. “A shot which raised the hair on the back of the necks of those who have faced similar tests of their courage on other ice surfaces.”

Jack Matheson weighs in on the Regina Silver Broom and the storylines from Werenich versus All of Europe. After commenting on Eddie’s “dumpy physique” and comparing him to “Minnesota Fats” he goes on to say “It was pretty meaty stuff, and you should have heard the commotion. Europeans on the scene considered it unseemly behaviour, of course, something that ran diabolically against the true spirit of the game, accusing somebody of cheating.” 

It’s not a balanced look at the situation and clear to see Matty has adopted the classic Don Cherry approach to Europeans with the line “The Swedish rink, skipped by Stefan Hasselborg, squealed like stuck pigs, of course.” Further “The Swedes aren’t saints, they just think they are, but you have to be able to show more akavit, fish and Britt Ekland.” 

We can only imagine what Matheson would have said about Boopgate in 2026. 

CCN contributor Hakan Sundstrom takes the high road and makes no mention of the kerfuffle from Regina in his “Swedish Outlook” column. Instead, he praises the efforts of several Canadian instructors in helping Scandinavian countries improve.

Ray Turnbull, Wally Ursuliak, Warren  Brooke, Warren Hansen and Ron Anton are mentioned.

From The Editor’s Notebook, Doug Maxwell shares thoughts about numerous topics. On Werenich’s demeanor he quips “The curler in me shuddered at his more intemperate remarks; the promoter in me loved them.” 

The article includes a silver anniversary photograph with members from the previous 24 men’s world champions. Only USA’s Bruce Roberts team from 1976 is not represented. The Roberts rink will be featured in the next instalment of Buried Treasure and a Curling Legends Podcast episode, coming soon.

Finally, Bob Cowan provides an inside look at what it was like to play in the world championship in his article “Now I Know What Pressure Means.”