Quote savagery 20 years ago today

Twenty years ago today, one of the most savage curling quotes was uttered.

It came from David Nedohin, last-rock thrower of Alberta’s Ferbey Four, shortly after he’d missed a shot for the win at the 2005 Canadian Open Grand Slam in Winnipeg.

Nedohin tried a heavy wick-draw and just missed, handing Edmonton arch-rival Kevin Martin’s team an 8-7 win—and an extra $12,000 as part of the $30,000 winner’s cheque.

The event’s final weekend featured busy crowds, and as the spectators filed out of the MTS Centre (now Canada Life Centre) Ned dropped a few word bombs.

“It sucks. It’s brutal... it’s a bad loss,” Nedohin told the media, which yours truly was more-or-less in charge of as per my role with the Slam’s IMG founders.

“(Team Martin) never deserved to win, but whatever, it happens... we had a great game.”

That was juicy enough. Then came the grenade.

“(Martin) thinks he’s God, he always will.”

If you’re not familiar with the Ferbey-Martin rivalry, hoo boy. That’s a story for another day.

Current Slam owners take note: in the past, which you now steward, some guys really, really didn’t like each other.

For the record, Martin appeared to be taken aback by Nedohin’s jab.

“I sure don’t think I am (God),” he responded. “But I sure do enjoy these big games.”

The result was a boost to Martin, who had already been eliminated in 2005’s Alberta playdowns and would miss the provincial championship.

Team Ferbey would go on to win that Tankard, followed by another Brier—their fourth in five years—and a wild world championship title.

The 2005 Open final was a classic, with Martin coming back from Ferbey leads of 4-1 and 5-2. K-Mart also made a wild angle bullet off a stone near the boards for three in the seventh end to give himself a sniff.

They played 10 ends in the Slams back then.

The full match can be rewatched on YouTube, thanks to the stellar Curling Legends channel.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htlb4DeqbT8[/embed]

Naturally, that four-day Slam offered more than just the two finalists.

Let’s go down memory lane—on a Throwback Thursday—with some amazing images, shall we?

Glenn Howard lost the semifinal 7-6 against Martin.

As I recall it was another titanic struggle between those two, who battled all the way to—and through—the 2009 Olympic Trials.

Second Brent Laing, complete with necklace, leather wristband and fading frosted tips, looked glorious in his surfer phase.

John Morris lost the other semi by the same scoreline.

His teammates were a younger Kevin Koe, with Marc Kennedy and Paul Moffat on the front end.

Just over a year later, Morris and Kennedy would be a part of a new Martin squad that would essentially dominate the next quadrennial.

Quebec’s Guy Hemmings, who is now a coach, TV analyst and even a pro hiker, was still hanging around.

Guy was in his second season with Martin Ferland at third, and he still had big Dale Ness at lead stone, from those two Brier finals in the late 1990s.

The fans cheered hard for their hometown heroes, of course.

Kerry Burtnyk qualified for the playoffs but lost 9-4 to young gun Morris in the quarterfinals.

Bubba, who is still not in the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame (?!) would win one more buffalo men’s title in 2009 before retiring in 2011.

Vic Peters also made the quarters, losing to Howard, and he skipped an interesting squad.

Vic’s son Daley played third—he was the two-time Manitoba junior skip at the time, with a very young B.J. Neufeld in tow.

There were two other Neufelds on Peters’ team, B.J.’s brother Denni and father Chris, who won the 1992 Brier with Vic.

It still stings that we lost Vic Peters in 2016. 

Another ’Toba Slammer of the times was Dave Boehmer. He was nicknamed “Night Train” because … well, ask someone for the story.

Suffice to say, this guy just loved to curl.

Night Train made it to a Canadian Seniors recently … I should try and find a pic.

Norway’s Paal Trulsen also made the playoffs, losing to Martin 8-6.

The big Norwegian looks like a bit of a serial killer in this image, but as everyone knows—or should know—he’s really just a fun-loving fellow.

Wayne Middaugh was there, although he missed the money in Winnipeg—a rare thing for him.

Just two weeks later, his team would win the Ontario Tankard. Just a few weeks after the Brier—where they went 6-5—second Joe Frans was suspended for a doping infraction, and ended up serving a two-year suspension.

Hope you enjoyed the amazing quote, images and brief notes from a past curling era.