Curling legends achieve platinum status

If you’re going to salute the stars who turn 60—from Norway’s Paal Trulsen to Quebec’s Guy Hemmings—you can’t ignore a pair of platinum legends.

Toronto’s Ed Werenich and Paul Savage both turned 75 this week, “The Wrench” on June 23 and Savage on June 25.

The pair competed in numerous Briers, both together and apart, with the partnership starting and finishing with Savage at skip stone (1974 and 1988).

From 1983 through ’85 Werenich skipped the “Dream Team” with Savage at third, former junior star John Kawaja at second and Neil Harrison at lead. The foursome shook the curling world’s foundations with an aggressive first-end corner guard strategy, and the result was a Brier and world championship title in their first year together, and a loss in the following year’s Brier final.

Savage, who also finished second at the 1973 and 1977 Briers, went on to join the Mike Harris team as coach/alternate in 1996 leading to the squad’s 1997 Olympic Trials victory and silver at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano.

Werenich rejoined Kawaja (now at third stone) in 1990 and with the ex-Thunder Bay front end of Ian Tetely and Pat Perroud in tow, won that year’s Brier and world title.

The Wrench went on to finish third at the 1997 Olympic Trials and compete in an Ontario championship with one of his two sons. He now has a World Curling Tour cashspiel in Arizona named after him.

Harrison, who was Eddie’s alternate in 1990, died in 2014.

Savage retired to permanent cottage life some years ago, and is recovering well from multiple spinal surgeries. Curling fans throughout the southern Ontario region are currently on the lookout for his curling memorabilia items that were recently stolen from a storage unit; the thief didn’t get his Olympic medal, however.

Werenich, forever a devout curling fan, can still be spotted at various championships in and around Ontario. Yours truly is one of many journos constantly mulling a book about the man many fans love as the ultimate working-class curler.

Happy birthday, fellas.