Al Hackner turns 70 today. 

The legendary Thunder Bay, Ont. men’s skip has made waves in recent years with 2023’s competitive curling retirement announcement—in which he pledged to continue playing hockey a few days a week—and last March’s return to the Brier for the first time since 2001, as coach for Team Trevor Bonot.

Hackner is also Mr. January in the 2024 Curling Cares fundraising calendar, where he directed his portion of sales proceeds to Scleroderma Canada.

I’ve known Al since the early 1990s, when he would regularly stay up all night, for a few nights in a row, and win the Dungeon Master jacket at T Bay’s Heart To Heart charity bonspiel.

No big deal, really. The Iceman was already well known as the guy who could stay up later and party harder than the infamous Paul Gowsell, before their famed semifinal tilt at the 1980 Calgary Brier.

The Hack lost two straight Brier finals in ’80 and ’81 before winning it all in 1982, and again in 1985. He competed in nine Briers in total, and became the first skip to win Canadian championships across the board—Briers, seniors and masters titles.

Our own Kevin Palmer looked back at The Curling News’ coverage of the 1982 Brier in a Buried Treasure column back in March. 

Palmer’s Curling Legends podcast also published a lengthy episode with Hackner in 2022, and I can’t recommend it enough. There’s tons of photos and videos to watch while you listen, including Hackner’s memories of The Shot against Pat Ryan in the ’85 Brier final.

(The segment with a special guest at the end is a hoot, too.)

That 1985 win was pivotal for the sport of curling, as described in the Ryan-focused episode of LOSERS, a Netflix doc series.

Hackner’s milestone birthday comes on the heels of other Big Ones involving—in no particular order—Ontario legends Paul Savage and Eddie Werenich, Quebec superstar and TV commentator Guy Hemmings, and the big Norwegian, 2002 Olympic champion skip Paal Trulsen.

I got to play with two of those legends, Savage and Hackner. It was just a single cashspiel with Al, hosted in his hometown—in fact it was one of the first-ever Grand Slam events, in the fall of 2001. Throwing and sweeping for him was really special, and I think I played the best curling I had all season.

I love all those guys, and it’s Hackner’s turn to get a salute today.

I texted Al very early this morning, expecting him to be on the water. The guy loves fishing. Sometimes I think that’s all he does. He’s pretty good at it, too.

But no. “I’m going golfing this afternoon,” Hack reported. “Then a BBQ birthday party in my backyard with family and friends.

“Also cooking up some walleye.”

So there you go. No fishing today, but I’ll bet he caught those walleye recently. Just in time for his 70th.

Happy birthday, Hack!