Curling in Canada in the '60s
Ottawa set to host country's biggest curling tournament this weekend
Canada's top men's curling teams will take over the ice at TD Place this weekend as the 2016 Tim Hortons Brier sweeps its way into the capital, so we dug through the CBC archives to find some vintage curling video.
The upcoming tournament consists of teams representing each province and territory, while the previous year's winner plays as Team Canada.
Beginning on March 3 with the qualifying rounds, the tournament runs in Ottawa until March 13, when the gold and bronze medal matches are scheduled to take place.
The video above from the CBC archives shows curling taking place during the 1960s. There was little information about the video in our files and we thought it took place in Ottawa.
But to make sure, we asked anyone with information to tweet or email us.
Mystery solved
As it happens, the publisher of The Curling News — a monthly newspaper based in the Greater Toronto Area — heard our call.
George Karrys initially told us he believed the video was from the 1966 Scotch Cup (pre-cursor to the men's world championship) played at the PNE Forum in Vancouver, as it shows Canadian team skip by Ron "The Owl" Northcott.
He said Northcott also skipped the 1968 Air Canada Silver Broom (men's world championship) in Pointe-Claire, Que., but didn't believe a Swedish team competed in that tournament.
He later said that there was, indeed, a Swedish team at the 1968 tournament, and that still images from the event match the video.
"We can thank Scotland's "Curling History" wizard, Bob Cowan, for this revised confirmation," he said in a email.
He wasn't the only one who stepped in to help
<a href="https://twitter.com/CBCOttawa">@CBCOttawa</a> You can see USA, Canada, and Sweden. Unless it's confirmed Ottawa, it's either one of the Scotch Cup, or Silver Broom tourneys
—@marginal_error<a href="https://twitter.com/CBCOttawa">@CBCOttawa</a> Canadian skip is Ron Northcott. So 1966, 1968 or 1969 Men's Worlds. But not in Ottawa.
—@hesina1<a href="https://twitter.com/curling">@curling</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/CBCOttawa">@CBCOttawa</a> Could it be Hull Brier in '67??
—@UR09