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Is Curling the New Hockey?
More buzz, fans and athletes, says author-athlete Russ Howard.
'Hurry Hard: The Russ Howard Story'
- Hurry Hard: The Russ Howard Story
- Wiley Canada (2007)
Curling has gone big time in Canada. Many people still think it's a bizarre semi-sport with just a few fans. But this week at Rexall Place in Edmonton, the World Men's Curling Championships is setting record attendance levels. And last month, more than 1.2 million viewers tuned in to the CBC for the final of the Brier, the Canadian men's national championships.
Why? Well, the film Men With Brooms arguably brought one or two new fans. Then there's the fact that it's developed cool status because it's anti-cool -- kind of like drinking at legions instead of slick nightclubs. And it grabbed more fans when it started to appeal to serious athletes -- so much, that last year, curling was one of the surprise buzz sports at the Winter Olympics in Torino.
But although it was invented in Scotland and has grown to become a global curiosity, curling is still very much a Canadian game. Heck, the Brier's title sponsor is Tim Horton's.
And Russ Howard can explain why it has such a hold on the Canadian imagination. Howard holds Brier and World Championship wins through the 1980s and 1990s -- the most wins in history -- making him a curling celebrity. And last year, at the age of 50, Howard reached the pinnacle of the curling world when he joined Brad Gushue and his young, Newfoundland-based rink (the name for a team) in a surprising win at the Canadian Olympic trials -- likely the toughest curling competition in the world -- then went on to win gold medals at the Olympics.
Now, with the help of sports journalist Bob Weeks, Howard has published an autobiography called Hurry Hard: The Russ Howard Story. Howard spoke to The Tyee, and what follows are excerpts from our conversation.
On curling's hold on the Canadian imagination:
"It's way, way bigger than the average person, the non-curler, would think.
"The viewership, for instance, on TSN or even CBC, is as good or better than any NHL hockey game that's on there. It's only the NHL playoffs that can outdraw curling.
"There's 1.3 million curlers in Canada, which is a ton. And it's Canadiana. In the Canadian men's championship, for instance, or lady's championship, you've got Newfoundland playing B.C., or Northern Ontario playing Southern Ontario -- all these geographical areas where people come year after year after year to cheer on their province.
"And it's a very social sport. To me it's what Canada's all about. It's fair play, the whole sport is based on honesty, there's no cheating. If you've made a mistake, like golf you can call yourself on it. It's an incredibly social sport at whatever level you play."
On old school curlers:
"Curling's starting to get a different image because of Gushue and these young kids coming along. It's cool as a kid to curl now, which is nice. It wasn't before. Back when I started to curl, the image of a curler was a 60-year-old guy with a beer in hand and a cigar and an old sweater. It's not like that anymore."
On curling's beer-fuelled, party rep:
"I guess [curling's party image] is self inflicted. Years ago, in the old days, with the top curlers, it was more of a social thing. You flew to Vancouver for your event, and you made some fun out of it.
"But nowadays, the athletes are pretty finely tuned athletes, and they stay away from that stuff for the most part. It's more the fans that are involved with it.
"But there's not too many curlers that will turn down a beer, that's for sure. There's a custom in curling that I curl against you and I beat you, then after the game is over, you know, 'What are you drinking?' It's up to the winner to buy the loser a beer and you are usually nice enough to reciprocate. And all of a sudden we've had two beer."
On curling TV:
"The only coverage [when I started] was one or two games a year on CBC -- the final and maybe the semi-final of the Canadian men's championship only. So we only had, like, six hours of television the whole year. Now exposure is huge, and now there's TSN coverage 40 or 50 hours at the Canadian Men's, Canadian Lady's, the juniors...
"The one neat thing with curling TV is the microphones on the players. You can't do that with very many other sports. I think that's captured a lot of the fan base because you can sit in your living room and go, 'Oh, that's why they're thinking of doing that,' or, 'what are those idiots doing? Why don't they guard this?' It's really helped the non-curler understand the sport."
On forgetting about the mic:
"[Wearing a mic throughout a whole game] was weird at first because you tried to be so polite, you know, 'Nice shot Glenn -- we'll get em next time.' You know? Stuff like, 'Good going.' To the point that you'd forget, down the road, that you had mics on and all of a sudden you're swearing or you're saying something that you shouldn't say, like 'That guy was just lucky.' You just forget."
On 'hurry hard':
"I invented the phrase 'hurry hard' as far as I know, years ago when everybody yelled 'sweep.' The problem was, in the old days, we had these synthetic brooms and we were bashing them on the ice and it got very, very loud in some of these Quonset hut curling clubs. So if you were on the sheet beside me yelling sweep, my sweepers might think that was me, so it made sense to come up with a different set of signals.
"Why I picked 'hurry hard' I'll never know. But it's something you can yell a lot louder, like 'sweeeeep' is quiet but 'HAARRRD,' well, basically it caught on.
"I watched Korea the other day against my brother and they were yelling, 'HARD.' I should have maybe patented the word or something."
On getting booed at BC Place:
"We were in awe -- it was our first world championships. We'd beaten the legendary Bernie Sparkes, who was from B.C. You know, you cheer for your local hero -- so we were one step in the grave before we got here.
"And we played France in that first game, and we're going to beat France 2000 times out of 2000. They just weren't a good curling team. And we were whipping these guys. We were up 5-1 no problem at all half way through the game.
"Then all of a sudden, the ice melted because of the incandescent ceiling in B.C. Place, and we started missing shot after shot after shot. And to make a long story short, they ended up beating us on the last shot and it was devastating.
"And then the crowd started yelling 'boring' and yelling 'we want Bernie' -- which is commendable, really. But why not? They didn't know what was going on and they were looking down there watching us just play awful."
On winning the Olympic gold medal:
"The moment that sticks with me is the medal ceremony. They say, 'Gold medal champions -- Canada.' There were 9,000 people in this beautiful, quaint, kind of romantic setting. It was an old courtyard that was a billion years old and there's 9,000 mostly Canadian fans waving flags and my family in the front row. You see the flags going up and the national anthem -- that was unbelievable. Every time I hear the national anthem now...it takes me back."
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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- 'The Dictator'
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35
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G West
5 years ago
IS CURLING THE NEW HOCKEY?
NO
bob the cat
5 years ago
Curling Rocks!
It televises well...slo-mo replay can be breathtaking!
Bring bodily contact and fighting into the game..
G West
5 years ago
And it telustrates so nicely
I liked it better when they called it the 'roaring' game and sweepers used those beaver-tail straw brooms to whack the ice i staccato stokes as they chased a rock down the ice.
It's a great game for young people - keeps 'em off the streets at night.
clubofrome
5 years ago
Watching with the wife...
Don't you hate having to explain the inturn draw and the raised take out...
clubofrome
5 years ago
Debris!
Exactly! That's when curling was tough! Corn husks all over the ice... that rock could take a left turn at any time! Fans threw empty cups and hot dogs if you missed a shot...
G West
5 years ago
Yeah
Well you sure didn't want to eat those hot dogs after they'd sat in that hot water bath in a copper boiler for no less than three hours.
I remember the last bonspiel I saw played on natural ice - for the last few ends the house was under water and the rocks were trying to hydroplane.
clubofrome
5 years ago
Happy Days!
My first curling experience was one of those prairie winter carnivals, snow golf, jam can curling, ice chuckwagons... all those fun things that have gone the way of the lawn dart. Old Co-op jam cans filled with concrete and rebar hurling down the ice, sometimes right side up even...
And those chuckwagon races , they were no bargain either.... I remember one of the skaters broke his leg, they had to take him out back and shoot him... I'm telling you that was a tough sport...
bob the cat
5 years ago
we curled shirtless
I grew up curling in lynn Valley..we didn`t have ice..we`d curl anything that would hurl..garbage cans (the lids curled nicely)
pilfered garden gnomes and old tires.
I seem to recall the town centre phonebooth
hurtling down the curling trough.
Hanging out in the local greasy spoon..the mounties would do their walkthrough..that was when they wore the Sam Brownes and shiny riding boots with spurs...everything polished to the nines..the scout hats...minimum six footers even the boys who`d done hard time had to respect `em You guys got nothin` goin tonight? they`d say...Why don`t you head on up to the Capilano Highlands and throw some garbage cans around maybe lay a thumpin` on some of those white sox boys driving mommies t-bird
they were serious...Prairie boys.. they didn`t like the smartass sass from the white sox sons of pivilege.
lynn
5 years ago
Sports Equipment: A broom and some pilfered garden gnomes
Good article but it's the comments that really shine here - exposing as they do the dark underbelly of curling. ;-)
Lol, bob the cat...I think you've got the first page of a delightful.... and truly Canadian novel in the works here.
clubofrome
5 years ago
Good clean fun
...and after a while when we got caught there was just no point in denying it. Dad: Did you hurl that shopping cart off the overpass infront of that train?
Kid: ya
Dad: (sound of belt coming undone...)
bob the cat
5 years ago
Great Canadian Novel
What would be really fun lynn would be a group novel..I`ll write a page (or chapter, whatever)
then you write one and so on..maybe half a dozen people or four ..whatever...that could be a lot of fun I think.
G West
5 years ago
That's a great idea btc
Why not set up a basic blog structure and get started. Then we'll circulate the address among a group of interested individuals and start adding chapters.
You go first and set the scene - I think Lynn's right, you're already well on the way.
bob the cat
5 years ago
oop.. pressures on now
Ahh..me start it? Ahh maybe ahem ..I`ll talk it over with the wife..look into it..well...OK I`m gonna seriously look into it.
Growing up wherever in Canada to start?
G West
5 years ago
We could even use the curling conceit
And call the chapters 'ends' - pressure's definitely on.
clubofrome
5 years ago
Ontario... 1961
...I don't remember learning how to skate. The photo, black and white of course, shows a pair of "bob" skates strapped onto my snow boots. Looking every bit the Jr. snowman amoung these other skating snowmen. A touque covering the head and scarf wrapped tight exposing only the twinkling eyes of wonderment...
bob the cat
5 years ago
Outside a dog was barking
or how about" it was a dark and stormy night"
I must say I do enjoy the German sweeping..very energetic and precise..very teutonic.
All the yelling is a bit distasteful and curling could maybe borrow some jazzy bling bling from basketball. Some rock music...what is that one they always play "jump"....some dancing girls during the strategy discussions..
and definitely go back to the ole whop whop brooms...the real corn slapping the ice.
lynn
5 years ago
Oh so humble.....
I like the group novel idea....except we'd have to share the Booker prize...and that could get messy. ;-)
Seriously though, bob the cat, you've written a great beginning there...you should go for it.
meatbot
5 years ago
Is curling a sport?
Holy Crap are you serious? Ranking up there with darts, bowling, golf and poker, curling is the biggest apnea-fest on this side of the Atlantic. Unless of course by the question, you meant to ask" is this prairie bore-a-thon usurping the T.V. viewership of that most beloved meat-knuckle beer ad zombie army that is hockey?" Go outside.
canuck
5 years ago
Curling
is a great sport. Hockey is the pits, bunch of bullies armed with hockey sticks that beat each other up. Hockey used to enjoyable, but it's now comparable to watching a wresting match. L0L
clubofrome
5 years ago
Sports Books
One of the best sports books ever written, Ball Four, by Jim Bouton has many tales of youth and men in baseball. The stories translate to all other sports, the jokes, the competition the pettiness and an insight into what was once a closed world. The locker room of a professional baseball team. He wrote that Baseball wants colour but not too much. Perhaps a player wears his hat at a jaunty angle... Wow, that's pretty off the wall! Like the new curling fashion statement, white belts. As Howard put it, "we wanted to inject a little fun into the game..." A recent book worth reading "Midnight Hockey" by BC Boy Bill Gaston. Stories you can relate to, and remember why hockey is the greatest game in the world! But there is plenty of room for all the others, Curling, Golf, Baseball.... OK Meat, I have to agree with you on bowling. I guess Americans could relate the same about curling on TV... but I still see a difference. Curling is international, ever hear of the European Pro Bowling Tour? I'd be surprised if lanes existed beyond North America. One thing that is true about team sports... You can't get away with bullshit. Your mates will keep you honest and those lessons carry on throughout life. Not to mention all the teamwork lessons available. It's why after 50 years, we still get out on the ice, risking certain injury, for the glory and that time in the locker room after the game until the cooler is empty.
Skookum1
5 years ago
horsetwaddle on ice
Look no disrespect to the hordes of dedicated player, but the only reason CBC started pushing curling on the national audience is because they were stuck with the hockey strike, and also because their darling Colleen Jones made it big-time at the Turin O, and that Randy Ferbie guy we now all know the name of - through endless on-air repetition.
It's horrendous - hockey on one channel, curling on the other; oh-so-serious announcers trying to be the Don Cherry of the brier, but boring the rest of the country silly while talking about how exciting it is, how proud we are to be Canadians, how great a sport curling is etc etc.
It's almost like the CBC is "the Curling Channel" now. I'd rather have a "Watch Paint Dry" channel to choose from; and there are times when I've got a brier on the one channel, and that damned pseudo-reality show Making the Cut on the other (I don't have cable).
Can our networks PLEASE find us something else to identify with that doesn't have to do with ICE? And while the broom-worshipping may be big-time in Gander and Red Deer, can you please leave those of us in big cities or towns who don't have curling heroes a break and just play movies and cartoons instead???
Watching curling is like being suffocated with a maple leaf.
clubofrome
5 years ago
Watching paint dry...
Consider yourself lucky, Skookum1, if you did have cable you would see an endless line of chanels and shows dedicated to paint drying. "Paint" and flip that house, Holmes on "painting" homes, Property "paint" virgins, "Paint" this old house, "Paint" property ladder and my personal fav.... New yankee workshop "painter." That last one really bugs me, as if the average Joe can relate to a 25,000 square foot workshop with every planer and lathe ever invented at his disposal. Too many of these home reno shows to recount here, yet every one of them has you painting the house as the incredible make over miracle! Well the foundation is rotten, the roof leaks and the basement is infested with ants, but boy that sure is a lovely colour in the dining room! Shows like Flip and Property Ladder will be doomed if the bubble ever bursts. Good ridance to them. That curling channel is looking better all the time!
Skookum1
5 years ago
more on paint drying
Global subjects me to Lynda Evans - is that her name, the housing-makeovers-in-suburban-Toronto-show and her taste in Ontarian bland, but oh-so-stylish bland, and her coterie of pet designers and particularly dull taste in knick-knackier (good god I hope she's not reading this; I actually find her entertaining if that's any solace, but the taste is just so Central Canadian...like all else from back there, the talk and panel shows et al.
On the other hand, at least she's not as bad the religious infomercials, or the ones for the superwhooper vacuum cleaners/air filters...not having cable did get me to discover and revel in The Doodlebops, though, on CBC Kids (but ick their gang of happy hosts is nauseatingly saccharine; where's Mr. Greenjeans and Capt. Kangaroo and the Friendly Giant when kids need them, anyway?).
A curling channel in BC? No, way more fun would be a rugger, lacrosse and soccer channel...oh and what the heck televise all the highland games and powerlifting meets. And I'm not even into sports. But I do know that curling is shuffleboard on ice, with nice sweaters.....
clubofrome
5 years ago
Subliminal Messages!
Too funny. There must be hidden messages in those infomercials, something draws you in when you make the mistake of lingering there too long... Years ago the worst that could happen was you'd receive a Ron Popiel pocket fisherman in the mail 3 weeks later, now you could end up the enough exercise equipment to fill a high school gymnasium.
I'll second your TV channel too. Call it Testosterone TV. Lots of ads for vitamen supplements and male enhancement products between rugger matches and bull fighting's worst moments caught on tape... Heh, I don't normally boast, but I used to toss a mean haggis in my day... Yes, that's it! A Masters division Highland Games challenge show!
Skookum1
5 years ago
haggis tossing
you really have to watch when throwing haggis, huh, with that weird back spin it can develop if you frisbee-spin it too fast?
clubofrome
5 years ago
Messy!
I'm experimening with the shot-put method as opposed to the discus or frisbee spin. Then there's always the traditional over the shoulder fling...
Skookum1
5 years ago
better technique
I think with haggis it's best to do the bent-over between-the-legs throw.....more arc, and the drippings don't get on your tartan....
clubofrome
5 years ago
Lunch!
Now that we've tenderized it by tossing...
Skookum1
5 years ago
well, back to curling
actually I think curling would be vastly improved as a spectator sport if it were made full-contact. And the uniforms were skimpier.
Skookum1
5 years ago
no....
"No, I don't want to see Randy Ferbie in a thong".
clubofrome
5 years ago
Hey!
I'm trying to eat my haggis here!!!
Frank5000
5 years ago
NOOOOOOOO
NOOOOOOOO
G West
5 years ago
Oh God!
If we were in England I'd go down the pub for a laugh. Here I guess you head for the damn curling rink.
Nice stuff guys. And you didn't mention that British dude on the food channel, Gordon Ramsay, who has this show built on the principle of the complete psychological destruction of a different restaurateur each week.
That the object of his ire doesn't just commit suicide is what I can't fathom: These people permit themselves to be filmed while being filleted. Now that's a spectator sport.
I can't watch New Yankee Workshop either. It's just too bloody sad. The man doesn’t even have a single extension cord in the place and I bet you could eat off the floors.
clubofrome
5 years ago
A laugh and a Guiness
...to wash down the haggis! Speaking of games on ice... The real season starts tonight. I love the first round. All the predictions. Remember all 4 top western seeds were eliminated last year! Weird. I'll say Buffalo over Nashville for the cup. I'd prefer to see a western champ for a change, but our conference is real tough this year. Getting out of the west will be fatal for the finalist. Buffalo could romp almost unscathed. Same as the last two playoffs. No way should Tampa and Carolina be on that trophy.
G West
5 years ago
No way should Tampa and Carolina be on that trophy.
Hey club -
In fact, no way should some of these teams be in the NHL.
I think this could be a good series between Dallas and the Canucks. I think if they get past the Stars they may go a very long way. But they have always had trouble with the Stars so I won't make any predictions for now.
Except that Buffalo does look strong in the East.