Silver Broom update

We had a story on the blog recently (here) about the whereabouts of the Air Canada Silver Broom trophy. Here now is a small feature which I wrote for the May 2009 issue of the Scottish Curler magazine.

"The mystery of the whereabouts of the Silver Broom has been solved. The trophy that was awarded to the winners of the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship, was last played for in 1985, in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall. On the final night of the event, my last sight of the iconic trophy was of it sitting in the empty arena, and I had often wondered what had happened to it.

The late Doug Maxwell, the Executive Director of the Silver Broom for many years, was trying to find out the answer to the question before his illness, with no success. I was thrilled to learn recently that the Broom had been tracked down by Canadian curler Jamie Hay who used to work for Air Canada. Apparently it had been in store in a Montreal warehouse. It now has pride of place at the Winnipeg Granite Club.

But there were actually two Silver Broom trophies. The first was awarded from 1968-76 and the second from 1977-85. Both had a silver broom that detached from its base, but the bases were different. The earlier one was a plaque, but the later one, designed by a Canadian artist, was a massive piece of carved walnut.

The earlier one trophy has now been found too. It had been in the care of Air Canada’s public relations director Tony Schoen, who had retired first to Switzerland where the trophy was displayed in his restaurant, and then to Victoria, Canada, where it was in his basement. Tony sadly died last year, but thanks to his family, the trophy has not been lost.

All the world championship trophies were on display at the 2009 Ford World Men’s Championship in Moncton: the Scotch Cup, both Silver Brooms, the Hexagon trophy and the current Ford trophy. Large photos of the winning teams were on the wall behind the trophies, and made a very impressive display.

What of the future? Warren Hansen, the Canadian Curling Association’s director of event operations, was quoted in the Eyeopener, the daily newsletter at the Moncton Worlds, “Ideally, they should be part of a permanent collection and on display every year at the world championship. They should really belong in the hands of the World Curling Federation.”

Top: The Silver Broom, presented 1968-1976. Below: The Silver Broom, presented 1977-1985.
The photos are by Maryel Fitzrandolph from the display in Moncton.

Silver Broom has a home

In July last year, we asked (see here) if anyone knew the whereabouts of the Silver Broom, the trophy that was awarded to the winners of the Air Canada Silver Broom World Curling Championship, last played for in 1985. Nobody responded to our plea, but this week a sharp-eyed follower of this blog pointed us to an article in the Winnipeg Free Press, by Paul Wiecek.

The Silver Broom has been found, and has pride of place at the Winnipeg Granite Club! Here are extracts from Wiecek's story (the link is above, but just in case that disappears......)

Broom finds a home
Abandoned for years, curling's rescued trophy now sits in honour at the Granite
Paul Wiecek 6/12/200

It took the long way home. The very long way.

But 23 years after it was retired, one of curling's most iconic symbols -- the Air Canada Silver Broom trophy -- has finally found a dignified resting place right here in the city whose curlers won it three times.

The circuitous route that the trophy took to get here -- and the discovery of a fraternal twin in a tiny club in Switzerland -- is a story of a famous trophy forgotten then rediscovered, and the perseverance of one Winnipeg man in rescuing what was once the ultimate prize in all of curling.

"It had basically been sitting for about 14 years collecting dust in an Air Canada warehouse," says Jamie Hay, who used to work for the airline. "I figured that's no place for it... And so now it's here at the Granite (curling club), because I couldn't think of a better place than that."

Hay's long and twisting relationship with the Silver Broom begins in 1994. Some friends of his were playing in a bonspiel in Switzerland when they walked into the curling club's lounge and saw the Silver Broom trophy hanging on the wall.

They took a picture of their discovery and related the story to Hay, who filed it away in the back of his mind as a bit of an oddity.

And that's where the thought stayed until 1998, when an Air Canada vice-president told Hay that the company was thinking about starting a museum and was trying to reacquire its memorabilia. Hay told the VP of his friend's discovery in Switzerland and urged the airline to try and reacquire the trophy.

It was left at that until six months later, when the VP's assistant called Hay to inform him that the trophy had been discovered in a Montreal warehouse.

Hay wondered how the trophy somehow transported itself from Switzerland to Montreal. And he didn't hesitate to answer when the assistant asked Hay what she should do with the trophy, the museum plans apparently shelved. "Send it to me," Hay said.

A couple of days later, a huge crate arrived in Winnipeg. When Hay opened it, he was shocked to discover a massive wooden trophy with a silver broom attached, but which didn't look anything like the one in Switzerland that he'd seen the photo of.

It turns out that there were actually two Silver Broom trophies. Both had a silver broom that detached from its base, but the bases were different -- the one in Switzerland, which was awarded from 1968-78 was a plaque, but the one Hay was looking at, which was awarded from 1979-85 and was designed by a Canadian artist, was a massive piece of carved walnut.

(The trophy) has been to Calgary for the Canadian senior curling championships and it's been to an Air Canada bonspiel in Saskatoon. It spent a winter being displayed at the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame at the downtown Bay and it spent two winters at the Fort William Curling Club, home of the man who last won it in 1985 -- Al Hackner.

And then last spring, Hay, a former president of the Granite Curling Club, hatched a plan with some fellow club members to put the trophy on display at Canada's oldest curling club.

A beautiful oak case was built by club member Don Supeene and the trophy was put on display in the club's second-floor dining room, sharing space with the club's almost-as-famous massive fireplace.

Don Duguid, who won the Silver Broom in 1970 and 1971, says it's the perfect resting place for a piece of curling history. "Where else would you put it?" Duguid asks. "It's the Mother Club and that trophy belongs there. It's a great spot."

Orest Meleschuk, who made it three world championships in a row for Winnipeg by winning the Silver Broom in 1972, says Hay deserves full credit for rescuing the trophy before Air Canada got into financial trouble a few years ago. "If Jamie hadn't found it, it could have ended up anywhere. Who knows -- it might have ended up at auction."

In the long run, Hay has a more ambitious plan for the trophy. Two ambitious plans, actually. "My opinion is that this thing should be sitting in the Canadian curling hall of fame... or it could be used as the championship trophy again. But there isn't a Canadian hall, and they're using another trophy right now at the worlds.

"So what do we do with it? The Granite seemed like a good place until we figure that out."

The Winnipeg Free Press photo shows L-R Derek Hay, Eric Guy, Don Supeene and Jamie Hay with the Silver Broom.

Where is the Silver Broom?

The photos of the 1975 Silver Broom at Perth, on the blog here, have stimulated a question. Does anyone know what has become of the Silver Broom trophy?

It is more than twenty years since it was last played for. Is it in an Air Canada store somewhere? Does the WCF have it? Does anyone know?

The late Doug Maxwell, the executive director of the Silver Broom for many years, was trying to find out the answer to the question before his illness, with no success.

The top photo shows Air Canada's Maridee Coulter with the trophy in 1983. The photo below shows Sigrun Cowan in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall in 1985.

Note Sigrun's shoes, with their high heels. She walked confidently and securely the length of the ice with the trophy - a tradition at the event. Now, how did she do this? Should the secret be revealed? Enough time has passed. The senior flight attendants who had to make the walk each year glued sheets of sandpaper to the soles of their shoes! It is not on record what the ice technicians thought of the practice at the time.

These were the days!

Incidentally, we do know where the Scotch Cup is. This was the trophy played for in the early years of what was to become the official World Men's Championship in 1968. The trophy, pictured below, is now presented to the winners of the Scottish Championship, see here.

Air Canada photos by Mike Burns from the Scottish Curler archive.

Scotch Cup photo by Bob Cowan. A new base has been added to the original trophy.

Silver Broom, Perth, 1975

From 1968 to 1985, the World Men's Curling Championship was sponsored by Air Canada. Ten countries competed each year for the Air Canada Silver Broom.

I saw a little of 1969, but I consider the 1975 event in Perth as the first that I really appreciated, although I was just a spectator. In the days before digital cameras, I took a few shots as 35mm colour slides, and I managed to keep hold of these through the intervening years. I got these digitised recently, and I would like to share them here. They provide a glimpse of what international curling was like thirty-three years ago!

Canada, USA and Sweden finished the round robin with identical 7-2 records. Switzerland was on 6-3. Scotland (skipped by Alex F Torrance with Alex Torrance, Tom McGregor and Willie Kerr) had a record of 5-4, France and Germany and Norway went 4-5, Denmark 1-8, and Italy 0-9.

Bill Tetley's Canada were tied against Switzerland in the last end of the semifinal with two stones to come. With three Canadian shots lying against him, Swiss skip Otto Danieli played an angled-raise with his last stone to take out the Canadian stone at the front of the four foot. With the Swiss shot hidden, Tetley had to play a draw to win, but slipped through.

Many will remember the Swiss shot in the semi, but how many recall that the Swiss had beaten Canada when the two countries met in the round robin.

USA (Ed Risling, Chuck Lundgren, Gary Schnee, Dave Tellvik) beat Sweden (Ragnar Kamp, Björn Rudström, Christer Mårtensson, with Axel Kamp skipping and leading) in the other semifinal. Danieli, with Roland Schneider, Rolf Gautschi and Ueli Mulli, were always in control in the final against the Risling team. The US skip missed twice in the ninth to give the Swiss a 7-3 lead. Switzerland had won the Silver Broom.

Lots of stats about world events can be found on the World Curling Federation site here. The problem is that the information about the 1975 Broom (here) appears to be wrong! Some scores must be incorrect. Canada lost only one game in the round robin according to the WCF, and that was to France. And France did not finish the round robin with five wins as the WCF records say. Neither did Norway finish with just three wins. It goes to show that you cannot always believe what you read on the Web! I wonder if the information I've posted above is the accurate version!

Please comment if you know what is correct.

The Earl of Elgin set off his cannon to get the event under way!

The traditional ceremonies.

Bill Tetley, Rick Lang, Bill Hodgson and Peter Hnatiw of Canada at the opening ceremony.

In the days before the internet, Doug Maxwell, the Executive Director, always made sure the media were looked after, and the stories from the world championships went around the world!

I wonder if the BBC has anything in their archives?

That's Scotland's Willie Kerr in the centre of the photo.

Round robin action.

USA skip Ed Risling in the final.

Otto Danieli of Switzerland delivers in the final. Did you notice that this transparency has been scanned from the wrong side!
All photos copyright Bob Cowan.