The 1961

Macdonald Brier The Brier ('), known since 2024 as the Montana's Brier for sponsorship reasons, is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The Brier has been held since 1927, traditionally during the month of March. The w ...

, the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

men's national

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

championship, was held from March 6 to 10, 1961 at the

Stampede Corral The Stampede Corral was a multi-purpose venue (ice hockey, professional wrestling, rodeo, tennis) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located on the grounds of Calgary Stampede#Stampede Park, Stampede Park, the arena was completed in 1950 at a cost ...

Calgary, Alberta Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...

. A total of 51,575 fans attended the event, which was only 150 fans short of the record set in 1955 Brier in Regina. Due to issues during the 1960 Brier with brooms shredding causing numerous delays to clean the ice during games, curlers no longer could choose their own broom and instead could only use brooms provided by the Brier committee. Previously, the Brier committee had always supplied brooms, but curlers were permitted to use their own if desired.

Team Alberta A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to info ...

, who was skipped by

Hec Gervais Hector Joseph "The Friendly Giant" Gervais (November 4, 1933 – July 19, 1997) was a Canadian curler from Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on th ...

captured the Brier Tankard with a record of 9–1 in round robin play. This was the eighth time in which Alberta had captured the Brier championship and the first of two Briers in which Gervais won as a skip. At the age of 27 years and 4 months, Gervais would at the time become the youngest skip to win a Brier surpassing Matt Baldwin's record by six months when he won the 1954 Brier. Gervais' rink (with

Vic Raymer Vic Raymer was the Glossary of curling#Second, Second man on the Alberta Avenue CC curling team (from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) during the World Curling Championships known as the 1961 Scotch Cup. Raymer replaced Ron Anton on the team for the w ...

in place of

Ron Anton Ronald Michael (Mathias) Anton (August 7, 1941 – November 11, 2023) was a Canadian curler, originally from Medicine Hat, Alberta. He played as third on the Hec Gervais rink that won the 1961 Brier and 1974 Brier. He was the first curler to us ...

) would go on to complete in the

1961 Scotch Cup The 1961 Scotch Cup was the third edition of the men's World Curling Championship. It was held across four venues: Ayr, Kirkcaldy, Perth and Edinburgh, Scotland. The tournament began with games in Ayr on 21 March. The second and third days we ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and eventually capture Canada's third straight World Championship.

Event Summary

Heading into the Thursday evening draw (Draw 9), there were seven teams that were mathematically alive to win the 1961 Brier.

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

was unbeaten with a 7–0 record and two games ahead of second place teams

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, who all tied with 5-2 records.

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

was sitting at 5-3 while

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...

and

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

were both 4–3. That evening, Northern Ontario beat Ontario 12–9, Manitoba would hold off

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

14–12, Saskatchewan eliminated Nova Scotia handily 11–3, and PEI handed Alberta their first loss of the tournament with an 11–7 victory. With Alberta's loss, the standings would tighten up heading into the final day of the Brier. The Friday morning draw (Draw 10) saw

beat

9-5 and

beat

6–5, thus eliminating both Ontario and Northern Ontario from championship contention. With

Alberta's Alberta is a province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, the Northwest Territories to its north, and the U.S. stat ...

12–4 victory over

, thus eliminating PEI who had drawn a bye. The final draw of the tournament on Friday afternoon would come down to Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan with the latter two playing each other. An Alberta loss to Ontario would force a tiebreaker against the winner of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan matchup. In the game on Sheet B between

and

, Saskatchewan led 3-1 after the third end but Ontario would counter and score one in each of the next two ends to tie the game at 3. However, Saskatchewan would score three in the sixth to take a 6–3 lead halfway through the game. Manitoba would cut the lead to 6-5 after a score of two in the seventh, but Saskatchewan would put the game out of reach with three in the eighth and a steal of two in the ninth and eventually beat Manitoba 12–7. Meanwhile, on Sheet C, the

and

game was going in similar fashion as the game was tied 3-3 after four ends. To the delight of the Saskatchewan fans, Ontario would put up three in the fifth and a steal of two in the sixth to go up 8-3 after halfway and would lead 9-4 through eight ends. That delight would be short lived however as Alberta would rally back and tie the game at 9 with four in the eighth and a steal of one in the ninth. After a blank end in the eleventh, it would come down to the final end. With Alberta having the shot rock, it would come down to Ontario skip Thomas Caldwell's final rock. Caldwell threw an out-turn on his final stone, but the stone was too far outside and smashed against the Alberta guard giving Alberta a 10–9 victory for Gervais' first Brier and a spot in the

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

Round-robin standings

Round-robin results

All draw times are listed in

Mountain Time The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) when standard time ( UTC−07:00) is in effect, and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time ( UTC−06:00). The clo ...

( UTC-07:00)

Draw 1

''Monday, March 6 3:00 PM''

Draw 2

''Monday, March 6 8:00 PM''

Draw 3

''Tuesday, March 7 9:30 AM''

Draw 4

''Tuesday, March 7 3:00 PM''

Draw 5

''Wednesday, March 8 3:00 PM''

Draw 6

''Wednesday, March 8 8:00 PM''

Draw 7

''Thursday, March 9 9:30 AM''

Draw 8

''Thursday, March 9 3:00 PM''

Draw 9

''Thursday, March 9 8:00 PM''

Draw 10

''Friday, March 10 9:30 AM''

Draw 11

''Friday, March 10 3:00 PM''

References

External links

* Video: {{Canadian Men's Curling Championships Macdonald Brier, 1961 The Brier Curling competitions in Calgary