The 1974

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 4 to 9, 1974 at the

London Gardens The London Ice House was an arena in London, Ontario, Canada. It was originally built in 1963 and was home to the London Knights ice hockey team from 1965 to 2002. The design was influenced by the first level of the Boston Garden, and had a ca ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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 ...

. The total attendance for the week was 48,170.

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 by finishing round robin play 8–2. This was Alberta's twelfth title overall and the second skipped by Gervais, who previously won in . The Gervais rink would go onto represent

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in the 1974 Air Canada Silver Broom, the men's world curling championship held in

Bern, Switzerland Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

where they lost in the semifinal to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Alberta's 4–2 victory over

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, ...

in Draw 11 set then Brier records for lowest combined score by both teams in one game (6) and most blank ends in one game (7). These records would be Macdonald era (until ) records that were matched twice in that era and eventually broken later.

Event Summary

After the Thursday evening draw (Draw 8), there were five teams that were in contention for the championship.

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 ...

led the way with a 7–1 record with

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 ...

tied for second at 5–2,

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

right behind at 5–3, and

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 ...

at 4–3. The Friday afternoon draw saw the standings tighten. First place Alberta lost big to

12–5, Quebec defeated

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

9–4, Saskatchewan rolled past

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 ...

11–3. Northern Ontario would be eliminated from contention with an 11–6 loss to

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

while New Brunswick draw a bye. With Alberta, Quebec, and Saskatchewan all with two losses, this Brier would come down to the last two draws or even a tiebreaker. The penultimate draw on Friday evening (Draw 10) saw Alberta draw a bye meaning the other three teams could catch some ground heading into Saturday afternoon. However, the only contender who won was Saskatchewan as they beat Newfoundland 8–5. Quebec would lose to Ontario 8–5 while New Brunswick would be eliminated after losing 10–8 to BC. With Saskatchewan's win, both Alberta and Saskatchewan were tied for first with 7–2 records while Quebec sat at 6–3. The final draw would pit Alberta against Quebec while Saskatchewan would play Ontario. Anything from an outright championship, two-way tiebreaker, or a three-way tiebreaker was possible after the final draw. The featured matchups in the final draw were anti-climatic in different ways. The Ontario and Saskatchewan matchup saw the game tied at 1 after three ends. This is as close as Saskatchewan would get as Ontario scored three in the fourth and stole one the next two ends to take a commanding 6–1 lead through the halfway point. Saskatchewan would attempt a comeback, but Ontario would counter each Saskatchewan score as Ontario would eventually win 11–8 meaning that Saskatchewan would need some help from Quebec to force a three-way tiebreaker. Alberta and Quebec would be a low-scoring affair as five of the first seven ends were blanked with the score tied at 1. Alberta would break the ice a bit with two in the eighth and taking a 3–1 lead in the process. Quebec cut the lead down to 3–2 in the ninth end. The next two ends were blanked and Alberta would clinch the Brier tankard with a single in the last end for a 4–2 win giving Gervais his first Brier title since . The official Dominion Curling Association stones were said to be so bad at the event, that nine of the 11 competing skips petitioned to have the rocks replaced (only the skips of New Brunswick and Newfoundland didn't sign, as this had been their first Brier). Sure enough, the rocks would be sold-off that summer, and would never be used at the Brier again. The 1974 Brier was also the final year where throwers were not allowed to slide past the hog line on their throws. However, after enforcing the rules earlier in the tournament, officials stopped part way through due to backlash from some of the curlers. Then later on, officials changed the rules mid-week to state that curlers could slide over the line as long as they had released the rock first.

Teams

The teams are listed as follows:

Map of teams

Round Robin standings

Round Robin results

All draw times are listed in

Eastern Standard Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behind ...

( UTC-05:00).

Draw 1

''Monday, March 4, 2:00 pm''

Draw 2

''Monday, March 4, 7:30 pm''

Draw 3

''Tuesday, March 5, 9:00 am''

Draw 4

''Tuesday, March 5, 2:00 pm''

Draw 5

''Wednesday, March 6, 2:00 pm''

Draw 6

''Wednesday, March 6, 7:30 pm''

Draw 7

''Thursday, March 7, 2:00 pm''

Draw 8

''Thursday, March 7, 7:30 pm''

Draw 9

''Friday, March 8, 2:00 pm''

Draw 10

''Friday, March 8, 7:30 pm''

Draw 11

''Saturday, March 9, 1:00 pm''

Awards

All-Star Team

The media selected the following curlers as All-Stars.BRIER INDIVIDUAL AWARDS & ALL-STAR TEAMS
/ref>

Ross G.L. Harstone Award

The Ross Harstone Award was presented to the player chosen by their fellow peers as the curler who best represented Harstone's high ideals of good sportsmanship, observance of the rules, exemplary conduct and curling ability.

References

External links

a
Soudog's Curling History
{{Canadian Men's Curling Championships Sports competitions in London, Ontario Macdonald Brier, 1974 The Brier Curling competitions in Ontario