Bernard Leslie Sparkes[1] (born October 15, 1940) is a former world champion curler.
Sparkes's first major curling championship success came when he won the 1957 Alberta Schoolboys.[2] He would later go on to win 4 Alberta (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969) championships and 3 Canadian Brier and World Championships (1966, 1968, 1969)[2] He was voted all star second at 4 consecutive Briers as the second for the Ron Northcott team. He is a member of the Lethbridge Sports Hall Of Fame (baseball), the Southern Alberta Curling Hall Of Fame,[3] the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame (1974)[4] and the WCF Hall of Fame (2021).[5] Sparkes moved to British Columbia in 1970 and went on to win 9 more men's provincial curling championships 1 Masters over 70 in 2014 and 1 mixed championship. He was elected to the B.C. Sports Hall Of Fame in 1995.[2] He was elected to the World Curling Hall of Fame in 2021.
One of his leisurely pursuits is painting. He paints still life and animal paintings. One of his most famous paintings is a chair in a lawn, surrounded by bouquets and flowers. [6]
At the time of the 1967 Brier, he was a stationary salesman. He was an avid baseball player in his youth, and was a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers organization.[7]
Notes
↑ "Larry Wood". Calgary Herald. March 9, 1968. p.18. Retrieved March 1, 2020.
Randy S. Ferbey is a Canadian retired curler from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Ferbey is a six-time Canadian champion and a four-time World Champion. He currently coaches the Rachel Homan women's team.
Kevin Martin, nicknamed "The Old Bear" and "K-Mart", is a Canadian retired curler from Edmonton, Alberta, an Olympic, World and four-time Canadian champion and a member of the World Curling Hall of Fame. He is considered by many commentators and former and current curlers to be the greatest curler of all time. He is also known for his rivalries with Randy Ferbey/David Nedohin, the best Alberta provincial rivalry ever as the two teams were generally regarded the best in the world from 2002 to 2006; his rivalry with Jeff Stoughton, perhaps the most famous all prairies rivalry ever which spanned over 2 decades from 1991 to 2014; with Glenn Howard from 2007 to 2014, perhaps the best two team rivalry in Canadian curling history, and his rivalry with Sweden's Peja Lindholm from 1997 to 2006, perhaps the best ever men's Canada-Europe rivalry.
John C. Morris is a Canadian curler, and two-time Olympic gold medallist from Canmore, Alberta. Morris played third for the Kevin Martin team until April 24, 2013. Morris, author of the book Fit to Curl, is the son of Maureen and Earle Morris, inventor of the "Stabilizer" curling broom. Morris grew up in Gloucester, Ontario and at the age of five began curling at the Navy Curling Club.
Mark Nichols, ONL is a Canadian curler from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He currently plays third for the Brad Gushue rink. Nichols is a former Olympic champion curler, having played third for Team Canada at the 2006 Winter Olympics where the team won a gold medal. He also won a World championship with Gushue in 2017.
Ronald Charles "Owl" Northcott, is a three-time Canadian and World curling champion and a Hall of Fame member.
Kerry Burtnyk is a Canadian curler from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He grew up in Reston, Manitoba. He is a two time Canadian champion skip, and the 1995 World Champion skip. He is currently the coach of the Darcy Robertson rink.
Marc Kennedy is a Canadian curler, and Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic gold medallist from St. Albert, Alberta.
Kevin Koe is a Canadian curler. Koe is a two-time World champion and four-time Canadian champion. He was the skip of the Canadian men's team at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
Allan A. Hackner, nicknamed "the Iceman", is a Canadian Hall of Fame curler from Thunder Bay, Ontario. He was born in Nipigon, Ontario. He is a two-time Brier and World Champion skip. He is of Ojibwa descent and is a member of the Red Rock Indian Band. He is currently a member of USA Curling's High Performance Program Coaching staff.
James P. Armstrong is a former Canadian curler and wheelchair curler now living in Ontario. He was a successful able-bodied curler for much of his career until he had to stop playing because of bad knees and a car accident in 2003.
Brendan Michael Bottcher is a Canadian curler from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Bottcher is a three-time provincial men's champion, and currently is the skip of the defending Canadian men's championship team, having led Alberta to victory at the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier.
The Calgary Curling Club is a curling club located in Calgary, Alberta.
William Garnet "The Little General" Campbell was a Canadian curler born in Avonlea, Saskatchewan. He was the first skip from Saskatchewan to win the Brier.
Jules Owchar is a Canadian curler, curling coach, and golf coach from Edmonton, Alberta. Owchar is best known as the longtime coach of Kevin Martin, a retired Olympic champion, world champion, and Canadian champion. Owchar is also the curling coach of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology curling teams. He is also currently coaching Brad Gushue's Newfoundland and Labrador team. Teams coached by Owchar have won eight Briers, one Olympic gold, two silvers, and one bronze; two world championships, 24 Slam titles and 34 conference championship gold medals, as of March 2019 when he was named to Curling Canada's Hall of Fame.
Frederick Lewis Storey was a Canadian curler from Calgary. He won three World Curling Championships and three Brier Championships playing as lead on the Ron Northcott rink.
Roderick George McLean "The Arrow" Hunter was a Canadian curler and politician. He was the third on the Don Duguid rink that won two World Curling Championships and two Brier Championships. He also won four British Consols Trophies, the men's provincial championship. After his curling career, Hunter moved to Alberta and became town councillor in the town of Viking. In Viking, he was also the president and manager of the Viking Curling Club.
Warren R. Hansen is a Canadian retired curler. He played as third on the Hec Gervais rink that won the 1974 Brier. Hansen served as director of event operations for Curling Canada, but retired in June 2015. He currently is operating a podcast called Inside Curling with Kevin Martin and is part of the organizing committee, in Las Vegas, that are hosting the 2022 World Men's Curling Championship and previously worked for the United States Curling Association as a Business Development Consultant. Hansen worked for Curling Canada 1974 - 2015. His involvement with the organization has been instrumental in moving major events into hockey arenas, introducing the page playoff system, reducing the amount of sheets in events to four, implementing player dress codes, bringing in officiating of major events and the creation of the Continental Cup of Curling and Canada Cup of Curling. In addition Hansen played a key role, along with Calgary's Ray Kingsmith in establishing curling as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. In 2002 he developed the game of Mixed Doubles as part of the newly created Continental Cup. In June 2015 it was announced that Mixed Doubles will be a full medal sport at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Hansen is a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame as a team member of the Edmonton Huskies and also as a Curling Builder. He is a member of the City of Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame as a team member of the Huskies and a Curler/Builder in the Canadian Curing Hall of Fame and a Builder in the World Curing Hall of Fame.
The 1969 Macdonald Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship was held March 3–7 at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium in Oshawa, Ontario.
The 1968 Macdonald Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship was held March 4–8 at the Kelowna Arena in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The 1967 Macdonald Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship was held March 6–10 at the Hull Arena in Hull, Quebec. The event was originally planned to be played at the Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa, but it was later decided to hold the event across the Ottawa River in Hull as the Civic Centre was not going to be completed in time to host the event.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
