1980 Moncton Air Canada Silver Broom — Part 1

With Saturday being the opening day of the 2009 World Men’s Curling Championship in Moncton, New Brunswick, Curling into the Past will focus on the last men’s world championship in Moncton, the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, with a day-by-day, draw-by-draw look at that event from 29 years ago.
To start, we’ll look at Canada going into the championship and, specifically, a painful little streak of which Canadians were tired.

As the 2009 World Men’s Championships started in Moncton, we as Canadians could look back on the past and seven years and be fairly happy with our recent record at the world’s. Sure, it’s not perfection but from 2002 to 2008, Canada had won the world title five times, with Mark Dacey coming up with a bronze in 2004 and Jean-Michel Menard taking silver in 2006 to interrupt the run.
Well, as the Air Canada Silver Broom began in Moncton in late March of 1980, the record over the previous seven years was devastating. In that time frame, from 1973 to 1979, Canada had zero world titles to show for it. This was especially tough for Canadians to swallow considering the fact Canada won all but two of the first 14 world titles, running from Ernie Richardson in 1959 to Orest Meleschuk in 1972.
There had to be an explanation for such a bizarre turn-of-events and thus, the Curse of Labonte was created. The curse was attributed to members of the media after the streak had started to stretch.
As most of you know, Labonte’s Curse referred to U.S. skip Bob Labonte of North Dakota who came close to winning the 1972 championship in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany.
In the 10th end of that championship, Labonte was up by two over Winnipeg’s Orest Meleschuk. With his last stone, Meleschuk had to hit and stick for two to force an extra end. But as Meleschuk’s shot stone rolled after the hit, U.S. third Frank Aasand looked at where the Canadian rock stopped, signalled that the U.S. was second shot and kicked off the fateful celebration.
Upon seeing Aasand’s celebration, Labonte, with cigarette dangling from his lips, ran into the house to celebrate with his third. Labonte was jumping up and down when he entered the house and then slipped and fell. As he landed on his tuchas, his foot hit the Canadian rock that was either second or third shot.
When the burned rock went undeclared, the stones were measured. Now whether the Canadian rock was moved closer to the button by Labonte’s errant foot is not clear but what was clear was that the measurement went in favour of Canada, giving it the deuce and forcing an 11th end.
In the extra, Canada stole one from Labonte to win the crown. That would be the last win for a while for Canada. After a few defeats in a row, a reporter came up with the theory that Labonte had put a hex on Canada after losing to Meleschuk in a controversial fashion, leading to Canada’s inability to win after that.
This is what faced Canada as the 1980 Silver Broom began with Saskatoon’s Rick Folk and his team of cornslingers carrying the Canadian colours. Many Canadian curling fans hoped it would be Folk’s team who could end the so-called curse.

Here's a video of the fabled Labonte incident from 1972.



Next: A look at the field of the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom.