The Tim Hortons Brier kicks off March 4 with teams representing every province and territory hitting the sheets in Calgary, Alta., to claim the men's national curling championship. The 10-day event will conclude March 13 with the gold-medal game under the bright lights of the ENMAX Centre in Lethbridge, Atla.
A tournament that dates all the way back to 1927, the championship has evolved over the decades with regard to location (14 of the first 15 were held in Toronto but the city hasn't hosted since 1941), the number of participants (normally it's 16 teams, but with COVID-19 impacting the majority of provincial/territorial championships, it has been expanded this year to 18) and even sponsorships.
Tim Hortons has been the main sponsor of Curling Canada's annual bonspiel since 2005, but it's the other part of the event's name — Brier — that is perplexing. Last anyone checked, it's not a Timbit or a new-fangled coffee flavour. So what, exactly, is a Brier?
"Let's go back to where it started. Macdonald Tobacco was a big company in Canada back in the '20s and the owners of the company decided they want to do something for the Canadian public to say 'Thank you' for their support over the years," said Warren Hansen, who is considered the top curling historian in Canada. He worked for 40 years with Curling Canada and was a member of the 1974 Brier championship team. "They came to the conclusion that one activity that bound Canada together was curling, so they decided that they would start to sponsor a national championship annually for men's curling."
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So, yes, while curling is a part of the fabric of Canadian society and Canadian sports, the tournament was created by a tobacco company to thank people for using its product. That's definitely something you wouldn't see today. In fact, the company, which was bought by American tobacco company R.J. Reynolds in 1974, was facing internal strife and pressure from the government because it was a tobacco company and therefore, handed over sponsorship after the 1979 tournament to Labatt.
Despite subsequent changes in sponsors, from Labatt to Nokia to now Tim Hortons, Brier has remained in the event's name. But, again: What, exactly, is a Brier?
"Brier is the name of a pipe tobacco," Hansen, who also co-hosts the "Inside Curling" podcast, told Sporting News in a phone interview. Brier is also a type of wood used to make smoking pipes. "It was a pipe tobacco that they sold. . . . And, so, they attached the name of that product to the newly formed [tournament], what was the Canadian curling championship is what they called it. It became the Brier."
While it has been more than 40 years since Macdonald — or tobacco in general — has had any direct connection (smoking was banned at the event beginning in 1980) aside from the name, the history continues to run throughout.
"Inside that can of tobacco, there was a silver heart-shaped plug and as a result of that silver heart-shaped plug the actual plaques in the front of the trophy, the Macdonald Brier Tankard trophy, were silver hearts," Hansen said, adding that the tradition continues today after a hiatus when Labatt was the sponsor from 1980-2001. The annual winner, aside from representing Canada at that year's world championship, snags the coveted trophy.
"The other thing that was in the plug was a plastic purple heart. That was inserted into the plug to tamp down the tobacco and although it didn't start originally, eventually the symbol of becoming a participant in the Brier was a purple heart crest that became cherished among male curlers in Canada," Hansen added.