CANADIAN SENIOR MEN’S
CURLING CHAMPIONS
The Morrie Thompson team from Saskatoon
Nutana won the Canadian senior men's curling championships at
Winnipeg, tying for first place in the round-robin standings and
then beating Don Killips of Ontario 7-5, in a sudden death playoff.
Three of the members, Morrie, Bert and Mac, had
sampled success as a senior's team in 1975 when they won the
Saskatchewan championship and then finished second in the Canadian
finals at Calgary.
In 1977, they won a zone playoff against
Bob Linton, 10-7, to qualify for the provincial finals and then
during an eight-rink playoff at Nipawin, they beat John Keller of
Regina twice on the final day to win the championship.
In the Canadian playoffs at Winnipeg,
they split their first four games, then won six in a row to get a
three-way share of first place and won on the last draw for a record
of nine wins and two losses. In the playoff against Alberta, they
won, 7-5, with Morrie making seven doubles. Morrie was selected
all-star skip and Archie was selected all-star second. The victory by the Thompson team was
Saskatchewan's second in the history of the Canadian seniors
championship, following in the tradition that Don Wilson's Saskatoon
team had set in 1968.
Mac
McKee (lead), Archie Bartley (second), Bert Harbottle (third),
Morrie Thompson (skip)