The 1961 Macdonald Brier, the Canadian men's national curling championship, was held from March 6 to 10, 1961 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary, Alberta. A total of 51,575 fans attended the event, which was only 150 fans short of the record set in 1955 Brier in Regina.[1] Due to issues during the 1960 Brier with brooms shredding causing numerous delays to clean the ice during games, curlers no longer could choose their own broom and instead could only use brooms provided by the Brier committee. Previously, the Brier committee had always supplied brooms, but curlers were permitted to use their own if desired.[2]
Team Alberta, who was skipped by Hec Gervais captured the Brier Tankard with a record of 9–1 in round robin play. This was the eighth time in which Alberta had captured the Brier championship and the first of two Briers in which Gervais won as a skip. At the age of 27 years and 4 months, Gervais would at the time become the youngest skip to win a Brier surpassing Matt Baldwin's record by six months when he won the 1954 Brier.[3]
Heading into the Thursday evening draw (Draw 9), there were seven teams that were mathematically alive to win the 1961 Brier. Alberta was unbeaten with a 7–0 record and two games ahead of second place teams Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan, who all tied with 5-2 records. Prince Edward Island was sitting at 5-3 while Northern Ontario and Nova Scotia were both 4–3. That evening, Northern Ontario beat Ontario 12–9, Manitoba would hold off Quebec 14–12, Saskatchewan eliminated Nova Scotia handily 11–3, and PEI handed Alberta their first loss of the tournament with an 11–7 victory. With Alberta's loss, the standings would tighten up heading into the final day of the Brier.
The Friday morning draw (Draw 10) saw Saskatchewan beat Ontario 9-5 and Manitoba beat Northern Ontario 6–5, thus eliminating both Ontario and Northern Ontario from championship contention. With Alberta's 12–4 victory over Nova Scotia, thus eliminating PEI who had drawn a bye. The final draw of the tournament on Friday afternoon would come down to Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan with the latter two playing each other. An Alberta loss to Ontario would force a tiebreaker against the winner of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan matchup.
In the game on Sheet B between Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan led 3-1 after the third end but Ontario would counter and score one in each of the next two ends to tie the game at 3. However, Saskatchewan would score three in the sixth to take a 6–3 lead halfway through the game. Manitoba would cut the lead to 6-5 after a score of two in the seventh, but Saskatchewan would put the game out of reach with three in the eighth and a steal of two in the ninth and eventually beat Manitoba 12–7. Meanwhile, on Sheet C, the Alberta and Ontario game was going in similar fashion as the game was tied 3-3 after four ends. To the delight of the Saskatchewan fans, Ontario would put up three in the fifth and a steal of two in the sixth to go up 8-3 after halfway and would lead 9-4 through eight ends. That delight would be short lived however as Alberta would rally back and tie the game at 9 with four in the eighth and a steal of one in the ninth. After a blank end in the eleventh, it would come down to the final end. With Alberta having the shot rock, it would come down to Ontario skip Thomas Caldwell's final rock. Caldwell threw an out-turn on his final stone, but the stone was too far outside and smashed against the Alberta guard giving Alberta a 10–9 victory for Gervais' first Brier and a spot in the 1961 Scotch Cup.[3]
Manitoba
Nova Scotia
British Columbia
Quebec
Newfoundland
