Gerry Kent’s Cranbrook rink didn’t exactly steamroll its way to provincial supremacy in 1991.

The local foursome took the Tankard as top team in B.C. that year, but found a tough route to get there.

“We were on our last life more than once, going through the whole province,” says Ken McHargue, who threw first stones for the team. “I think we played about 25 games from the time we started in the East Kootenay zone and went to the Interior to get through it all. Whatever the maximum games you could lose and stay alive, that’s the route we took.”

Then-second Tom Shypitka is going back to the Brier this year as a vice-skip, a position Brian Collison held in the Kent rink.

Kent says things go so bad after losing Zones in Cranbrook, the team almost split up.

“I recall writing a letter to my teammates afterwards telling them that I had confidence we could still win the B.C. Championships through the ‘back door,’” he says, via e-mail from Nepal.

McHargue remembers it being a stressful time.

“There was one point where a guy had an open hit to eliminate us on the last throw, and he missed it and we survived. We went on and played another dozen games after that,” he recalls.

It didn’t get any easier once into provincials. Playing a triple-knockout format at Cominco Arena in Trail, they lost their first two games. One more loss and they’d be heading home.

“We were back at the hotel that night and we were all kind of depressed but we came out and started playing the next day,” says McHargue. “We were playing one of the better teams in the province, and I think we were down about 4-1 and actually came back and won that game. We just kind of got it rolling from there.”

Hoisting the provincial Tankard felt good.

“It’s such a difficult goal to achieve that when it happens, it feels like such an accomplishment,” says McHargue who, then as now, calls Elkford home. “The odds are so against being able to win, so when you do win it’s just wonderful.”

Post provincials

Widespread respect didn’t follow right away. Although Kent says the skepticism was warranted, it still helped fuel them.

“One article had a headline “Gerry Who from Where?’” he says. “We used that to motivate ourselves.”

Aside from Ontario’s Russ Howard (whose team was rounded out by brother Glenn, Wayne Middaugh and Peter Corner), many figures in the media saw that year’s Brier field at Hamilton as weak.

Never mind it was the first Brier for skips Kevin Martin and Jeff Stoughton.

Kent opened the tournament against Howard. As the home province’s team is televised first, millions of eyes around the country joined the thousands watching at Copps Coliseum.

“When I opened my hand to throw the first rock, on the television replay my hand was just shaking,” says McHargue. “I was never so happy to see a rock that I’d thrown stop in the right spot in my whole life. I was so worried about either hitting the hacks or hogging it.”

McHargue says the nerves went away after a couple of ends.

“You just start focusing on curling, and all of a sudden you can play.”

Kent felt embarrassed with his play that game, throwing 44 per cent in an 8-3 loss.

Up next was Martin, who had won something like 20 games in a row to that point.

“It was hard to be optimistic,” says Kent. “However, we ended up beating Kevin Martin quite handily — 9-1 — and after that win, it seemed like there might be some hope for us after all.”

There was, and they finished round-robin play with a 7-4 record.

After beating Northern Ontario’s Rick Lang 6-3 in a tiebreaker (finishing the game with three consecutive steals), Kent & Co. went up against Martin again in the semi-final.

After seven ends, the teams were tied 3-3. The score remained unchanged until the 10th, with Martin holding the hammer the entire time.

Curling had yet to adopt the free guard zone, so Kent put their guards in the top of the house, hoping Martin’s team might hit and stick.

It worked, and a guard came to rest off to the side.

Kent attempted to draw around it, but the rock slid an inch too far and Martin didn’t have to throw his last shot.

“After the game, Russ Howard told me that we probably had a 50/50 chance of winning the game if I had made Kevin throw his last rock,” says Kent. “That was because, unlike today, the ice was very unpredictable — the weight varied by 10 to 15 feet on different parts of the ice in that game.”

Martin went on to the final where he disposed of Saskatchewan’s Randy Woytowich 8-4.

“Woytowich played brutal,” says Shypitka. “I remember thinking, ‘Man, if we’d won that semi-final game, we would have won (it all) because he was terrible. He just cracked.”

Winning the Brier that year meant representing Canada at the Albertville Olympics, where curling was making a comeback as a demonstration sport. Kent says it took him years to get over the semi-final loss.

“However, looking back I am now very grateful that I had an opportunity to compete at a Brier and to do as well as we did.”

McHargue is very proud of what they accomplished.

“Going over on the plane, I don’t know what the other guys were thinking but... you’ve been selected to represent B.C. What if you go 0-11? Thankfully that didn’t happen and we had a showing I was very proud of.”

Dissolution

When they went to the Hamilton, Collison was the Brier’s oldest competitor at 49. Kent was 39, while McHargue and Shypitka were 34 and 28 respecitvely.

“In spite of a lot of diversity, our team somehow had the right chemistry,” says Kent.

“Brian knew how to keep us motivated — he had played professional hockey and knew what it took to win. Tom always kept us loose — everyone who knows Tom knows what a great sense of humour he has.”

McHargue was the steadying influence.

“I think he had figured out how to keep my spirits up, even in the bleakest moments,” says Kent.

Away from the rink, McHargue said he and Shypitka were the most likely to get out and about while Kent was happier reading a book.

“Brian was quite content to sit down, have a cigarette and watch TV. It was funny because quite often we might have one drink after a game, but then we’d go separate directions and not even talk to each other until it was time to come back and play. We were all friends; we were just different.”

The team stayed together one more year, just missing out on a trip to provincials in 1992.

Later that year Kent, his wife Lorna and their five children moved to Nepal to work with a Christian development organization.

Collison hung up his competitive slider, while the team’s front end formed their own team.

Kent recalls that Shypitka’s percentages were among the best for seconds at the 1991 national championship.

“Tom and Ken were excellent sweepers — they could put a rock on a dime,” says Kent. “I expect his team will benefit greatly from his experience and skill and his knowledge of what it takes to win at a Brier.”

Shypitka has since done away with the mullet hair-do and toe delivery, but hopes to bring other elements along — like Kent’s straightforward, simple approach.

He also hopes his team can harness its feelings in a pressure-packed situation.

“It was such a crazy time,” he says. “I remember being excited like I am now, but when you’re 28 as opposed to 47, I’m not as wound up as I was the first time.”