1999 Brier
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1999 BRIER
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Ursel stands alone in Quebec's Brier history
Still, Guy Hemmings could go down in history as the only Quebec skip to make back-to-back appearances in the Labatt Brier final and come up empty both times.
Not to mention becoming the answer to some curling buff's trivia question.
The affable Hemmings was looking to deliver La Belle Province's second title in Brier history and avenge last year's loss to Wayne Middaugh for all the marbles.
Alas, it was not to be as the tousled-haired greenhouse operator found himself pitted against Manitoba's Jeff Stoughton only to wind up on the wrong end of a 9-5 score.
That leaves Manitoba-born Jim Ursel as the only man ever to skip Quebec to a Brier title. The now 62-year-old Ursel turned the trick in 1977.
"It's too bad," said Ursel by telephone from his home in Kelowna after Hemmings' loss. "That's certainly a deserving team. They could have easily won it last year.
"I don't really know Guy because I moved away (from Quebec) long before they were around.
"This year they gave it a good shot but Jeff has a strong team. I have kind of something for Manitoba as well. I know Jeff because they played junior against my son (Bob) and I sort of helped their team one year.
"That was after the juniors. In about 1990, they were having some problems and they asked me to go and help them with their deliveries. I didn't coach them for the season - they just asked me to come out and help and I did that."
The year Ursel won the Brier, the event was a 12-team round-robin affair and the rink with the best overall record at the end of the affair was declared champion.
Ursel watched B.C.'s Roy Vinthers go 8-0 out of the gate but battled his way to a Brier-best 9-2 with a victory in the final draw at Montreal's Olympic Velodrome.
That's a slightly shorter route than the one Hemmings took, which included an 8-3 log in the round-robin coupled with a dramatic last-rock, extra-end win over Saskatchewan's Gerald Shymko in Saturday's semifinal.
Granted, Hemmings played two more games than they did when Ursel won for Quebec back in '77. But Ursel's still not convinced it was any easier to win the Brier back then.
"I don't think it's ever been easy to win the Brier. Although, a number of the teams now have gotten a little more professional in their approach to the game.
"We put a fair amount of time into the game just like Hec Gervais and all those other teams. But I don't think we put quite as much into it as a number of the teams do now.
"The style of the game is slightly different and I know the ice is a heckuva lot better than what we had to play on. My last Brier was 1980 in Calgary and we were just starting to use push brooms."
With Bob playing third for B.C.'s Bert Gretzinger, Ursel was camped at Skyreach for most of the round-robin portion of 'The Last Shootout of the Century' which wrapped up Thursday night.
After the Lotuslanders lost their final two draws to fall to 5-6 and finish out of the playoff picture, Ursel headed home to the B.C. Interior and the comfort of his living room couch.
"It was a great Brier," he said.
"The crowds were great and the curling, I thought, was very even. The teams were very competitive all the way down.
"There was just a couple that may have been slightly weaker than the rest."
Nonetheless, with yet another Brier in the books and Hemmings going down to defeat, Ursel still has his place in Quebec curling history.
Suffice to say, Ursel figures a win by Hemmings wouldn't have prevented his name from cropping up as the answer to a trivia question at future Briers.
"As far as Quebec winning their second one, it's nice for any province," Ursel offered.
"I had good feelings about them. I thought they had a good shot at winning it and I would have been quite happy to see them win. With a few more breaks ...
"I don't think about history.
"You don't want to be kind of a trivia question every year.
"Had Guy won, the trivia would then have been, 'Who was the first one to win for Quebec?' ''