There should be more curling books like this one. Bob Weeks and Russ Howard combine to tell the story of Howard's illustrious curling career climaxing with his unlikely Olympic gold medal win in 2006 at age 50.
This book is several cuts above the sports book which aims to make a quick buck putting a superstar's name on the covers and little of consequence between them. Weeks and Howard give the inside story on the many teams Howard has skipped, revealing some of the team dynamics. Particularly amusing is their account of Howard's tense relationship with his one-time third, Bob Charlebois.
They also tell of Howard's battles with the Canadian Curling Association over team sponsorship, electronic on-ice communication, lousy arena ice and the free guard zone.
The story is Howard's, but Weeks has clearly made a much greater contribution than to serve as Howard's stenographer. He has prodded the skip to recall key games he has probably more or less forgotten in order to construct a seamless narrative.
One game that Howard no doubt does remember was his first Brier victory in 1987 over B.C.'s Bernie Sparkes. Howard and Weeks describe the game, first setting the scene by describing the efforts of B.C.'s imposing third Jim Armstrong to intimidate Howard. But Howard stood his ground against the big guy.
In the game, Howard took a 6-4 lead into the ninth end, but then gave up three to B.C. Howard nervously recalled the previous year when he lost the Brier on his last rock and was tormented by people all summer long. But Sparkes was equally nervous, made several skipping mistakes in the last end. The whole tale is told in detail with the drama that it deserves.
Except for more discussion about off-ice happenings at the Torino Olympics than I wanted to read, this is a book that held my interest from start to finish. As a diehard Westerner, I've never been a Howard fan. But this book gave me a much greater respect for the man and his accomplishments.