Hurry Hard: The Russ Howard Story

“And again, I had to pinch myself. Could this all really be happening? Was it possible that I was now a gold medal winner at fifty?

“I had won many championships, world and Canadian championships, Ontario and New Brunswick championships. I had won hundreds of bonspiels and cashed scores of first-place cheques. I have a basement full of trophies and medals, but nothing could compare to the moment I was experiencing now; nothing could ever match the newest reward that was hanging from my neck.”

 From Hurry Hard, Chapter 1

It was a long journey for Russ Howard from his childhood in small-town Ontario to the pinnacle of the Olympic podium in Turin at the 2006 Winter Games. Worlds apart, separated by thousands of kilometers and over four decades, but joined by one remarkable curling career.

A career that started on a quiet, lonely rink in Midland, Ontario. Howard, coached by his father, developed a solid, consistent delivery at an early age. He loved practicing, where other youngsters loathed it, and for hour after lonely hour he honed his skills by throwing rock after rock on the rink at the Midland Curling Club. A natural skip from a young age, Howard was always drawn in by the strategy of the game. He relished the responsibility of throwing the last rock. For him, it was always exciting and thrilling to control the final shot of the game, where others were fearful or nervous. And for over three decades, it has been exciting and thrilling to watch him.

With award-winning journalist Bob Weeks, Russ Howard takes us on his personal journey through forty years of playing the game he loves: championships won and lost, the characters in the game, ever-changing teams and teammates, personal triumph and heartbreak, and an inside view of the curling world from one of the greatest in the sport.

Russ Howard is one of Canada’s curling legends. At the top of the game in the most dominant country in the sport, he is one of the world’s greatest curlers. In more than 30 years of competitive curling, he has won two Canadian championships, two World championships and has set records as a skip in the Brier—the annual national men’s championship—for appearances, games played and wins.

Yet something magical happened to Russ Howard at the age of 49, a time when most curlers are either past their prime or long gone from the game. He became an Olympian. The team of Brad Gushue, a player half Howard’s age and with teammates equally as young, asked the veteran to join the squad as a spare for the Olympic Trials. In a tale of serendipity, Howard would actually go on to play every game for the team, culminating in an Olympic gold medal—the first ever for Canada in men’s curling. Russ Howard, who started the Olympic Games as Canada’s oldest representative at age 49 and turned 50 during the competition, had achieved yet another milestone in his celebrated career.

Along with the magic, Howard has had his share of controversy in the sport. Over his long career, Howard has often been at the centre of heated battles with curling’s ruling body, from having headsets to communicate on the ice, to the fight for the right to wear sponsorship logos in national competitions. Through it all, he has been a star player and a builder of the game. Hurry Hard is the personal story of a Canadian sports legend, known for his triumphs and defeats on and off the ice; his battles with the Canadian Curling Association; his contributions to making the game more exciting offensively; the amazing gold-medal achievement; and, of course, his trademark yelling…Hurry Haaaaaard!

Russ Howard has established himself as one of the most-celebrated curlers in the world in more than 30 years of curling, winning two Canadian championships and two World championships along the way, and setting records as a skip in the Brier – the annual national men’s championship -- for appearances, games played and wins. He contributed to building the game with an idea that put more offence into it and also fought for players’ right to wear sponsorship cresting in national competitions. Beyond all that, he became an Olympian—and turned 50—at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, where Howard won Olympic gold as skip of Brad Gushue’s rink, the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Canada in men’s curling. Russ Howard is an Ambassador for Muscular Dystrophy Canada and the Canadian Liver Association.

  Bob Weeks is the editor and co-publisher of the Ontario Curling Report, now in its thirty-first year of publishing. For 18 years, he has written a weekly column on curling in The Globe and Mail, while providing coverage of curling’s major events for Canada’s national newspaper. He has written on curling for publications across Canada and is a regular commentator on both radio and television. He is a two-time winner of the Scotty Harper Award for the top curling story in Canada, and in 1995 he wrote The Brier: The History of Canada’s Most Celebrated Curling Championship, the first comprehensive history of that great event. He is also the author of Curling for Dummies. When not writing about curling, Bob is the editor of SCOREGolf Magazine, Canada’s leading golf publication. He is also heard talking about golf on a nationally syndicated radio program and appears frequently on TSN.