We don't talk enough about the physical evolution of curling. Modern fans look at athletes sliding down the sheet with engineered brooms and athletic builds, thinking it was always this way. It wasn't. It took visionaries to pull the sport out of its backyard-pastime shell and drop it into the modern era.
Don Duguid was one of those visionaries.
On July 15, 2026, the legendary Winnipeg curler and broadcaster died peacefully at Winnipeg's Grace Hospital at the age of 91. His son, Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid, shared the news, highlighting an extraordinary life that shaped Canadian sports history.
Duguid didn't just win games. He literally changed how the game was played, how it looked, and how millions of Canadians watched it on television.
The Birth of the Infamous Tuck Delivery
If you've ever watched Manitoba curlers slide, you've probably noticed a distinct style. They slide on the toe of their slider foot, knee tucked high, flat-foot trailing behind. That's the "tuck delivery." It's a style emulated by giants of the game like Jeff Stoughton and Mike McEwen.
Duguid basically invented it.
As a ten-year-old kid in Winnipeg, his dad was an icemaker. He grew up on the ice but was too small to throw the heavy granite stones all the way down the sheet using the traditional flat-foot slide of his era.
"I couldn’t slide like Ken Watson could," Duguid recalled back in 2020 after being named to the Order of Canada. "So I decided to go up on my toe... I invented that years and years and years ago because I was so small and at least on the toe I could slide a bit further."
That mechanical tweak, born out of necessity, became a regional trademark and an incredibly effective way to generate power and precision.
Going Back to Back in an Era of Giants
Winning a single Brier—the Canadian men's curling championship—is a monumental task. Doing it three times is legendary.
Duguid won his first Brier in 1965 playing third for Terry Braunstein. But his historic peak came when he took over the skip stones himself. He skipped his Manitoba rink to consecutive Brier titles in 1970 and 1971.
He didn't stop at the domestic border. Duguid took those same squads to the World Men's Curling Championship in back-to-back years, winning gold both times.
Even more impressive? His teams went completely undefeated during those world championship runs, stringing together an unbelievable 17-game win streak on the world stage. He became only the second skip in history to pull off consecutive Brier victories.
Voicing the Game for Generations
Many sports legends struggle to find a second act after their competitive fire cools. Not Duguid.
After hanging up his competitive broom, he walked right into the broadcast booth. He spent nearly 30 years as the premier curling analyst for the CBC. Alongside legendary play-by-play voice Don Wittman and eventual hall-of-famer Colleen Jones, Duguid became the soundtrack to Canadian winters.
When curling officially exploded onto the global Olympic stage, US networks knew they needed Canadian expertise to explain the subtle strategy to American audiences. NBC hired Duguid as their primary curling analyst for the Salt Lake City (2002), Turin (2006), and Vancouver (2010) Winter Olympic Games.
He possessed a rare gift. He could explain the complex angles, ice conditions, and strategy of a high-level game without sounding like a textbook. He spoke to viewers like he was sitting next to them at the local club.
A Highly Decorated Legacy
You don't accomplish this much without the country noticing. Duguid was inducted into virtually every sports institution available:
- Canadian Curling Hall of Fame (1974)
- Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame (1981, alongside his 1970 and 1971 teams)
- Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1991)
- World Curling Federation Hall of Fame (2013)
He was also appointed to the Order of Manitoba in 2014 and received the Order of Canada in 2020. For a kid who started out simply trying to slide a bit further on Winnipeg ice, it was an incredibly well-deserved run.
If you want to understand how curling grew from a casual social club hobby into a highly athletic, televised spectacle, you have to look at the life of Don Duguid. He didn't just play the game; he helped build it.
