Former Brier champion and longtime coach Ron Anton has died
Written by Dave Komosky
It’s hard enough to make a name for yourself in a sport, but from time to time there are special people who manage to make their name on multiple levels.
That was Ron Anton. Recruited as a teenager to play for legendary skip Hec Gervais, Anton went on to have a distinguished curling career in Alberta as a player, coach, innovator, administrator and, above all, a winner.
“Ron was an interesting guy,” said Warren Hansen, reflecting on the life of his former colleague and friend who passed away at the age of 82 on Saturday (Nov. 11) in Chilliwack, British Columbia. “He was a calm, kind of collected guy. He had a dry sense of humour, so if you didn’t know him you’d think he was angry. But he wasn’t. He was very serious and goal-driven. He was the best player I ever played with.”
Anton, who was born and raised in Medicine Hat, Alta., played in three Canadian men’s curling championships and finished third for Gervais, winning two of them in 1961 and 1974. Anton was only 19 years old when he helped Gervais, second Ray Werner and Wally drive. Ursulyak wins the ’61 Brier at Calgary Stampede Corral. Anton set a record that still stands as the youngest player to win a Brier.
Anton remained in Canada to study for exams as the team went on to win the Scotch Cup World Championship in Scotland, with Vic Reimer playing third.
“He was the only player I knew who won a Canadian championship and never went to a world championship,” Hansen said.
The same team returned to the Brier the following year but lost in a three-team playoff to Tankard, won by Saskatchewan’s Ernie Richardson.
It was not until 1974 that Anton (after a five-year spell out of his team) returned to the Brier with Gervais, this time with Hansen at second and Darryl Sutton at the front. The team won in London but was upset at the World Championships in Bern, Switzerland under harsh ice conditions.
Gervais got all the press attention because of his skill in dealing with such a mountain of men, but Anton had a huge role in his success. Legendary sportswriter Jack Matheson once wrote that Anton was a tower of strength on third down and that Gervais leaned heavily on him, “suggesting that Anton must be the strongest third because when Hec leans against a building, he moves.”
Jerry Beckham, Curling Canada’s former director of high performance, saw plenty of Anton play against him in big cash matches at BC, and at the Brier, and says he was a formidable opponent.
“He had a level of intensity and focus beyond anything I had ever experienced before, and he had the skill set to back it up,” Beckham said. “He threw the stone as pure as you can throw it. He was a tremendous sweeper.
“He was a great all-around athlete.”
Anton’s ability to throw rocks came, in large part, from the way he developed his balanced delivery, turning his slider foot to the left to allow his body to move behind the rock – much like a crease delivery.
“He was the first curler I can remember who was able to slide perfectly balanced without using a broom,” said Hansen, who served as director of event operations for Curling Canada until 2015. “It took some work because you needed a certain degree of flexibility in the ankle and hip.
Anton was also the first to use curlers on his heels.
“He had a huge impact on how the stone was delivered,” Hansen said.
Anton, a high school teacher and principal, was later involved in establishing an education system for teachers and coaches in Canada, which was the sport’s initial involvement in the National Coaching Certification Program.
Anton was a first class coach. In 1967 he guided Stan Trout’s Alberta team to the Canadian High School Boys Championship, and coached Alberta’s Cathy Shaw to the 1982 Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Anton’s participation in the game did not end there. He was a member of the five-person national team program committee that selected Canada’s representatives at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary where curling was a demonstration sport. He was the men’s curling coach at those Games and spent a number of years as national team captain for the Canadian men’s curling team.
“He was a true student of all aspects of the game,” Beckham said. “Not everyone would have seen every aspect of what he brought to the sport of curling.”
Anton was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1975.
