It truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity for eighty-two-year-old Ray Wildfong as he stepped onto the ice sheet and tossed the honorary first rock at the Alberta Boston Pizza Cup Men’s Championship opening ceremonies Feb. 8.
The spirit of his wife, who passed away in July, must have been with him as the rock slid nearly onto the button.
“She would have really enjoyed it,” he said. “She was a huge fan of curling and a very good curler.”
With his wife watching from above and his family watching from the bleachers, Wildfong took aim at his partner Danny Lyons — an old-timer from the area and an accomplished curler in his own right — who held the broom as two junior curlers swept the rock down the ice.
“I was a little nervous but everything went over good,” he said. “It’s something that will never happen again in my time.”
When the Westlock Curling Club was awarded the provincial men’s curling championship, they went looking for a long-time member to open the ceremonies.
“I guess I’ve been involved in curling here for a long time,” he said. “They asked me so it was a very, very huge honour to do that. They could have picked a lot of people but they picked me and I’m very honoured by it, and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
Wildfong has been curling since 1945, starting back in Saskatchewan where he would tag along with his dad to his curling games against the farmers on Saturday afternoons.
He ended up farming in the Athabasca area so even though he lived up in Colinton, he and his five children — four of which are curlers — and wife would drive down for curling, joining his first Westlock bonspiel in 1968.
“I don’t think I’ve hardly missed a bonspiel here since,” he said. “I’m really enjoying it. Being a huge curling fan for many years, some of the curlers that are out here now, I knew their dads or their coaches over the years. I have been mixing with the younger generation and having a super time.”
The love for the sport must be in the Wildfong blood as two of his grandchildren have won bonspiels while playing with their granddad.
Eventually he retired to Westlock 15 years ago. Due to back issues, he picked up stick curling in 2007 and has made it to national stick curling championships in Winnipeg, Regina and St. Albert. He made it to the playoffs in Winnipeg in 2008 and in St. Albert in 2012.
“It allows me and a lot of other people with disabilities to curl. It’s been a real asset to the game and I wouldn’t be curling, and this allows me to do this or I would have been done 20 years ago, 18 years ago.”
Wildfong has tossed rocks from the Northwest Territories to British Columbia and across Manitoba in about 42 curling clubs. Next year he hoped to make it to the 2018 Canadian Stick Curling Championship.
“I hope my health allows me to curl in that. It would be probably the last nationals I would curl in.”
