Ray Turnbull (curler)

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Ray Turnbull
Born(1939-07-19)July 19, 1939
DiedOctober 6, 2017(2017-10-06) (aged 78)
Curling career
Brier appearances2 (1958, 1965)
World Championship
appearances
1 (1965)
Medal record
Representing  Canada
Men's Curling
World Curling Championships
Silver medal – second place 1965 Perth Team
Macdonald Brier
Representing  Manitoba
Gold medal – first place 1965 Saskatoon
Silver medal – second place 1958 Victoria

Raymond Charles William "Moosie" Turnbull[1][2][3] (July 19, 1939 – October 6, 2017) was a Canadian curler, coach and broadcaster from Manitoba. From 1985 to 2010, he was a member of the TSN curling coverage team along with Vic Rauter and Linda Moore.

Curling[edit]

Turnbull won the 1965 Brier as the lead for the Terry Braunstein team. The team would finish second to the United States in the World Curling Championships. He was named the all-star lead at both competitions.[4]

Turnbull also represented Manitoba at two Canadian Senior Curling Championships, in 1994 and 1995.

Coaching[edit]

More than anyone else Ray Turnbull can be credited with taking curling around the world. Starting in the late 1960s Turnbull ran curling clinics across Europe, Japan and The United States. Ray Turnbull gets a fair share of the credit for teaching the Europeans both the technical skills and the strategy that saw the World Men's Championship trophy reside in Sweden, Norway or Switzerland six times between 1973 and 1984. Canada won only three times in that period. Beginning in 1979, European teams also won four of the first five World Women's championships while Canada earned only one win. Turnbull's coaching had helped create a time of international curling dominance by Europe which was a stepping stone to the sport's current Olympic status.

Broadcasting[edit]

In 1981, Turnbull was chief umpire at the World Curling Championships. After the final draw, Turnbull rousted a Global sports reporter for ignoring CBC's television rights. That reporter, Vic Rauter, would become Turnbull's broadcasting partner five years later.[5]

For 25 Years Turnbull was the voice of curling on TSN. Alongside Vic Rauter and Linda Moore Turnbull helped bring curling to the masses. He showed a remarkable ability to explain the intricacies of the sport to the non-curler, the recreational club curler, and the professional curler without dumbing it down so as to offend the most knowledgeable fan. In that role, Ray Turnbull and his broadcast-team colleagues get a very large share of the credit for making championship curling a 'must-watch' sports viewing choice for audiences which are among the largest of any Canadian sport.

Turnbull retired from broadcasting at the end of the 2009–10 curling season following the Vancouver Olympics.[4]

Honours[edit]

In 1993, he was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame as both a curler and a builder.[6][7] He was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.[8] He was inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame in 2015.[9]

Personal life[edit]

Turnbull was born on July 19, 1939[10][11] and was a native of Huntsville, Ontario.[12] Turnbull died at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre of leukemia.[13] He had 5 children: Leanne, Lori, Scott, Allan, and Reginald.

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Ray "Moosie" Turnbull, Legendary TV Curling Analyst, Dies at 78". The Hollywood Reporter. 6 October 2017.
  2. ^ 2017 Brier Media Guide: Previous Rosters
  3. ^ "TURNBULL RAYMOND - Obituaries". winnipegfreepress.com. 2017-10-06.
  4. ^ a b Murray McCormick (February 4, 2010). "After 25 years, Ray Turnbull hanging up his curling mic". Regina Leader-Post.
  5. ^ "They'll never forget if you lose to U.S.A". Edmonton Journal. April 6, 2007. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011.
  6. ^ "Canadian Curling Hall of Fame". Canadian Curling Association. Archived from the original on January 30, 2010. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
  7. ^ "Turnbull, Raymond C. 'Ray' — CCA Hall of Fame — ACC Temple de la Renommée Virtuelle". Archived from the original on 2022-11-20. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
  8. ^ Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame
  9. ^ "World Curling Federation - Russ Howard, Ray Turnbull and Hiroyuki Saito inducted into World Curling Hall of Fame". www.worldcurling.org. Archived from the original on 2015-03-21.
  10. ^ Ewing, Lori (August 18, 2009). "Turnbull twins are big chips off the old block". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
  11. ^ "Turnbull cuts his ties with TSN's curling". Toronto Star. March 15, 2010.
  12. ^ "TURNBULL RAYMOND - Winnipeg Free Press Passages". passages.winnipegfreepress.com. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
  13. ^ "Curling Canada | Hall of Famer Ray Turnbull passes away".