The Thistle Curling Club will pay tribute to a legendary local broadcaster this fall.
Brian Kushner and Bob Minaker are the co-chairs of the Bob Picken Valour Road Masters Bonspiel, scheduled for this October in honour of Picken, a sportscaster who died earlier this year.
Picken was affiliated with the Valour Road Curling Club for more than a half-century before it merged with the Thistle club in 2007, and he continued to be involved with curling at Thistle until his death.
Professionally, he was a sportscaster for CJOB in the mid-1960s, returning as a freelancer in the late 1980s in a career that included 20 years at CBC Manitoba, and enshrinement in provincial sports, hockey, baseball, curling, and golf halls of fame.
Picken also received the Order of Manitoba in 2017.
“We remember Bob as a great curler and broadcaster, but we also remember him as a good friend and an organizer who ran our senior league at Thistle,” said Kushner and Minaker in a release Wednesday.
“He was there with us filling in the draw and taking care of the league’s details right up until the last few weeks.
“Even with his advancing years, he was a larger-than-life presence among us.”
The tournament – a daytime bonspiel slated for the week of Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 – is open to all masters-age curlers, with a maximum entry of 40 teams.
In an effort to extend Picken’s legacy to future generations, plans are in the works to donate proceeds from the event to junior curling projects. Further details about the donation will be released prior to the bonspiel.
For more information or to register for the bonspiel, contact Kushner at 204-786-5944 or 204-257-5643.
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