2026 Male Athlete Inductee - Brian Glover

Brian Glover was born May 21,1955 and raised on a farm just outside of Wallaceburg. Attending S.S. #15 (Weber School) for six years until moving to W.T Laing for grades 7 and 8 then proceeded to W.D.S.S. for grades 9-13. Upon graduation, Glover was accepted to the University of Waterloo where he earned an Honours degree in Recreation. During that time, he also skipped the varsity curling team in his freshman year.

Growing up on the farm provided limited opportunity for organized sports except for a few years of early Saturday morning house league hockey at Memorial Arena in Wallaceburg. Starting in high school, Glover participated in almost every intramural sport and joined the cross country and junior basketball teams. In Grade 11 he joined the curling team following in the footsteps of his brother Doug and his sister Diane. In the summer months during his teens, he started playing midget lacrosse and continued for over a decade playing with the Wallaceburg Satans Junior lacrosse team and the Wallaceburg Red Devils Senior lacrosse team.

Curling quickly became Glover passion taking every opportunity to be at the Sydenham Curling Club often playing two games a night and participating in as many junior and open bonspiels as he could fit into his schedule. In 1975 his team afforded him his first opportunity to compete in an Ontario Curling Association provincial final in the Junior Tankard play-downs held in St. Catherines. This good fortune continued over the years, and he had the opportunity to participate in 11 Ontario Curling Association provincial finals. Playing in two area major leagues, Glover won The Kent Major League four times and continued to participate in four provincial finals of The Association of Competitive Curlers. These competitions also allowed the opportunity to compete against several provincial, Canadian, International and World champions.

Locally, for the past 57 years, Glover has played in almost all of the regional bonspiels. Whether these bonspiels were one day local tournaments or provincial cash bonspiels, Brian had the good fortune to play on teams that often found themselves to the winner' circle including the All-Ontario Farmers Bonspiel in 1987. Brian will tell you that his biggest accomplishment is participating (and surviving) in the famous three-day Crazy Legs Bonspiel at the Sydenham Community Curling Club, for 43 out of the 45 years the bonspiel has been held. He has played on the Crazy Legs championship team seven times winning the bonspiel at least once in the past five decades.

Although playing the sport has been his number one passion, helping others learn and participate in curling has also been a focus. Helping to organize and convene the first junior curling committee, organize the first Wallaceburg junior bonspiel and convene the WDSS high school program for seven years was just a start. Upon his return from university Glover quickly joined the Sydenham Curling Club Board of Directors acting as president for the 1985-86 year. Glover was part of the organizing committee that began the Kent Major Curling League and continued to be part of the committee for forty years acting as convenor for the last 15 years until 2019 when the league concluded as one of the longest running

major leagues in Ontario. He also was part of the Sarnia Major League Executive Committee for several years and was part of the inaugural committee for the All-Ontario Farmers Event which has just completed its 39th year.

Helping others learn the sport was also important to Glover. In 1975 he became involved in the National Coaching Certification Program becoming one of the youngest (at the time) certified curling instructors and for years spent several evenings and weekends traveling to help conduct clinics to teach the fundamentals to new curlers. Glover also continued to become a Level 1 and Level 2 Instructor Trainer for the coaching theory program for the NCCR. Currently Glover continues to curl 1-2 games a week, participate in 10-12 bonspiels a year, plays golf in the summer, travels with his wife Judee, watches his daughter Brynelle compete in triathlons, and volunteers at the YMCA. He is hopeful to someday curl with his new grandson Maverick.