Hall-of-Famer Sheila Rowan passes away

One of curling’s best all-around athletes, and a member of the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame, has passed away. Four-time Canadian curling champion Sheila Rowan died earlier this week in Saskatoon at the age of 74. Throwing third rocks for the legendary Vera Pezer foursome, Rowan won Macdonald Lassie Canadian women’s curling championships in 1971, ’72 and ’73, and then skipped her own team to the 1992 Canadian senior women’s championship in Nipawin, Sask. Additionally, she was a gifted softball player — her nickname was “Stretch” for her abilities at first base — who played for the powerhouse Saskatoon Imperials. That team won back-to-back Canadian women’s softball championships, and also represented Canada at the 1970 World Championship in Osaka, Japan. The Pezer team — including second Joyce McKee and lead Lee Morrison — was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1976, to the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and to the Saskatchewan Curling Association Hall of Fame in 2004. Rowan was inducted into the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. As well, she was a double inductee to the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame, being inducted as a member of the Imperials softball team in 1971. To read her obituary, click here.