Begin, Terry

Year Inducted / Année Intronisé:

2020

Province / Province:

Ontario

Category / Catégorie:

Builder

Biography / Biographie:

Terry Begin of Ottawa is a tireless volunteer for curling in the nation’s capital, and a pioneer of today’s curling statistical scoring system. He has been involved in countless events as a volunteer in Ottawa, and while much of his work was public-facing volunteering at a series of major Curling Canada championships in his hometown, it was his work on compiling curling statistics that continues to have an impact on how curling is viewed by media and the public.

Begin got his first taste of curling in 1952 in Olds, Alta., where he joined a high school curling league. He played at a high level in the Ottawa area, and also worked as an instructor with the likes of fellow Canadian Curling Hall of Famer Warren Hansen.

He volunteered at numerous major events, including the 1967, 1977, 1979, 1993 and 2001 Briers, the 1990 Scott Tournament of Hearts and the 2017 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings.

From 1977-84, he was a member of the Canadian Curling Association’s Public Relations Committee, including terms as Chair and Vice-Chair, and in 2000, he was welcomed into the prestigious Governor General’s Curling Club.

He started developing the scoring system for assessing players’ shooting percentages in the late 1970s, and it made its formal debut at the 1980 Canadian Junior Men’s Championship in 1980 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. His system assessed point values to each attempted shot based on the outcome of the shot, using a scale between zero and four (four being the highest). The guidelines he produced then are still largely relied upon by scorers at today’s Curling Canada championships. Between 1980 and 1986, Begin served as the Chief Statistician for the Canadian Curling Association, and worked closely with fellow Hall of Famer Brian Cassidy, who developed the computer software to make live shooting percentages available during the games.