Matt Baldwin
{{Short description|Canadian curler (1926–2023)}}
{{Infobox curler
| name = Matt Baldwin
CM
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|5|3}}
| birth_place = Blucher, Saskatchewan, Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|2023|4|8|1926|5|3}}
| death_place =
| Brier appearances = 5 (1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1971)
| World Championship appearances =
| medaltemplates =
{{MedalCountry | {{AB}} }}
{{MedalCompetition | Macdonald Brier }}
{{MedalGold | 1954 Edmonton | }}
{{MedalGold | 1957 Kingston | }}
{{MedalGold | 1958 Victoria | }}
}}
Mathew Martyn Baldwin,{{Cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19570308&id=cwYyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GuMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4722,1638327|title = Ottawa Citizen - Google News Archive Search}} CM (May 3, 1926 – April 8, 2023) was a Canadian curler from Edmonton, Alberta. He was a three-time Brier champion skip in the 1950s, and his success, coupled with his colourful charisma is credited with leading to a boom in curling in Edmonton. He also popularized the "long slide" delivery,{{cite web |title=Former Brier champ and sliding trendsetter Matt Baldwin dies at 96 |url=https://www.curling.ca/blog/2023/04/16/curling-legend-passes-away/|website=Curling Canada|access-date=17 April 2023}} used nearly exclusively by curlers today.
Curling
Baldwin began curling at the age of 14 or 15{{cite news |title=Curling Cues|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122796262/the-sault-star/ |access-date=13 April 2023 |work=Sault Star |date=October 21, 1961 |page=8}} in Bradwell, Saskatchewan.{{cite news |title=Canada's original rock star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/122796490/star-phoenix/ |access-date=13 April 2023 |work=Saskatoon Star-Phoenix |date=March 6, 2004 |page=18}} At the time, most of the men in the town were fighting in World War II, so he was "conscripted" to play with senior-aged curlers at his local club.
Baldwin was a three-time Brier champion, having skipped his rink to the Canadian men's championship in 1954, 1957 and 1958. In 1954, Baldwin and his team of Glenn Gray, Pete Ferry and Jim Collins finished with a 9-1 record to claim their first Brier. At age 27, Baldwin was then the youngest skip to win a Brier, in an era when teams were generally led by men decades older. He is also remembered for pleasing a cheering Edmonton hometown crowd by sliding halfway down the sheet of ice when throwing his final rock of the event, a move that was legal under the curling rules of the time.{{cite news|last=Stock|first=Curtis|title=Brier consequences: Has it really been 59 years since that famous slide down the ice?|url=https://www.pressreader.com/canada/edmonton-journal/20130302/283296045000716|accessdate=June 13, 2021|newspaper=The Edmonton Journal|date=March 2, 2013}} The age record has since been broken; Kerry Burtnyk is the current holder of the mark.{{cite news|title=The Curling News: 2013 Brier Edition|url=http://thecurlingnews.com/blog/2013/02/the-curling-news-2013-brier-edition/|accessdate=March 2, 2013|newspaper=The Curling News|date=March 2013}} He also won the Alberta Curling Association Bonspiel Grand Aggregate, and the Edmonton ACT car bonspiel the same season.
In 1956, Baldwin returned to the Brier, but his team of Gord Haynes. Art Kleinmeyer and Bill Henning finished with a 5-5 record. In 1957, Baldwin and his team of Gord Haynes, Art Kleinmeyer and new lead Bill Price finished the round robin undefeated, giving Baldwin his second Brier. In 1958, Jack Geddes was inserted into the lineup to play third, replacing Haynes who was bumped back to second, who replaced the departing Kleinmeyer. The team finished the round robin with an 8-2 record, and had to defeat Terry Braunstein's Manitoba rink to claim the title.
Baldwin did not return to the Brier until 1971, where his team of Tom Kroeger, Rich Cust and Reg Van Wassenhove finished with a record of 5-5. In 1973 Baldwin became one of the original inductees into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame. Baldwin also served as a director of the Edmonton Eskimos football team for five years and is recognized on the University of Alberta's Wall of Honour.
Baldwin was named to the Order of Canada in December 2019. Once the youngest curler to ever win the Brier, as of the appointment he was the oldest living Brier champion.{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Terry |title=Pioneer of Edmonton curling named to Order of Canada |url=https://edmontonsun.com/sports/curling/jones-pioneer-of-edmonton-curling-named-to-order-of-canada |accessdate=3 January 2020 |publisher=Edmonton Sun |date=31 December 2019}}
Personal life
Baldwin was also a petroleum engineer, one of the early graduates from the University of Alberta's Petroleum Engineering program that launched in 1948 after the Leduc No. 1 discovery ignited the postwar oil boom in Alberta. He and classmate George Knoll formed Baldwin and Knoll, a well servicing company that became Canada's largest service rig company for three decades. He was a founding director of Alberta Energy Company, serving for 25 years, and in 2000 named a member of the Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame.{{cite web |title=Matt Baldwin |url=http://www.canadianpetroleumhalloffame.ca/matt-baldwin.html |website=Canadian Petroleum Hall of Fame |accessdate=28 December 2019}} He was the son of Norman and Lillian. He went to elementary school in Blucher, and went to High School in Bradwell, and Nutana Collegiate. Before attending the University of Alberta, he took mechanical engineering at the University of Saskatchewan for three years before working as a roughneck in Lloydminster. He was married to Betty-Jean, and had three children. Baldwin died on April 8, 2023, at the age of 96.{{cite web |title=Mathew Martyn Baldwin |url=https://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-ca/obituaries/edmonton-ab/mathew-baldwin-11245121 |website=Dignity Memorial |access-date=13 April 2023}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Sources
- [https://archive.today/20130115192725/http://www.sportshall.ca/honoured-members/27688/matt-baldwin/ Canada's Sports Hall of Fame profile]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Matt}}
Category:Edmonton Elks personnel
Category:Curlers from Edmonton
Category:Canadian male curlers
Category:Members of the Order of Canada
Category:University of Alberta alumni
Category:University of Saskatchewan alumni