Murray Macneill (also spelled MacNeill) (January 7, 1877 – February 16, 1951) was a curler from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. He is the first skip to win

the Brier The Tim Hortons Brier, or simply (and more commonly) the Brier (''french: Le Brier''), is the annual Canadian men's curling championship, sanctioned by Curling Canada. The current event name refers to its main sponsor, the Tim Hortons coffee and ...

, back in 1927. He began curling in his back yard while he was a boy in

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of Ki ...

. He was always competitive and went on to become one of the top curlers in Maritime Canada. After he became a professor of mathematics at Dalhousie University, Macneill was selected to be skip of the Nova Scotia team at the first Canadian Men's Curling Championship, held in the first week of March 1927 at the Granite Curling Club in Toronto. Curling games had a marathon aspect at that time, being of 14 ends duration. Macneill and his team started well, winning four of their first five games, and then, in the last draw, came back from an eight-point deficit to capture the championship, which, before the next year's event came to be known as The Brier. Macneill returned to the Brier in 1930, 1932 and 1936. Macneill was also a first cousin of author

Lucy Maud Montgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a collection of novels, essays, short stories, and poetry beginning in 1908 with '' Anne of Green Gables''. She ...

. Macneill served as president of the

Canadian Curling Association Curling Canada (formerly the Canadian Curling Association (CCA)) is a sanctioning body for the sport of Curling in Canada. It is associated with more than a dozen provincial and territorial curling associations across the country, and organizes C ...

from 1948 to 1949. He died of pancreatic cancer in 1951, aged 74.Death Registration
for Murray Macneill, died February 16, 1951 in Halifax, Halifax County

Brier record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macneill, Murray Curlers from Nova Scotia Brier champions 1877 births 1951 deaths Canadian male curlers Curling Canada presidents