Thom Pritchard
Raised in Montreal, Thom Pritchard played all the usual sports as a boy, but was drawn to team sports, sports he played at a high level. In the 50s he played on a Little League team that won the Montreal area championships. Later Thom played goal for a junior hockey team in the Montreal Canadians organization along with such players as Yvan Cournoyer and Jacques Lemaire, but when faced at 17 with a choice of a limited hockey future or a career in graphic arts, he chose the work world. Thom says he had a “very good upbringing in sports, mainly team sports which he relished because they help mould character."
In the 60s, Thom moved to England for three years where he took up recreational rugby and “kept up Canada’s reputation for beer drinking.” On his return to Canada in 1969, a friend who had just taken up curling invited him to try his hand. He took to the game and played several years before business forced him to take a break. Taking up the sport again he played out of Montreal west, the Thistle club downtown and Pointe-Claire where he curled until 1987. During this time Thom and his rink won the Quebec Provincial Mixed championship going on to represent Quebec in Timmins in the 1982 Seagram Mixed Curling championships. Never far from sports, he worked for the Montreal Expos as a graphic artist for 16 years as well as doing some designing for the Concordes, Montreal’s team in the CFL in the early 80s after the Alouettes folded.
Thom was part of the Quebec exodus of the late 80s, moving to Dunvegan. He promptly joined the Alexandria Curling club where he played a decade. In the early 90s, he was on an Alexandria team that joined a super league in Cornwall. “Not ones to turn down a good party, the Alexandria team was always the last team to leave,” he recalls. Also part of a curling exchange between Kitchener -Waterloo and Detroit clubs in 1992-93 that celebrated their 75th anniversary that year, Thom designed the logos used. He intends to be back at the 95th exchange this year to participate “in the expected revelry.”
In mid-season 1994, he was asked to join Bill Dickie’s Senior’s team from Cornwall. This team seldom lost a tournament and ended up winning the Ontario Senior championship in 1994 in Owen Sound. Thom played third on this team representing Ontario that won the Canadian championships the following year on Jan. 29, 1995 in St. John, N.B. He was instrumental in in Ontario’s win, curling at 74 per cent during the round-robin despite a battle with bursitis which kept him out of 2 games. He made the key shot in the final game, a ninth end freeze which allowed Ontario to pick up 2 points and take the lead. TSN called the shot “the turning point” of the match. He was the first Alexandria club member to make it to the provincial and national senior’s level of competition. “Travelling, curling, drinking, it was a wonderful year,” Thom recalls. The following year the team wasn’t as lucky, even though they were Ontario Senior curling finalists in 1996.
Minor nagging injuries these years took their toll and forced Thom to give up curling in 1997 as well as golf at which he was an “average player.”
Thom’s greatest moment was the Canadian championships, but it came along late in his career. He always has enjoyed sports for the “day to day part, not the pursuit of championships.” He has great memories especially of curling and meeting loads of people as he played coast to coast in his career. He likens two of his sports, strangely enough rugby and curling, as the only sports “where you beat each other up on the field or rink, then when the game is over, shake hands, and drink together.” A genuine people person, Thom’s reflections on the various sporting events always include comments on the fun that was had, the good times, the lasting friends made.
Now retired, Thom still lives in Dunvegan with his wife, Lisa, and two grandchildren.
An editorial in The Glengarry News at the time of their Canadian championship commented how fortunate we were to have such a valuable resource in our midst, one who could inspire by his example and one who was always ready to share his knowledge and talent. On behalf of those with whom you have shared this knowledge and talent and as well on behalf of Glengarry which you represented so well on the national stage, we welcome you, Thom, into the Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame.
