Randy Ferbey to be inducted into World Curling Hall Of Fame

Another decoration is coming Randy Ferbey's way.

The retired skip, already with two places in the Canadian Curling Hall Of Fame, is having his name added to the roster of honoured members at the World Curling Hall Of Fame.

The announcement was made by World Curling Federation (WCF) President Kate Caithness.

"We are delighted to announce that Randy Ferbey, Patrick Huerlimann and Eigil Ramsfjell are being inducted into the World Curling Hall of Fame," said Caithness. "All of these athletes have been ambassadors of our game, both on and off the ice."

Huerlimann (1998 Olympic gold medallist) and Ramsfjell (three-time world champion) are indeed worthy of this honour, but it is clearly Ferbey who is the star of this class.

With three World Championships and four Brier titles to his credit (he won two more Briers and another World Championship as a third for Pat Ryan), Ferbey is perhaps the greatest skip to ever play the game. Or, at least, the greatest manager of championship teams, as it is arguable as to his standing on the list of greatest skips, most of whom called games and shot final stones for their teams.

Ferbey, it should be noted, threw third stones for his most successful team - "The Ferbey Four" - which won four Brier and three World Championship titles between 2001 and 2005. Dave Nedohin was the fourth-stone shooter for those wins, with Scott Pfeifer and Marcel Rocque (currently the coach of the Chinese men's team at The Worlds) on the front end.

“This came out of nowhere for me. I’m blown away, to be honest,” Ferbey said in a Canadian Curling Association media release. “I’m really appreciative to the Canadian Curling Association for their support, as well as to the World Curling Federation. I never played the game to earn accolades like this. I always considered it a team game, and I really want to share this with all the great teammates I had over the years. I could not have done it without them.”

Ferbey, Ramsfjell and Huerlimann are among the first pure inductees into the World Hall. Last year, Ron Northcott and Don Duguid were finally inducted, in the second year of such announcements. Prior to 2012, the WCF gave out an annual award which included automatic induction, but did not have a formal induction process similar to those of, say, the National Hockey league or Canadian Football League.

Ferbey will be officially inducted at next year's World Curling Championship to be held in Halifax.

Now, if he could only get that stolen Brier jacket back.