1980 Labatt Brier

The 1980 Labatt Brier, the Canadian men's curling championship was held from March 2 to 9, 1980 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary, Alberta. For the third consecutive year, the Brier set a then-record as the total attendance for the week was 93,185.[1] This was the first Brier to be sponsored by the Labatt Brewing Company replacing the Macdonald Tobacco Company, who sponsored the Brier since the inaugural event in 1927 as the primary sponsor.

With a new sponsor came several changes to the Brier to make it more fan friendly such as a ban on smoking, a baseball-type scoreboard replacing the curling club-style scoreboard, and official umpires. The two biggest changes however were a three-team playoff after round robin play would determine the Brier champion with the top team in round robin play receiving a direct bye into the final and a new, shiny Labatt Tankard trophy replaced the old Macdonald Tankard trophy.[2]

Team Saskatchewan, who was skipped by Rick Folk captured the Brier tankard after they defeated Northern Ontario in the final 10–6.[3] Northern Ontario advanced to the final after they defeated Alberta in the semifinal 6–5.

This was the seventh and as of 2023, most recent Brier championship for Saskatchewan and the first of two won by Folk, with his other coming in 1994 with British Columbia. The Folk rink would go onto represent Canada in the 1980 Air Canada Silver Broom, the men's world curling championship on home soil in Moncton, New Brunswick where they won Canada's first world championship since 1972.