Athlete: Curling
Year Inducted: Legacy
Date of Birth: February 16, 1927

In 1947, Jean Beardsley tossed her first curling stone, when the Horticultural Building was a sheet of pebbled ice seven decades ago. Her sporting life has come full circle as she will be welcomed into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in the same building, but without the ice and the fear of falling at age 92.

One of the top female curlers in Ottawa, Beardsley captured three Beddoe trophies as the city and district champion, three Tweedsmuir double-rink trophies and numerous first-place honours in the Woods, Victory, Snelling and Hope competitions.

During a move to Kitchener-Waterloo, she played third for the Edna Teskey rink, which won the Ontario women’s curling championship in 1957 and competed at the Canadian championship.

When she returned to Ottawa’s Granite Curling Club, Beardsley continued to be at the forefront of the women’s game, skipping her rinks to the 1979 and 1991 Ontario seniors (50-plus) championships and berths in the national championships. She was a finalist in the 1999 Ontario diamond seniors (60-plus) competition.

Beardsley also earned 24 Murchison medals, won the 1966 Ottawa Ladies Metro League title, and captured various events at the annual Ladies Crystal Pebble bonspiel.

Away from the ice, she held various executive roles at the club level, is an honourary life member at the Granite Curling Club and was featured by Canada Post on a stamp in 1969.