Randy Ferbey

Randy S. Ferbey (born May 30, 1959) is a Canadian retired curler from Sherwood Park, Alberta.

Ferbey is a six-time Canadian champion and a four-time World Champion.

He recently coached the Rachel Homan women's team.

Ferbey participated in his first Brier in 1987 as a third for Pat Ryan.

His first Brier would be a disappointment, as they finished with a 6–5 record.

The next year however, Ferbey, Ryan and their team Alberta mates Don Walchuk and Don McKenzie won the Brier, and were thus crowned Canadian champions defeating Eugene Hritzuk of Saskatchewan 8–7 in the final.

At the 1988 Worlds, Team Ryan won the silver medal, losing in the finals to Eigil Ramsfjell of Norway 5–4.

As defending champions at the 1989 Brier, Team Ryan would not disappoint, capturing their 2nd Canadian championship defeating Rick Folk of British Columbia in a non-eventful 3–2 victory.

It was low scoring games like this one, and by teams like Ryan's dubbed the "Ryan Express" that forced the Canadian Curling Association and World Curling Federation to implement the 3-rock rule, and later the 4-rock rule to force more offense.

At the 1989 Worlds, Ferbey and Team Ryan won their first World Championships, beating Switzerland's Patrick Hürlimann in the finals.

In 1990, Ferbey left the team, and was unsuccessful at attempting to make it to the Brier with his new team of Don Walchuk, Pat McCallum, and Greg Muzechka.

Although they did make it to the final four teams at the 1990 Alberta Championships, failing to make the 1990 Labatt Brier in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

After playing his last season with Ryan in 1997 where he played in the British Columbia playdowns, Ferbey teamed up with a young David Nedohin in 1997 with Carter Rycroft and Pat McCallum.

After a reasonably successful season, reaching the Semi-Finals of the World Curling Tour Championship, and winning the Edmonton Superleague, Ferbey picked up Scott Pfeifer, bumping Rycroft to lead.

In 1999, Rycroft left the team to play with Ferbey's main rival, Kevin Martin.

Rycroft was replaced by Marcel Rocque.

The Ferbey Four that would dominate the Brier for the next few years was complete.

Ferbey made his return to the Alberta provincials in 1999.

Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Ferbey notably popularized the system of having the skip throw third rocks, when he skipped the team nicknamed "the Ferbey Four", a team that he won four Briers (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005) and narrowly missed winning the 2004 final after giving up a 7–3 lead to Mark Dacey.

While they didn't win, they did return in 2001 with a bang.

They would win the Alberta final against Kevin Martin, 6–4, and then won the 2001 Nokia Brier as well beating Kerry Burtnyk of Manitoba 8–4 in the final.

This sent the team to the 2001 Worlds where they lost both their semi-final game and the bronze medal game, which they gave up to Pål Trulsen of Norway.

The Ferbey Four also popularized the "numbered zones", when calling out the weight of various draw shots. Many consider the quartet together at its peak from 2002–2006 to be either the best team or very near to the best team in curling history.

Nedohin's often near perfect shotmaking (regularly having games in the high 90s), Ferbey's extremely aggressive shot calling, and the stellar brushing and front end stones of Marcel Rocque and Scott Pfeifer (nicknamed Huff and Puff for their tireless work on the broom) made them an incredibly difficult challenge for every opponent.

All together, he has played in eight Briers, six World Championships, four Continental Cups, skipped in two Canadian Mixed Curling Championships, won three Canada Cups, and two TSN Skins Games.

In 2002, Team Ferbey won their second straight provincial final, defeating Mike Vavrek 6–5.

Ferbey then went on to win his fourth Brier, the 2002 Nokia Brier, which was his team's 2nd.

They beat John Morris 9–4 in the final.

This time, at the 2002 Worlds in Bismarck, North Dakota his team won the championship, beating the same Pål Trulsen, 10–5.

After defeating Jamie King 10–3 in the 2003 Alberta final, Ferbey and his team would return to the Brier, in 2003 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In the finals, they beat the home-town favourites Mark Dacey 8–4 in the finals.

At the 2003 Ford World Curling Championship, his team won their 2nd world title, beating Ralph Stöckli of Switzerland 10–6 in the finals.

The team won their fourth provincial title in 2004, defeating the Kurt Balderston rink in the final, 8–5.

The 2004 Nokia Brier was a blip on his team's record.

After returning to the Brier for the fourth straight year, an unprecedented feat especially considering the great number of good teams in Alberta, his team would bow out in the final.

After a 10–1 round-robin record, Ferbey and his team lost out to the same team they beat the previous year, Mark Dacey of Nova Scotia, in a 10–9 game where Ferbey's team surrendered a lead.

However, Team Ferbey did not give up, and their reign would not be over.

Others teams in both men's and women's curling have adopted the system of not having the skip throw last stones, such as the Margaretha Sigfridsson rink, who would win an Olympic Silver medal and numerous World silver medals and European gold medals by skipping while throwing lead stones, and Jim Cotter throwing last rocks for John Morris who would together reach the finals of both 2014 Olympic Curling Trials and 2014 Brier.

In In 2019, Ferbey was named the greatest Canadian male third in history in a TSN poll of broadcasters, reporters and top curlers.

As he threw third stones for most of his career, Ferbey was considered a third rather than a skip as his position.