Colleen Jones, a world champion curler whose effervescent personality made her a popular presence on the CBC over nearly four decades with the national broadcaster, has died. She was 65.
Jones was diagnosed with cancer in early 2023. Her son Luke Saunders announced she died Tuesday morning in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Mom had been fighting and trying to beat back cancer over the last three years or so,” Saunders said. “Late this morning, while looking out on the ocean from her favourite spot in Maders Cove, with my Dad, brother and myself beside her, Mom passed away.
“Please think of your favourite Colleen Jones moment, cherish it. Hurry and love hard.”
A Halifax native, Jones was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2022. She filed her final report for the CBC a year later before retiring.
“A titan in every sense of the word — from sport to life,” said CBC Sports executive director Chris Wilson.
Jones won her first Canadian women’s curling championship in 1982. Just 22 at the time, she became the youngest skip to win the competition.
Her competitive curling career slowed in the years that followed as she focused on work and family. She joined the CBC Nova Scotia newsroom in 1986 and became Halifax’s first female sports anchor.
In 1989, Jones moved to CBC Newsworld to present weather, sports, and slice-of-life stories that allowed her to shine a light on different subject matter. She returned to CBC Nova Scotia in 2012.
Her second Scotties Tournament of Hearts title came in 1999. Jones’s team of Kim Kelly, Mary-Anne Arsenault and Nancy Delahunt followed with four straight titles from 2001-04.
Jones, who also won women’s world titles in 2001 and ’04, was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
“There are so many moments that sport has given me,” she told The Canadian Press at her induction. “My life is better for it. Part of it is the friendships, part of it is the discipline, part of it is that joy of winning.
“Part of it is that hatred of failing that you went through. All of that has combined to make you who you are.”
As engaging and colourful as an athlete comes, Jones would effortlessly fill a reporter’s notebook with quotes. She was just as comfortable on the air with her breezy, whimsical style, offering depth to broadcast reports.
“I think bringing backyard stories to the front yard and seeing the everyday heroes and everyday people is so important because there’s good people out there doing amazing things,” she said in 2023 on her farewell appearance on CBC Nova Scotia.
“Colleen Jones is a true Nova Scotia legend, making our province proud for decades throughout her athletic career and later in broadcasting,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said in a post on X. “Colleen embodied what we hope to be at our very best as Nova Scotians — good humour, kindness and a genuine dedication to others.”
Jones remained involved in curling in her later years.
She played at the Scotties in 2013, won a world women’s senior title in 2017 and competed in mixed doubles and mixed team events in recent seasons.
“It’s the most natural and awesome feeling you can have,” she said before the Nova Scotia women’s playdowns in 2020. “It’s a thrill to still chase it.”
The fifth of nine children, Jones recalled the roaring game being a frequent topic of discussion during her younger years.
“We were always talking curling around our huge kitchen table that doubled as eating, homework and curling talk,” she said.
Jones and her siblings weren’t allowed to go to the local curling club until age 14. Once there, she felt it was love at first throw.
“It would have been a Saturday morning, it probably was 7 a.m., I’d already been practising my slide on the kitchen floor,” she recalled in a September interview. “So I was quite confident I could do it with the electrical tape I was using on my sneaker as a slider.
“I was right. It was just an automatic idea that I could do this.”
Jones also served as a curling commentator throughout her career and covered 11 Olympic Games for the CBC.
She’d bring work gear along when she played at major championships and would often shift into broadcaster mode if her team was eliminated.
“I was just very much in the thick of things, still playing against everybody, talking to everybody and learning from everybody,” she said.
Longtime CBC Sports colleague Scott Russell said Jones was “all about passion,” whether it was on the ice or on the microphone.
“I’ll tell you there’s no greater champion in the sport of curling than Colleen Jones,” he said in September. “And she is an absolutely iconic Canadian broadcaster.”
Jones and reporter Devin Heroux co-hosted “That Curling Show” on the CBC from 2021-24.
“She made people believe that something wonderful was about to happen,” Heroux said. “And when you believed that, you felt like you were invincible with Colleen.”
Jones was also involved in coaching in recent years. She was on the bench at the Montana’s Brier last March to guide the Nova Scotia team that included her son, Luke, at vice-skip.
Jones is also survived by her husband Scott Saunders, and another son, Zach.
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