Inducted October 18, 2003
Sue Ann Bartlett compiled an unbelievable record of achievement between 1971 and 2000 as she dominated female curling within Newfoundland and Labrador and established herself as one of the best female curlers within Canada. She amassed 12 provincial female titles, led five senior women’s provincial championship rinks and was a member of one mixed championship rink. Winning three national silver medals, she was skip of the 1979 rink that was voted provincial team of the year. Skip of 17 provincial championship rinks, she consistently provided exceptional leadership for the other members of her team and combined great curling skills with an extremely effective knowledge of the game. She simply knew what had to be done and she did it. The manner in which she co-operated with and reacted to other rink members played a major role in her success. This valuable ability to “get along” while providing great leadership is ably demonstrated by the relatively few membership turnovers in the winning rinks for which she was skip. It was also evident that from a planning perspective, Sue Ann Bartlett was exceptional. She curled out of the Carol Curling Club in Labrador City and because of geography her rinks found it relatively difficult to participate in the number of high level competitions as did most of their opponents. Yet the Bartlett rinks more than held their own in a variety of tough bonspiels. Despite always facing strong opposition at the provincial championships, the Bartlett rinks emerged as the Newfoundland and Labrador female champions in 1971, ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’85, ’86, ’90 and ’91. Her senior women’s titles came in ’94, ’96, ’97, ’99 and 2000 while she was mate on the provincial mixed winner in 1971. Always a strong contender nationally, usually with a better than .500 winning percentage, she twice earned a silver medal with a second place finish. In 1971 her rink thrilled local fans by advancing to the national finals at the St. John’s Memorial Stadium prior to losing the title game 7-3 to Alberta, and the rink was back in the finals at the 1985 championships prior to losing 13-7 to British Columbia in the finals. The 1994 Bartlett Rink racked up an impressive 10-1 round robin showing at the Canadian Senior Women’s Curling Championships and finished with a silver medal performance. Her curling record is of such a high level that Sue Ann has been inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame and the Newfoundland and Labrador Curling Hall of Fame. In addition to her outstanding curling career, Sue Ann Bartlett was an All-Star third base player for five years within the very competitive Labrador West female softball league and played in four provincial championships.
A native of Grand Falls who moved to Labrador City in 1963, she maintained a residence there until 2000. Her tremendous record within curling paid valuable benefits for curling, Labrador, and female athletes with all aspects of the three receiving very favourable publicity. Because of her great success in curling, female curling enjoyed increased membership in Newfoundland and Labrador.
As a person, Sue Ann Bartlett clearly demonstrated exceptional pride in her rink mates, the Carol Curling Club, Labrador City in particular, Labrador in general and her conduct both on and off the ice was of such a high caliber that the benefits from her career are still evident.
Sue Ann Bartlett has been a credit to every facet of her athletic career.
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