It was March of 1964 when two young couples from the Weyburn area stepped out onto the ice in a posh rink in Toronto for the first-ever Canadian Mixed Curling Championship.

The road to the national scene was a short one. Surprisingly, the team of Ike and Jean Buckner, and Dean and Delores Miller had only been playing together for a few weeks.

They won at the local level, then took provincials, and made it to the national championships, an ascent that was thrilling and a bit scary.

Now as Weyburn's organizing committee prepares to host the 2001 National Mixed Curling Championship, Jan. 6-14, the Buckners and Millers take a trip back in time to share some of the excitement of those very first games.

"Everything went right for us," remembers Ike Buckner, sitting on the couch in the living room of his Duncan Drive home in Weyburn.

It was actually Dean Miller that had the idea the two couples should curl together. He suggested it to Ike when the men were driving back one night from a bonspiel in Assiniboia.

The newly-formed team won first at the district level and went on to compete at the provincial playdowns in Saskatoon, which included four southern and four northern teams in a double-knockout format. They won the A side final against the Maury Thompson rink, and were set to represent their province for the first time on the national scene.

Delores Miller recalls the excitement she felt at the prospect of such a prestigious competition and a distant trip, while flipping through albums full of memorabilia at the Millers' farm home near Radville.

"I was 22 and Dean was 25. We were pretty young and we had never been anywhere before. It was my first airplane ride," she says.

The two couples were picked up at the brand new Toronto airport by their host driver, who was the publisher of Maclean's magazine and quite a character.

Prior to the competition, the foursome were taken to the exclusive Toronto Skating and Cricket Club for a practice session. They were impressed with the upscale surroundings in the club, but found it difficult to get used to the fact that there were no dividers on the ice separating the curling sheets!

To kick off the tournament, the opening ceremonies were full of pomp and circumstance. "The curling rink was posh. They had waiting rooms with plush couches and chairs," says Delores. Saskatchewan's team and all the other curlers representing their provinces were paraded around the rink with bagpipes blaring.

Then they got down to the business of curling.

In those days (and arguably still today), Saskatchewan was considered to be the curling capital of Canada, so some high expectations were placed on the Weyburn foursome. Despite that, they didn't concern themselves too much with winning.

"We didn't realize there was a hell of a lot of pressure. We were just going for fun," recalls Jean. "I don't really remember being nervous. We just did our best."

But the biggest challenge of the competition - and the most highly-anticipated match - was the game against the Boucher rink from Manitoba.

"The night we played them the place was just packed. We ended up beating them and had a good game," said Dean.

They were the only team to beat Manitoba, who went on to win the tournament. Saskatchewan ended up with a five-win, five-loss record.

Game-time action didn't produce the only memories. Delores remembers several swanky receptions where the curlers were treated like celebrities, and getting a $70 spending allowance from the O'Keefe Brewing Company, the tournament sponsor.

She also remembers she and her teammates enjoyed playing on a mixed team - something that was a new experience for all of them.

"Because you played with men and women, it was a lot more social. Not everyone there was husband and wife, you know," she says jokingly.

"I don't think men liked to curl with women, that was the thing," continues Delores. "The women played a different game than the men. They thought they were better curlers. There was always this old adage, 'women's curling.'"

Ike says playing mixed curling was "a different atmosphere," but said the women could indeed curl very well.

Jean preferred the change of pace.

"I liked curling with the men better than the women, at least at that time. I enjoyed the way the men skipped. The women I curled with didn't know anything about strategy. So it was more interesting to curl with men because they knew more about reading the ice, or seemed to at that time. Women have gotten much more talented since then," she says.

Off the ice, Dean remembers being taken to see Hamlet at a Toronto theatre, where actor Richard Burton was playing the lead role. Burton was married to screen siren Elizabeth Taylor at the time, who flew to Toronto to see her husband the same day the Weyburn team was leaving to come home.

When the team came home they received a hero's welcome at the curling rink, complete with congratulations from local dignitaries and media interviews.

As the years passed, the original Weyburn foursome stayed active on the curling scene, sometimes playing on the same side of the ice, and sometimes competing against each other. Delores made it to another national competition in 1976 with her women's team.

But Delores and her teammates will always remember that first national mixed competition as one of the highlights of their sporting lives.

"It was a wonderful experience - something every curler dreams of."