Pettapiece, a two-time winner of the prestigious national Macdonald Brier and Air Canada Silver Broom titles, passed away after a two-month battle with cancer.

He threw second for a legendary Winnipeg team from the Granite Curling Club which won back-to-back Canadian and World Men's Curling Championships in 1970 and 1971.

Tributes have been led by Curling Canada and by his former skipper Don Dugaid.

“He was a great player. Him and Bryan Wood were maybe the best front end that Manitoba’s ever seen - just outstanding,” Duguid said.

“They both had unique deliveries, maybe a bit different than the traditional delivery, but they got the job done. 

"They were both very adept, and you just couldn’t beat their sweeping.

"They were unbelievable.”

Pettapiece was inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame in 1974, and into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.

He later combined with another Hall of Fame entrant in Warren Hansen to form the Silver Broom Curling School in 1972.

“He was pretty quiet and unassuming, but he was a great player,” Duguid added in comments posted on the Curling Canada website.

“He was always in the game; he’d never panic. 

"He was easygoing. You could say something to him, and he just knew what he had to do, and he’d do it."

Pettapiece never had an opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games because, after appearing at they inaugural Winter edition in Chamonix in 1924, curling did not return to the full programme until Nagano 1998.