It was caused by an incident at the finals of the 1972 World Curling Championships for men, the 1972 Air Canada Silver Broom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
[4] Canadian journalist Larry Tucker is generally considered to have been given credit for inventing the hex in 1980 to describe Canada's victory that year.
Over time, the incident gained additional notoriety, due to being extensively replayed, because Meleschuk had delivered the crucial shot with a lit cigarette prominently dangling from his mouth.
Due to curling's roots as a social game, it had long been associated with both alcohol and tobacco consumption, and even at elite levels of play smoking on the ice was neither prohibited nor widely frowned on.
Over time, as both medical and public opinion turned increasingly against smoking, the governing bodies of curling came under pressure to clean up the game's image.