Before there was Jim Thorpe there was...

...J.B. "Bouse" Hutton.

I had never heard of this guy before I was reading some stuff last night. I guess about the only thing this guy did not play was baseball .

He won 2 Stanley Cups as the goaltender for Ottawa, and as a result he is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. But he retired from hockey to focus on lacrosse, leading his Ottawa team to 2 Minto Cup championships. Oh, and in between, as a fullback, he took the Ottawa Roughriders to a Canadian Football championship.

Though he is a hockey HOF player, he has no hockey card from his playing years. Thankfully, Canadian tobacco companies saw fit to issue two lacrosse card sets, so he can be found on C59/C60 lacrosse cards. (Both C59 from 1910-11 and the C60 from 1911 feature a particularly nice portrait of Hutton that really looks much like a hockey card of the time).

Yes, Bouse Hutton seemed to have the midas touch, success followed him wherever he went. Yet, he's seldomly discussed. Here is a nice bio of him from the Legends of Hockey website: Hutton Bio

And here's a pic of his Lacrosse tobacco card (I believe it's the C59 but could be wrong - anyone know?)

fisherboy7 wrote:Yes, Bouse Hutton seemed to have the midas touch, success followed him wherever he went. Yet, he's seldomly discussed. Here is a nice bio of him from the Legends of Hockey website: Hutton Bio

And here's a pic of his Lacrosse tobacco card (I believe it's the C59 but could be wrong - anyone know?)

Hi Ben,

I believe his C59 and C60 are nearly indistinguishable from the front (even bearing the same card #). But the reverse tells which set. I think the crossed sticks at the top = C60. As I recall, C59 has a more elaborate reverse design.

Did Newsy Lelond play football? He was another great multi-sport athlete from that era

Jay

Newsy Lalonde was one an original member of the 1909-10 Montreal Canadiens who scored the first goal in franchise history, and had his prime years as a player/coach for the Canadiens in the early teens and 20's. He also played lacrosse, which he surely dominated as well. Here's his C60:

edited to add: I hadn't heard of Lalonde playing football...

C60 was issued the year before C59.
If you think Hutton excelled at a lot of sports, look up Lionel Conacher.

pro9 wrote:C60 was issued the year before C59.
If you think Hutton excelled at a lot of sports, look up Lionel Conacher.

Thanks for the correction on C59/60. (It is confusing since PSA labels both C59 and C60 as 1910 issues, while SGC labels both sets as 1911 issues...neither company indicates that C60 was issued the year before C59.)

I know all about Conacher - he is well-known and discussed frequently. What amazed me - and prompted me to post - was how good Hutton was, yet nobody seems to talk about him at all. As I mentioned in the original post, I had never even heard of him.

And from a collector's standpoint, I found it interesting that this hockey HOFer has no hockey card (but a couple rather nice lacrosse cards).

Quite a few hockey players are depicted in the Lacrosse issues, as, after all, Lacrosse is Canada's national sport.

pro9 wrote:Quite a few hockey players are depicted in the Lacrosse issues, as, after all, Lacrosse is Canada's national sport.

True!

A few collectors I know have turned to lacrosse cards as a cheap way to get cards of certain hockey players.

But what interests me is that there are (by my count) three players in the Hockey HOF who have no hockey card...but they have lacrosse cards. One is Hutton. A second one in Mickey Ions. I can't remember the third one off the top of my head...