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Inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1951. Netminder
Gordon Gibson ‘Gib’ Hutchinson enjoyed a long and successful career
in British ice hockey, despite a most inauspicious start. Arriving
in Britain in 1936 from Canada, Gib Hutchinson joined the Earls Court
Rangers, but after an opening season stretching forty games, saw the
Rangers finish with a record 232 goals against. With
his hockey future looking bleak, Gib Hutchinson went to work as a
carpenter at the Earls Court Exhibition building. When the Rangers next
goalie got injured, someone remembered seeing Hutchinson working around
the building and he was invited to step into the breach. From that point
he never looked back and became a fixture on the hockey scene for almost
the next twenty years. The
following season, he made the All Star team while playing for the
Rangers, a feat he was to repeat many times during spells with Streatham,
the Wembley Lions and, above all, the Brighton Tigers. He backstopped
the triumphant Tigers to the English National League and Autumn Cup
trophies in 1947 and again the following season, staying with the Tigers
until 1953. The 1950/51 season was a particularly good one, for if all
the various competitions had been combined into one league, the Tigers
would have been the top team and ‘Hutch’ the top netminder. The
era in which Gib Hutchinson played was long before facemasks or painted
personalised helmets became de-rigueur for netminders, and he was
reputed to have broken every finger in both hands. He recalled those
times saying, “in those days we played on beer and guts.” After
retiring form playing, he became a stage manager of the Tom Arnold Ice
Show at the Brighton Sports Stadium and later ran a number of public
houses in Sussex. Gib
Hutchinson died peacefully in his sleep on December 30th
1996, at the Mile Oak Inn, Portslade near Brighton at the age of 84. Compiled with research, provided by Martin C.Harris and Phil Drackett. |
