Busher Jackson
Today, Busher Jackson is relatively unknown in most hockey circles, but during his heyday, he was part of one of the NHL’s most dominant scoring trios.
A force on the ice, he was a Stanley Cup champion, an All-Star and a scoring machine. Amid all of that, Busher Jackson is a tale of triumph and tragedy.
He hit the highs of NHL greatness, and suffered the lows of his post-career life. For many hockey players, his can be a cautionary tale.
Ralph Harvey Jackson was born on Jan. 17, 1911 in Toronto. He spent most of his early life living in the west end of Toronto.
As a child, he played hockey on an outdoor rink in the city before he moved on to the indoor Ravina Rink, also known as Ravina Gardens.
That rink began as an outdoor rink but was remodeled into an indoor rink in 1912 with room for 4,500 seats. It was at this rink that the New York Rangers held their first training camp, supervised by Conn Smythe. The rink is now long-gone, having been demolished in 1961. Today, it is a green space with three schools nearby.
Macleans wrote in 1935,
“No matter what team happened to be working out on the artificial ice of that west end building, they found their practices brightened by an added starter, who managed to monopolize the puck for many minutes whether they were his fellow midgets and bantams or the med of the hard-hitting Mercantile League.”
To give him the opportunity to practice every night, Jackson joined the ice-cleaning staff.
As a young man, Jackson was scouted by Frank Selke, the general manager of the Toronto Marlboros, the farm team to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Selke was impressed with the young man, and offered him a contract. Jackson gladly accepted, and was assigned to the Marlboros for the 1927-28 season.
In four games that season, Jackson scored four goals and nearly helped the team win the Memorial Cup.
In the 1928-29 season, he played nine games and finished with 10 goals and 14 points. During the playoffs he led the league with seven goals and nine points as the Marlboros captured the OHA championship.
At one point during the season, he was injured but he still managed to limp into a game in Niagara Falls and scored six goals.
In the 1929 Memorial Cup, he had 15 goals and 25 points in 13 games, helping the team win its first Memorial Cup.
His future teammate, Charlie Conacher, said in 1957,
“He was a kid who was just too good to remain amateur.”
After the Memorial Cup, he was ready to join the NHL, as Selke was. That year, Busher was promoted to the big leagues, and Selke was made the manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Buster Jackson was a fresh-faced 18-year-old in his first season in 1929-30. He was also the youngest player in the league. In his first game, he knocked over his idol, Howie Morenz, with a hit. Morenz complimented him and said he would do well in the NHL.
In 31 games that season, Jackson had 12 goals and six assists. In that first season, he played on a line with Charlie Conacher and Joe Primeau, both future Hall of Famers. This trio, due to the ages of the players, was called The Kid Line, and it became one of the best lines in NHL history.
They played together for the first time on Dec. 29, 1929 in Chicago. In a 4-3 win, Conacher and Jackson each had a goal on passes from Primeau.
Conacher said,
“Busher Jackson had more natural ability than any player I ever saw. Bush could take a pass in full flight on one of his skates and somehow flick the puck onto his stick without breaking stride.”
It was also that first year that he earned his unique nickname of Busher.
While injured, a trainer on the team asked him to carry sticks for him. Jackson responded he wasn’t a stick boy; he was a hockey player.
The trainer told him that he was nothing but a busher, referring to someone who had been called up from the minors. Hence, the name Busher Jackson was born.
In 1930-31, Jackson had 31 points, but the following season he exploded with 53 points. As he was 21 years, 3 months old, he became the youngest scoring champion in NHL history. He kept that record until 1980-81 when the record was beaten by Wayne Gretzky.
During the playoffs that season, he had five goals, and helped Toronto capture its first Stanley Cup since 1922, and the first in Maple Leaf Gardens.
Jackson continued to be an offensive threat throughout the next few seasons. In 1932-33, he led the team with 44 points. On Nov. 20, 1934, he became the first player in NHL history to score four goals in a series.
He was known for being smooth on the ice, skating effortlessly throughout the ice and the perfect player for the start of the forward-passing era.
Hap Day said,
“Busher is so fast that one night in Montreal he circled his net, started down ice, and shot the puck when he was nearing centre. And you know what, he was travelling so fast that he caught up with the puck and passed it before he got to the blue line.”
After four 20 goal seasons, Jackson’s production began to slip, and he had only 11 goals in 1935-36. At this point, the Kid Line was broken up. Still, even with the loss of his linemates, Jackson had 21 goals and 40 points in 1936-37.
The next season he had 34 points, followed by 27 in 1938-39.
After that season, Jackson was traded to the New York Americans. Part of the reason for the trade was the growing issue of alcoholism in his life. With money and fame, came a party lifestyle for Jackson. While Toronto was a great place for that lifestyle, New York took everything to another level.
All that partying and drinking began to take a toll on his production in the NHL.
With the Americans, he had 12 goals and 20 points, and then the next season in 1940-41, had 26 points.
Due to a contract dispute, he did not return to the Americans and halfway through the season his contract was sold to the Boston Bruins.
With the Bruins, he played with his brother Art Jackson. During his 26 games that season, he had 12 points.
He had a bit of a resurgence when he was moved to defence, scoring 34 points in 1942-43, including 19 goals.
Jackson played one more season in 1943-44, before choosing to retire.
In 636 games in the NHL, he had 475 points, including 241 goals. His best season was 1932-33, when he had 44 points in 48 games. In the playoffs, he had 30 points in 71 games, including 18 goals. His 241 career goals in Toronto remained a record until it was broken in the 1960s by Frank Mahovlich.
Throughout his career, Jackson lived the lifestyle of a playboy. He spent money easily, drove fast cars and held parties. Conn Smythe, the owner of the Maple Leafs, attempted to convince him to save money for the future but Jackson didn’t. Smythe even offered to match him dollar for dollar with what he saved but Jackson never accepted the offer.
The drinking became a major problem after he retired. No longer having money coming in from his NHL career, but still partying like when he was a player, things began to crash down around him. Two of his marriages ended in divorce, and he struggled to find work. At one point, he was charged with criminal harassment for assaulting and stalking his second wife.
To make ends meet, he often borrowed money from friends and twice declared bankruptcy.
At one point, he was selling broken sticks of Maple Leafs players outside Maple Leaf Gardens to make money. Conn Smythe did what he could to help Jackson, including giving him odd jobs.
Bob Bauns aid,
“Conn Smythe was good to Busher. Conn was disappointed in him, but he still seemed to go to bat for him.”
In 1958, Busher broke his neck when he fell down a flight of stairs. It cost him the mobility in his right hand, and it took him 18 months to recover.
After that injury, he had a bout of jaundice and in 1962 had an epileptic seizure.
Leafs legend Johnny Bower said upon meeting Jackson,
“I only met him once. I was with George Armstrong at the Maple Leaf Gardens Inn. I said congratulations. You’re a great man. He just looked at me. I don’t know if he was under the weather or trying to sober up.”
Despite trying to help Jackson, Conn Smythe couldn’t tolerate the alcoholism and issues in Jackson’s personal life.
As a member of the board for the Hockey Hall of Fame, Conn Smythe blacklisted Jackson for induction. Both of Jackson’s linemates, Primeau and Conacher, had been inducted. Near the end of his life, he said the only thing he wanted was to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Charlie Conacher said,
“If any of us was elected, it should have been as a unit, three of us together. That is how people remember us.”
On March 5, 1966, Dick Beddoes wrote to Conn Smythe asking that Jackson be considered for induction. Smythe wrote back,
“With respect to your crusade for Busher Jackson, I believe the marked paragraph at the bottom of Page 5 is self-explanatory and as far as I am concerned, he does not meet these specifications.
The paragraph reads,
“Candidates for election shall be chosen on the basis of playing ability, integrity, character and their contribution to their team.”
At the time, 101 of the 107 players in the Hall had fewer goals than Jackson.
Jackson died on June 25, 1966 without being inducted. He was broke and living with his aunt.
It was not until 1971 when Smythe was finally overruled, and Jackson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Smythe resigned over the induction.
He said in 1973,
“Busher Jackson was a wife beater. He was thrown in and out of jail a dozen times. He didn’t work and never paid for anything.”
Information from HockeyDB, RiverStoryz, Wikipedia, Sportsnet,
