Card of the Week: 1951 Hit Parade of Champions Jack Stewart

1951 Hit Parade of Champions 2-16 - Jack StewartOne thing I absolutely love about collecting is that you will find cards out there that you never knew existed. In the past, I’ve come across some pretty sweet cards unbeknownst to me, like this one about the 1934 Blackhawks and another one about Lester B. Pearson. My latest cool find is this 1951 card of Hall of Fame defenseman Jack Stewart, from a set called Hit Parade of Champions.

Hit Parade of Champions was a 72-card set issued by the Berk Ross Company of New York City. The cards measure roughly 2-inches wide by 2.5-inches tall and came in two card perforated panels. The set focused mainly on baseball players, but also included athletes from other sports, such as football, basketball, boxing, golf and hockey. Jack Stewart is one of the four hockey players found in this set; the other three are Bill Quackenbush (Boston), Bill Durnan (New York) and Sid Abel (Detroit).

Stewart was a a three-time First Team All-Star, a two-time Second Team All-Star and played in four All-Star Games. He played ten seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and two with the Chicago Blackhawks, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1964.

Jack_Stewart_backCuriously, this card lists Stewart as a member of Detroit, even though he had played the previous (1950-51) season with Chicago. Stewart also spent 1951-52 with Chicago. So why does it say Detroit on the back? Perhaps the company only had a photo of Stewart with Detroit, so they listed him as a Detroit player to be consistent. Or maybe word traveled really slow in those days.

No matter, that just adds to the charm of this quirky little cardboard that time almost forgot.

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Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

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