Jim “Mother” Hubbard’s fellow inductees Susan Butt and Andy Hebenton played on centre court at Wimbledon and held the NHL Ironman record, respectively. Hubbard never scored a try or basket at a high level. But he played a uniquely supportive role to numerous athletes who went onto win national championships and play in World Cups and the Olympics in rugby and basketball.
Hubbard was enshrined into the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night with Butt and the late Hebenton in the Class of 2023 induction ceremony held at the Delta Ocean Pointe. Also inducted in the Class were Helena Myllyniemi, Ron Greene, Jamie Ackinclose and Jim Cain.
Singularly colourful, often uninhabited but always authentic, Hubbard was the manager of the James Bay Athletic Association championship dynasty and also the Pacific Pride Canadian Under-23 national team program in rugby. He was also the clamorously audacious Mad Viking mascot — complete with horns, sword and flowing beard — of the University of Victoria Vikes national championship basketball dynasty era at McKinnon Gym, with the sort of sidelines antics that would not be allowed in this sanitized era.
More than just a mascot, Hubbard acted as a sounding board and confidante to national championship Vikes players such as two-time Olympians Eli Pasquale and Gerald Kazanowski. He did the same for the JBAA and sa国际传媒 U-23 rugby players, many of whom went on to represent sa国际传媒 in World Cups.
“I had the respect of the players because if you respect them, they respect you,” said Hubbard.
“The trusted me because they knew I was there to serve them.”
Hubbard worked under legendary coaches Tillman Briggs of JBAA, Canadian national team and U-23 coach David Clark and UVic basketball’s Ken Shields.
“Jim was a very shrewd assessor of people,” said Shields.
“He was not our cheerleader. He was a part of our basketball team.”
Hubbard was beloved at UVic and delighted fans in McKinnon Gym during the seven consecutive national championships era of the 1980s, but he irritated, enraged and taunted fans in opposing gyms to the point at times of needing to be escorted out following games. Shields said with a laugh: “I had one rule. Don’t embarrass the team or the university. Jim rode a fine line.”
Hubbard also had a long career on the softball diamond as an umpire with his own animated style in calling strikes, balls and outs at the highest levels of the sport.
“Most umpires are cold and controlled. I did what I felt,” said Hubbard.
Hebenton was the former NHL Ironman record holder with 630 consecutive games played with the New York Rangers, where he also won the Lady Byng Trophy as the league’s most gentlemanly player, and was also a Victoria pro-hockey great through two eras. He starred for five seasons with Lester Patrick’s professional Victoria Cougars in the old Pacific Coast League/Western Hockey League from 1950-51 to 1954-55, winning the league title in his first season in Victoria.
Following nine seasons in the NHL, Hebenton returned to the old Memorial Arena on Blanshard in 1965-66 and 1966-67 for two seasons with the Toronto farm team Victoria Maple Leafs in the old professional WHL, winning the Lester Patrick Cup for the league title in 1966.
Hebenton was known for his fair play and sportsmanship in scoring 189 goals with 391 points in his 630 NHL regular-season games and 425 goals and 957 points in 1,056 minor-pro games. Of those, 141 goals and 264 points came in 332 games with the Victoria Cougars and 55 goals and 136 points in 144 games with the Victoria Maple Leafs. Hebenton also played a combined total of 49 playoff games for the Victoria teams with 22 goals and 44 points in winning two championships.
He was described by his son Clay Hebenton as “an old-school gentleman.” Andy Hebenton died at age 89 in 2019. The Andy Hebenton Trophy is awarded annually to the regular-season champion in the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League.
Long before sa国际传媒’s current run of success in tennis, there was Butt. She came out of the Victoria Lawn and Tennis Club and captained the Canadian Federation Cup team three times in four appearances between 1967 and 1972 and was national women’s singles champion in 1960, 1961 and 1967 and six-time sa国际传媒 champion. Butt made it to the third round of Wimbledon in singles in 1961 before losing on centre court to top seed Sandra Reynolds of South Africa.
Butt also represented sa国际传媒 in the Pan Am Games and later earned her PhD and became a sports psychologist and UBC professor. She is the author of the fundamental book Psychology of Sport, which has been used as a guide by athletes, teams and national federations around the world.
Coach Greene’s resolve built the Victoria Y girls’ volleyball dynasty that won the U-18 sa国际传媒 championship eight times in nine years and the sa国际传媒 U-16 championship seven consecutive years in the 1970s and 1980s.
Greene’s teams won gold, silver and two bronze at nationals and produced several players who went on to star in varsity volleyball at UVic and UBC.
Also a long-serving Island mentor was archery coach Myllyniemi, whose impact was felt locally, nationally and internationally as she coached sa国际传媒 in the Pan Am Games and guided the several Olympians who came out of the Victoria Bowmen’s Club.
Cain was the venerated team trainer of the Victoria Shamrocks in the Western Lacrosse Association for 37 years and has seven Mann Cup national championship rings.
Ackinclose scored 25 goals in 30 appearances for sa国际传媒 in Para-soccer between 2010 and 2017, including in three Para World Cups.
The Victoria Sports Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 1991. Plaques honouring the Class of 2023 will join those of the 260 previous inductees on the concourse walls of Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
