He didn’t like the nickname. “Black Jack” made him sound like a dirty player, a hockey thug or goon. But ruling the Detroit Red Wings’ blueline as a tough defenceman, John Sherratt Stewart deserved the moniker, and the name stuck. As he explained, “I got the nickname when a player woke up in the dressing room and said, ‘Who hit me with the blackjack?’ ” Other accounts say the other player awoke in a hospital room. Playing defence, Stewart wasn’t expected to score goals, and he rarely did. But he was a great skater who played hard, winning face-offs, clearing the puck, and rarely turning it over to the other team. His defensive play forced opponents to shoot from a distance. He understood his role and delivered hits with a ferocity that made others quake. If you saw him coming at you with a smile, look out.
Press photo. If you see this smile coming at you, prepare to get hit. [2]
Stewart carried the heaviest stick in the league, for “breaking arms” rather than scoring goals, he claimed. He often led the league in penalty minutes. And he got what he gave, playing through pain and injury all too often.
Black Jack was one of the fastest skaters in the league. [3]
Black Jack was born May 6, 1917 to the well-respected and civic-minded Stewart family of Pilot Mound. His grandfather was an early pioneer who came west from Perth, Ontario in 1885. While he looked like a cliché cattle rustler (that you might call “Black Jack Stewart”), he was an industrious citizen who opened the first bakery in town and served on the municipal council.
J. Stewart, Black Jack's grandfather, 1893 Louise Municipality Council. [4]
Black Jack’s father, John Calvin (“JC”) Stewart was two years old when his family came west. JC’s wife, the former Beatrice Marian Sherratt, was also born in Perth, Ontario in 1883. Moving to Pilot Mound in 1907, she and her sister Louise opened a millinery shop in Pilot Mound prior to her marriage in 1910. JC and Beatrice had six children: Keith, Morna, John (“Jack”), Barclay, Arva, and Mary (“Trixie”).
Jack's father, JC Stewart, was a winning hockey player, too. The Pilot Mound hockey team won the amateur championship of Manitoba in 1907-08. L-R: Bunny Baker, Ed Hayman, JC Stewart, G. MacKay, H. Bateman, B Cuthbert, Dunc Renaud [5]
Jack Stewart learned to play hockey on outdoor rinks in Pilot Mound. He said he kept fit by working on the family farm during the off-season. The Stewart family was very athletic, and Jack was also known as an avid curler and softball player. In 1935 the strength of the local hockey team did not go unnoticed by the Pilot Mound Sentinel. Editor Ron Tuckwell bragged about the team winning 20 straight games as a home-grown team without imports, but moaned about the poor turnout of fans. Support improved immediately, and the team went on to win their league title.
Sentinel, February 8, 1935 [6]
Jack Stewart was a high school hockey star on the Portage Collegiate Institute team. [7]
By 1937 19-year-old Stewart was captain of the Portage Terriers and attracting attention from the Winnipeg sports editors.
Headed for star-dom. Sentinel, February 18, 1937 [8]
A year later Stewart was playing with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the farm team of the Detroit Red Wings. He was ranked among the three best rookies that year. He was teased for being an actual farmer, but throughout his career he always praised his home town, and the town was very proud of him. As a special guest at Pilot Mound’s 1938 hockey banquet, the Sentinel reported that John claimed he had never mingled with “a better bunch of fellow or a faster team (outside the ‘pro’ ranks) than those of his home town, Pilot Mound.” The home-town editor called him a “fine, sturdy young player who himself has hung up already, an enviable record for any aspiring hockeyist to shoot at.”
Black Jack Stewart [9]
Stewart was called up by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1938-39 season, and cemented his reputation as a fierce defenceman. It was a tough season, and he was disappointed to sit out the playoffs with a severe ankle injury. It would be one of many injuries he would receive, and inflict.
Sentinel, January 18, 1940 [10]
Like his friend Pete Fraser, Sentinel editor Ron Tuckwell was a tremendous hockey fan. They both served the town’s hockey club as executives, and the newspaper followed Stewart’s career closely. Pilot Mound’s pride was evident, and Stewart was referred to in glowing terms, displaying “fighting heart, courage, character, and clean-cut sportsmanship.” (No doubt, opponents like Montreal Canadiens player Elmer Lach would scoff about the “clean-cut sportsmanship” praise. A sports reporter accused Stewart of punching Elmer’s healing jaw and then elbowing him in the jaw to deliberately take him out of the 1949 Stanley Cup series. The Red Wings denied the charge and sued for libel.) Tuckwell wrote about “Johnny” Stewart often. When Stewart made the NHL All-Star team, the April 1, 1943 Sentinel quoted Liberty magazine’s account: “What has Jack Stewart got that doesn’t show in statistics? Plenty. He is a strong skater, sure-footed, breaks quickly and passes cleanly so that his rushing pal doesn’t even hesitate in flight. Defensively, Stewart intercepts opponents’ passes with real finesse, and, if the puck-carrier insists upon going in alone, Stewart can deliver a real grand slam.” Detroit News columnist Joe Falls would agree, writing, “It almost was impossible getting past him without paying the price. He had a way of putting his full body into a check, and the impact could be felt throughout the arena.”
Sentinel, May 13, 1943 [11]
The home-town hockey banquet in 1943 was also a send-off for Stewart, who had joined the RCAF, and would soon be playing for their Alouettes team. The Montreal Gazette wrote that Stewart’s style of play as the hardest hitter in the NHL had not eased up in the RCAF. Of a game between the Alouettes and the Quebec Aces, the paper noted that the Aces “were flying in the first part of the game – until Stewart started to work on them; after he hit a few of them they slowed down to a canter. It isn’t going to take the other clubs long to find out he’s in this League.” After two years in the air force as a leading aircraftman, playing hockey in Montreal and Winnipeg, Stewart returned to the Red Wings.
Trainer Honey Walker gives Black Jack a post-game rub-down, 1946. [12]
In March 1946 the Sentinel announced that Stewart had again been selected #1 defenceman on the NHL All-Star team. Liberty magazine was quoted once more. The magazine called Stewart a “determined battler” who led the League in penalties, but who was also a fast and skilled player. The writer admired him for having game: “he played all one season with a wristbone so badly fractured that his hockey stick was taped to the wrist with adhesive bandage.” Although he was sent to the penalty box often, he did not argue with referees, stating, “I figured for every penalty I got, I used to get away with 10.”
John Mariucci (Chicago Black Hawks) slugs it out with Black Jack Stewart (#2) in a fight that lasted several minutes on the ice and in the penalty box, December 4, 1946. [13]
Stewart made the All Star team in 1946, as well. Sentinel, March 21, 1946 [14]
Sentinel, January 22, 1947 [15]
Although aggressive on the ice, Jack Stewart was not an angry person and was considered easy-going, with a wry sense of humour. The Detroit News reporter Paul Chandler had noted that, “On the street this brawny athlete wears natty suits in soft colour tones. He speaks quietly and behaves at all times with a discreet polish usually associated with genteel society.” Indeed, he was so quiet that his teammates called him “Silent Jack.” When asked a question, he would nod instead of saying “yes.” One fan who found Stewart charming was Lois Fraser, his new bride.
Sentinel, May 17, 1949 [16]
Lois was the daughter of a famed Ontario harness racer named Will L. Fraser (not to be confused with Dad’s uncle, another Ontario harness racer named Will L. Fraser).
Mrs. John Stewart (nee Fraser) with her father's famed race horse "Dr. Stanton." [17]
Come for the hockey, stay for the fights. Jack Stewart (#2) mixes it up with a Toronto player, 1940s. Detroit fans loved it. [18]
Red Wings fans were dismayed in 1950 when Stewart was included in the biggest NHL trade to date. Five players were traded to the Chicago Blackhawks for four of their players. In Chicago the 33-year-old Stewart continued to play as team captain and assistant coach. Within two months of joining the Blackhawks, however, Stewart suffered a spinal injury that should have ended his career. Doctors told him he was lucky he could even walk and warned him against further play. Stewart chose to have the ruptured disc removed and returned to the ice.
Black Jack bares all. [19]
At 5’11”, with a playing weight of 185 lbs., Stewart wasn’t considered a big guy, but he was all muscle and sinew. He attributed his strength to working on his family’s farm, where he spent the offseason.
Sentinel, February 15, 1951 [20]
Early in the 1951-52 season Stewart suffered a minor skull fracture in an on-ice collision with teammate Clare Martin. He spent two weeks in hospital and missed several weeks of play. By mid-February 1952, he asked to be released from the team to pursue coaching opportunities in the minor leagues. Stewart was a player/coach with the Chatham Maroons in the Ontario Senior League during the 1952-53 and 1953-54 seasons, where he played the final games of his career. He continued coaching at various levels until 1963, when he left hockey for good. The move from hockey to harness racing was not so strange. Jack Stewart’s father, JC Stewart, had long been a harness racing enthusiast. He owned and operated the Pilot Mound racetrack and acted as judge and starter for countless race meets in the province, and was president of the Manitoba and Northwestern Racing Association.
Pilot Mound and its racetrack on the northeast edge of town. [21]
Sentinel, September 29, 1960 [22]
Jack worked his way through the ranks as a harness race timer and held various judging roles. He served as a judge with the Ontario Racing Commission for nearly 30 years. A post on the Third String Goalie blog of May 6, 2017 [23] summarized Stewart’s hockey stats: “His final NHL totals were 565 games played with 31 goals and 84 assists for 115 points and 765 penalty minutes and two Stanley Cups. Stewart was inducted into the Michigan and Manitoba Sports Halls of Fame [24], was named a charter member of the Red Wings Hall of Fame in 1944 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame [25] in 1964.”
John Sherratt Stewart was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. [26]
John Sherratt Stewart [27]
John (Black Jack) Sherratt Stewart retired to Florida, but returned to Michigan for medical treatment. He died of cancer in Troy, Michigan on May 25, 1983, at age 66. He was predeceased by his wife and survived by son Barclay and daughter Jaclyn.
The Black Jack Stewart Arena, Pilot Mound [28]
Pilot Mound continues to honor its hockey hero. On April 23, 2010 the town celebrated the grand opening of its new Millennium Recreation Centre Complex. Myrna and I accompanied Dad out to the Mound for the day’s events, which included a dedication and naming of the arena after Black Jack Stewart.
The Black Jack Stewart display at the dedication of the arena in Pilot Mound's Millennium Recreation Complex, April 23, 2010 [29]
The Black Jack Stewart display at the dedication of the arena in Pilot Mound's Millennium Recreation Complex, April 23, 2010 [30]
Dad reads up on Pilot Mound's local celebrity. [31]
We met up with Dad’s friends Clare Geddes and Arva Shewchuk (Jack Stewart’s sister) at the Centre and gave our names at the reception table. We were surprised at the registrar’s delight upon hearing we were Frasers. (Dad hadn’t lived there since 1946!) We knew there had been other Frasers in Pilot Mound (like their illustrious first mayor James Fraser), and guessed that explained it. We didn’t know at the time, of course, that we must have been mistaken for Jack Stewart’s in-laws. At the same time, however, we are relatives of a sort. Black Jack had in-laws from two different harness-racing Fraser families from Ontario. His sister, Mary Beatrice (“Trixie”), was the wife of Dad’s cousin Doug, the son of Gordon Fraser.
Jack Stewart's brother-in-law and Dad's cousin, Doug Fraser [32]
Trixie was a year younger than Dad, but he knew her well from their school years. She lived in Red Deer, Alberta until her death in October, 2012.
Dad with Arva (nee Stewart) Shewchuk [33]
Trixie was the older sister of Arva Shewchuk, who lived in Winnipeg and became a good friend of Dad’s after Mom’s demise. A widow herself since 1984, Arva introduced Dad to line and Scottish country dancing, and the two of them enjoyed recreational skating, biking, and dining. Arva outlived her five siblings, and passed away at age 89 on December 26, 2013. Today hockey is still front and centre in Pilot Mound. Their hockey academy for young male and female players is attracting international attention, and it's been a real boost for the community. The Black Jack Stewart Arena is seeing a lot of action:
Black Jack Stewart would have been thrilled to see the hockey academy in "his" arena. [34]
