• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Get Sports Collectors Daily via EMail
    • Advertise with SC Daily
    • Write for Sports Collectors Daily
    • Write About Your Sports Collection
    • Where Can I Sell My Baseball Cards?
  • Hot on eBay
    • Most Watched Graded Rookies
    • Most Watched PSA 10 Cards
    • Most Watched BGS, BVG Cards
    • Most Watched SGC Cards
    • Most Watched CSG,CGC Cards
    • Most Watched Baseball Cards
      • Most Watched 2023 Baseball Cards
      • Most Watched 2022 Baseball Rookie Cards
      • Bowman Chrome Cards
      • Ronald Acuna Jr. Cards
      • Shohei Ohtani Cards
      • Mike Trout Cards
      • Fernando Tatis Jr. Cards
      • Babe Ruth Cards
      • Hank Aaron Cards
      • Jackie Robinson Cards:
      • Mickey Mantle Cards
      • Willie Mays Cards
      • Vintage Baseball Card Sets
      • T206 Cards
    • Most Watched Basketball
      • Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2022-23 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2021-22 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2020-21 NBA Rookie Cards
      • 100 Hottest 2019-20 NBA Rookie Cards
        • Zion Williamson Rookie Cards
        • Ja Morant Rookie Cards
      • Michael Jordan Cards
      • Kobe Bryant Cards
      • LeBron James Rookie Cards
      • Nikola Jokic Rookie Cards
      • Giannis Antetokounmpo Cards
      • Luka Doncic Rookie Cards
      • Prizm Basketball Cards
      • Panini National Treasures
    • Most Watched Football Cards
      • Most Watched NFL Rookie Cards
      • 2022 NFL Rookie Cards
        • Brock Purdy Rookie Cards
      • 2021 NFL Rookie Cards
      • 2020 NFL Rookie Cards
        • Joe Burrow Rookie Cards
        • Justin Herbert Rookie Cards
        • Jalen Hurts Rookie Cards
      • Josh Allen Rookie Cards
      • Patrick Mahomes Rookie Cards
      • Tom Brady Cards
    • Most Watched Hockey Cards
      • Top 100 Most Watched Hockey Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2021-22 NHL Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2020-21 Rookie Cards
      • Most Watched 2019-20 Rookie Cards
      • Connor McDavid Cards
      • Wayne Gretzky Cards
      • Bobby Orr Cards
    • Most Watched Soccer Cards
    • Most Watched UFC Cards
    • Most Watched Golf Cards
    • Most Watched 1 of 1 Cards
    • Most Watched Racing Cards
    • Top Sports Card Dealers on eBay
    • Most Watched Memorabilia
      • Vintage Sports Memorabilia
    • Vintage Sports Tickets, Stubs
    • Most Watched Autographs
  • Ending Soon on Ebay
    • Baseball Cards
    • Basketball Cards
    • Football Cards
    • Hockey Cards
    • Soccer Cards
    • Golf Cards
    • UFC Cards
  • Top - Ad

Sports Collectors Daily

Sports Collectors Daily

Sports collecting news - Sports cards and sports memorabilia industry news.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. 

  • Sports Memorabilia News
  • Sports Card News
    • Modern Sports Card News
      • New Sports Card Release Calendar
      • Shop Talk
    • Vintage Sports Card News
      • Affordable Vintage Cards, Collectibles
      • Old Baseball Card Sets
      • Old Basketball Card Sets
      • Old Football Card Sets
      • Old Hockey Card Sets
      • Vintage Pack Facts
  • Business/Industry News
    • Sports Memorabilia Business News
    • Sports Memorabilia Industry News
  • Around The Hobby
    • Editor’s Blog
    • David Cycleback’s Identification and Authentication Advice
  • Popular Stories
  • Sell Your Cards
You are here: Home / Sports Card News / Vintage Sports Card News / Old Hockey Card Sets / 1958-59 Parkhurst Highlights Hockey’s Greatest Rivalry

1958-59 Parkhurst Highlights Hockey’s Greatest Rivalry

May 21, 2019 By Stephen Laroche

If a kid in Canada wanted to get a hockey card featuring a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs or Montreal Canadiens in the 1950s, they only had one option. The 1958-59 Parkhurst set was the place to get them and while the company did not need bells and whistles to grab those nickels from youngsters, a stick of gum was at least part of the offering.

While the 1958-59 Topps set handled the NHL’s four American teams, “Parkies” were all about the Leafs and Habs.

At the time, the Maple Leafs were a team on the rise after a few rough seasons. The Canadiens had just won three straight Stanley Cup titles and were on the hunt for a record fourth in a row. Toronto had some strong young stars and was developing into a serious contender, but the Canadiens were loaded up with Hall of Famers that knew how to win. By the end of this season and the next, both teams would clash for Lord Stanley’s mug – with Montreal prevailing on both occasions and setting a yet-to-be-broken standard of five straight titles.

Bring Home All The Action

When it came to the cards, 1958-59 Parkhurst is somewhat plain. However, it shines due to a combination of star power and action shots. Complete at 50 cards, the set is still a challenge to complete due to some big names like Frank Mahovlich, Jean Beliveau, Jacques Plante, and Maurice Richard leading the way.

Packs featured red, blue, and white elements along with team logos. The brand was referred to as Zip 1959 NHL Card Gum and each card measures a slight bit differently than the modern standard at 2 7/16″ x 3 5/8″. This was also the first time the Zip name appeared on packaging.

The checklist begins with an action card that depicts Maple Leafs star Bob Pulford breaking in on Plante that was dubbed Pulford Comes Close. In fact, Plante is featured on a majority of the action cards. The shots were taken at Maple Leaf Gardens and there are eight in total.

One of the greatest things about the 1958-59 Parkhurst set is the amount of information that was packed into the back of each player card. They were well-written, but the only real complaints are that they are quite plain and the single stat line combines both regular season and playoff numbers. The action cards feature NHL or team records from the time or lineups for both teams. Both types are bilingual (English and French).

It should be noted that this is a set where cards can sometimes exhibit registration issues (photos are fuzzy due to shifting of the ink during printing) and environmental exposure can lead to brown tinting known as foxing. Foxing is a common thing in Parkhurst cards from throughout the company’s classic run.

Unique Goalie Cards

While all of the action cards are horizontal, three of the four cards featuring goalies alone are tilted that was as well. For the Canadiens, we get Plante and his perennial backup, Charlie Hodge. Toronto’s Ed Chadwick is the only one to get that treatment as Johnny Bower’s first card with the Leafs is vertical. It also has an uncorrected error is his last name is incorrectly spelled as “Bowers”.

Examining the rest of the player cards, it is a great bunch of talent. While they are all mixed up randomly on the checklist, there are some huge names here. For the Canadiens, we have some serious Hall of Fame talent in the Richard brothers (Maurice and Henri), Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Beliveau, Doug Harvey, Dickie Moore, Tom Johnson, and coach Toe Blake. The Maple Leafs are just as loaded with Mahovlich, George Armstong, Pulford, Dick Duff, Allan Stanley, and Bert Olmstead. There is no coach card for Toronto, possibly because Billy Reay had been fired around the time the cards were printed and the designers could not get a photo of new bench boss George “Punch” Imlach in time.

Average Rookie Crop

When it comes down to rookie cards, 1958-59 Parkhurst offers up what could be called an average class at best. This is not to say that there were not any solid NHL talents here, but there is no one that is going to be enshrined into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Looking at the Maple Leafs, there are two rookie cards to collect and they are both strong cards for different reasons. Most collectors would opt for Bob Nevin’s first card if given a choice against that of Noel Price, but there are two very good reasons for that in the form of Nevin’s two Stanley Cup rings. Nevin was a mere prospect in the Leafs organization at this time and did not become a regular until 1960-61, when he finished second in voting for the Calder Trophy behind teammate Dave Keon. He enjoyed a solid career that saw him score 307 goals and appeared in four NHL All-Star Games.

Price, on the other hand, deserves some recognition for getting into 500 NHL games between 1957-58 and 1975-76. A dependable defender, he was a fringe player who did not appear in more than 28 games in a season until the league expanded in 1967-68. An original member of both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Atlanta Flames, he was a multi-time All-Star and Calder Cup champ at the AHL level in addition to winning the Eddie Shore Award as the loop’s top blueliner on three occasions between 1969-70 and 1975-76.

In the 1950s, it was tough to crack the lineup for the Canadiens, but there were four challengers for full-time roles that debuted in the 1958-59 Parkhurst set. First up, we have Albert “Junior” Langlois. A dependable defender for close to a decade, he had debuted during Montreal’s run to the Cup in 1958 and earned a card here as he was expected to see some action with the Habs going forward. He won three championships there before moving on to play in New York and Boston before finishing up in 1965-66. Ian Cushenan’s rookie card is the least important in this set among collectors, but he did manage to skate in one NHL All-Star Game (1958) since the format was for the defending champions to take on the best from the rest of the league.

Ab McDonald makes his cardboard debut in 1958-59 Parkhurst as well and he finished third in voting for the Calder Trophy this season. He won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens before being traded to Chicago and played an important part in the team ending Montreal’s stranglehold on the trophy in 1960-61. He was the original captain for the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA as well.

Finally, the rookie class ends appropriately enough with the 1958-59 Rookie of the Year in Ralph Backstrom. An eventual six-time Stanley Cup winner, he skated in over 1,000 NHL games and most of them were spent in a Canadiens uniform. He was traded to the Los Angeles Kings during the 1970-71 season and while playing in California, developed a wheeled skate that could be used in dryland training – you might know them best as Rollerblades! After finishing out his career in the WHA, he remained close to the game as a coach for the University of Denver, founded Roller Hockey International, and founded the minor league Denver Eagles (now known as the AHL’s Colorado Eagles).

A Perfect Time Capsule

While the rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs has been around for over a century, it can be argued that its greatest era occurred between 1958-59 and 1966-67. During that time, the clubs met for the Stanley Cup on three occasions on top of battling each other 14 times a season. There was no friendly banter between the teams, it was an all-out war. The 1958-59 Parkhurst set captures the beginning of this perfectly and while the cards are not exactly eye-popping, there is a quaintness to them which makes this collection a winner.

You can check out singles, lots and sets of 1958-59 Parkhurst hockey on eBay here. 

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Facebook Messenger

Related Stories:

1959-60 Parkhurst: Two Solitudes on Cardboard Taking A Bow: 10 Key Final Cards of Hockey Legends 1954-55 Parkhurst: Preparing For Battle 1963-64 Parkhurst Closes Chapter in Hockey Card History 1957-58 Parkhurst: Hockey Cards Make a Comeback 1953-54 Parkhurst Hockey Set Had Top Rookies; Errors, Too 1952-53 Parkhurst Hockey Set Included Better Quality; Wild Wrapper 1958-59 Topps Bobby Hull1958-59 Topps Hockey Set Has Hall of Fame Pedigree

About Stephen Laroche

There aren't many things Stephen Laroche hasn't done in the hobby since the 1980s--from designing sets for a card company to editing hobby magazines-- but writing is his primary passion.

Filed Under: Old Hockey Card Sets, Vintage Sports Card News Tagged With: 1950s hockey cards, 1958-59 Parkhurst, Frank Mahovlich, Jean Beliveau, Johnny Bower, Maurice Richard, Parkhurst, Parkie

Primary Sidebar

Our articles may contain affiliate links. When you click on links to merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. 

Shop Sports Cards on Ebay
  • Football
  • Basketball
  • Baseball
  • Hockey

High End Cards and Memorabilia

  • BBCE Authenticated Boxes, Packs opens in a new window
  • Graded pre-War Card eBay Auctions
  • PWCC Premier Auction
  • PWCC Fixed Price Marketplace
  • Graded Rookie Cards on eBay opens in a new window
  • Authenticated Photos on eBay opens in a new window
  • Graded Tickets & Stubs opens in a new window

Bargain Corner

  • Michael Jordan cards $5 and less opens in a new window
  • Kobe Bryant cards $5 and less opens in a new window
  • Mickey Mantle Cards Under $150 opens in a new window
  • Graded T206 Cards Under $150 opens in a new window
  • Pre-War Cards Under $100 opens in a new window
  • Pre-1980 Graded Baseball Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Pre-1980 Graded Football Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Basketball Cards $25 and less opens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Hockey Cards $10 and Less opens in a new window
  • Complete Sets $20 and Less opens in a new window
  • Baseball Hall of Famers for $5 or Less opens in a new window
  • Football Hall of Famers for $5 or Less opens in a new window
  • Hobby Boxes Under $30 opens in a new window
  • Pre-1986 Rookie Cards Under $1 opens in a new window
  • Buy Boxes Directly from Topps opens in a new window

RSS Auction Report

  • One of a Kind Collectibles Rare Autograph & Document Auction Ends October 12, 2023
  • Detroit City Sports Premium Auction Ends October 8, 2023
  • PWCC Weekly Sunday Auction – Ending October 1, 2023

Footer

Categories

  • Around the Hobby
  • Business/Industry News
    • Sports Memorabilia Business News
    • Sports Memorabilia Industry News
  • David Cycleback's Identification and Authentication Advice
  • Editor's Blog
  • Featured Articles
  • Hobby Shop Talk
  • National Sports Collectors Convention
  • Popular Stories
  • Rich Klein's Ramblings
  • Sports Card News
    • Modern Sports Card News
      • New Sports Card Release Calendar
    • Vintage Sports Card News
      • Old Baseball Card Sets
      • Old Basketball Card Sets
      • Old Football Card Sets
      • Old Hockey Card Sets
      • Vintage Pack Facts
  • Sports Memorabilia News
  • Uncategorized

Sponsor Links

  • Sports Card Forumopens in a new window
  • Buying Vintage Sports Cardsopens in a new window
  • Game Used Jerseysopens in a new window
  • Championship Rings For Saleopens in a new window
  • Vintage Basketball Cardsopens in a new window
  • NBA Signed Itemsopens in a new window
  • Autographed Baseballsopens in a new window
  • NASCAR Autographsopens in a new window
  • Vintage Graded Baseball Cardsopens in a new window
  • Player Picturesopens in a new window
  • Vintage Football Cardsopens in a new window
  • Sports Collectors Storeopens in a new window

Pages

Ending on eBay Soon
  • Baseball Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Basketball Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Football Card Auctions on eBay Ending Soon
  • Hockey Card Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
  • Vintage Sports Memorabilia on eBay Ending Soon
Top 100 on Ebay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Baseball Rookie Cards on eBay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Basketball Rookie Cards for Sale on eBay
  • Top 100 Most Watched Hockey Rookie Card Auctions
  • Top Authenticated Vintage Unopened Sports Card Boxes, Packs on eBay
Most Watched on eBay
  • 100 Most Watched Graded Rookie Cards for Sale on eBay
  • 100 Most Watched Tom Brady Card Auctions on eBay
  • 50 Hottest Hobby Boxes at Auction on eBay
  • 50 Most Watched Golf Trading Cards on eBay
  • 50 Most Watched Wrestling Trading Cards on eBay
  • 75 Most Watched Bowman Chrome Cards
  • Most Popular Bobbleheads on eBay
  • Most Watched 1/1 Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Basketball Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Complete Baseball Card Sets at Auction on eBay
  • Most Watched Football Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Football Rookie Card Auctions
  • Most Watched Goudey Baseball Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Hockey Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Racing Cards on eBay
  • Most Watched Soccer Cards for Sale on eBay
  • Most Watched Sports Autographs on eBay
  • Most Watched Sports Jerseys on eBay
  • Most Watched Unopened Sports Card Boxes, Packs on eBay
  • Most Watched Vintage Sports Memorabilia on eBay
  • Hottest Panini National Treasures Cards on eBay
  • Hottest PSA 10 Cards for Sale on eBay
  • What’s Hot on eBay
Sports Memorabilia
  • Sports Card Bargain Bin
  • Sports Memorabilia Auctions Ending Soon on eBay
About Sports Collectors Daily
  • Advertise with SC Daily
  • Contact Us
  • Get Sports Collectors Daily via EMail
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
Sell Your Cards
  • What’s It Worth
  • Where Can I Sell My Baseball Cards?

Copyright © 2023 SportsCollectorsDaily.com | Web Design by Wickam Groupopens in a new window