Height: 5-10
Weight: 170
Shoot: L
Born: 31 Aug 1943, Fairview AB
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Chicago | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | New York | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
• Participated in professional rodeo concurrent to his hockey career.
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Cougars Cowboy at the Blueline • by Reid Grosky • The Hockey Spectator • November 10, 1972
If the World Hockey Association ever becomes Americanized to the point of nicknaming a team the Cowboys, Butch Barber immediately should ask to be traded to the new franchise. The Chicago Cougars would be reluctant to let Barber go, considering the 29-year-old defenseman's play in these opening few weeks of the season. But Barber always has had this attraction for the mythology of the Old West in the United States. "I would have enjoyed living in the late 1800s in the Montana area," he says. Barber does the next best thing. He lives part time in the Montana of the 1970s and in the offseason hits the rodeo circuit. Barber is a professional rodeo performer so proficient he probably could lasso Bobby hull going full speed along the left boards. Granted it would be about the only penalty that tough Barber has not received in his nine years in professional hockey. But during the season he makes sure his ropes are kept back at the ranch. Only the flashy cowboy boots that rest alongside his skates offer a clue to the dual life of Butch Barber. "To be quite honest, I love it," Barber says of the rodeo circuit. "I'd rather do it than eat. But the possibility of making a living at it is very small. Only people who are great at it can make it." "So I do it now like most people go to play golf. I go rope and steer wrestle because it's great relaxation and I think it's a sport that keeps me in shape." Barber turned rodeo pro at 21 after making $1000 one season on the United States and Canada circuit and thus became an automatic member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association. He grew up around Fairview, Alberta, where "all my winters were spent playing hockey and then in the summer I go to Montana and live on a friend's ranch and ride in the rodeo." Surprisingly, hockey coaches never have tried to discourage Barber from the rodeo despite the danger of injuries. "There's only a distant possibility of getting hurt," he insists. "I've received a lot more serious injuries playing hockey than I have in rodeo." Barber admits, however, that there have been touch and go moments against charging animals weighing up to 600 pounds. "It happens frequently in steer wrestling," he says, "where the cattle will get smart and they'll stop and you'll go over their head. Or else the steer will pull away from you or your horse and you'll land flat on your butt going about 30 miles an hour." This is a feeling that may have been experienced by some hockey opponents who have run up against Barber on the ice. "If there's ever a fight, he'll be the first one in and the last one out," said coach Marcel Pronovost after the Cougars had signed Barber off the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. Now after several weeks in the WHA, Barber says what he enjoys most — next to his multi-year contract — is playing for Pronovost. "He showed me more in the first two weeks than I learned in the last five years," Barber said. "He was a great defenseman in his own time and he's more than happy to pass on whatever he learned to the younger guys." Surprisingly, Barber has spent precious few minutes in the penalty box this season and, equally surprising, that bothers him. "I've probably averaged 100 minutes a year," he says. "I'm sure as the season goes on I'll gather more penalties." Barber, like other rugged defensemen, believes "penalties are a necessary part of the game the only thing is I don't like to see cheap ones like holding or hooking. If you're going to get a penalty you might as well get a good one in." He expects the league to start showing its muscle around December when the players all are in top shape. When that happens, Barber should be happy he'll feel like he's back on the rodeo circuit. |
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