While playing in the UOVHL Nighbor won the Citizen Shield, as champions of the Ottawa Valley, after Pembroke defeated Vankleek Hill 10 goals to 8 on March 1, 1911.

[4] Nighbor first played professionally for the Port Arthur Bearcats of the Northern Ontario Hockey League (NOHL) in 1911.

Fellow Pembroke native Harry Cameron was invited to play for Port Arthur but refused to go without Nighbor.

The club agreed to bring Nighbor along, but they left him on the bench until injuries gave him an opportunity to play.

She showed Nighbor an ornate trophy and asked him if he thought the NHL would accept it as an award for its most gentlemanly player.

[3] In 1929–30, Nighbor was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, as part of the fire sale of the failing Senators, for Danny Cox and cash.

[3] He impressed with his sportsmanship, inspiring Lady Byng to donate the Lady Byng Trophy in his honour to the "player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability",[7] and she presented it personally to him.

"[10] In a 1960 interview with Bill Westwick (son of Harry "Rat" Westwick) of the Ottawa Journal, Nighbor claimed he had learned his famous poke checking technique from watching Port Arthur teammate Jack Walker, denying a claim from Jack Adams that he must have learned it from watching Fort William player Joel Rochon.

He would later turn to an insurance business he was a partner in and run it until he became ill.[3] Nighbor died of cancer on April 13, 1966, in Pembroke at the age of 73.

[8] In March 2010, at a Quebec auction, an American collector paid $33,000 USD to secure Nighbor's game-worn Ottawa Senators sweater from the 1926–27 season.