Jack De Heer to enter Dutch Hockey Hall of Fame
By Lethbridge Herald on September 14, 2023.
Submitted Photo SUBMITTED PHOTO
Jack De Heer holds the tophy after winning the Group B World Championship in 1979 with the Dutch national team.By Justin Seward
Lethbridge Herald
Longtime retired Lethbridge professional hockey player, Jack De Heer, is one of three players getting inducted into the IJshockey Nederland’s Dutch Hockey Hall of Fame next week.
De Heer spent 13 seasons from 1971-1984 playing professionally overseas with the Holland- based Tilburg Trappers, and Feenstra Flyers Heerenveen and the Swiss-based EHC Arosa.
He amassed 892 points in the Netherlands over 11 seasons and 95 points in two seasons with EHC Arosa in Switzerland.
Due to his dual citizenship, he could play over there as a Dutchman.
“Well looking back, I think it’s just a feather in the cap (and) icing on the cake for my career,” said De Heer.
“I see it as a real honour. Yeah, I’m really very, very proud of this award.”
De Heer went over when he was 18 years old.
“Although I will say when I went over at 18 I made something like $50 a week,” said De Heer.
“But I was only 18. I was happy to play, that’s all I wanted to do, and then slowly as I got better, yeah, the salary went up. And for hockey to exist in Holland, you needed sponsors. Hockey’s just not a game that has really caught on. Although during my 13 years, those were probably the best years that Holland ever had. We were getting 5,000 (to) 6,000 fans per game. When I went to Heerenveen, I had switched teams, mainly because they had stood in my way of playing with the (Minnesota) North Stars, but also they got a big, big sponsor and then the money really, really increased. So, financially I did really well.”
“Switzerland today is probably the top paying country. Back then it was too, but salaries don’t compare at all to today.”
He was a regular on the Dutch national team, where he found himself at the 1978 World Ice Hockey championships and was the top scorer and top forward, also he participated in the 1979 version of the same event where he was named top scorer.
“I’m still the all-time leading scorer for the Dutch national team, played over 100 games (and) we’re also getting award next week for any player that’s played more than 100 games with the national team,” said De Heer.
He had 210 points in 119 games for the national team.
He considered the 1980 Olympic game against Poland to be his best of the tournament where he notched a hat trick.
“My parents came to watch,” he said.
“They stayed in Montreal and they came to watch. And the first two games, I probably never played so bad in my life. We played Team Canada; I was just terrible. We were all so nervous, especially a lot of us Dutch Canadians. When my parents left, I finally started playing like I could and three goals against Poland, which is… OK, you know what, I can play this game. My confidence came back.”
If it wasn’t for the chance that Tilburg gave him, De Heer did not think he would have gotten the opportunities to play well enough to make the international stage.
“It was an incredible experience,” he said.
“We did a lot of travelling. I went to Japan two or three times, and Lake Placid, (and) probably never would have had that chance to be an Olympian, and to eat dinner (and) breakfast beside Russians and Americans, and seeing the Americans, the Miracle on Ice… I never would have had these experiences; I think without having played in Holland.”
Good memories of his time with the Dutch national team include team beating East Germany 4-3 in the B Pool in the 1979 World Championships to earn spot in A pool for 1981, beating Poland and getting a hat trick against the Americans in the Olympics.
He won 10 championships in Holland and one Switzerland.
24-23
