A Look At Wally Hergesheimer (Part One)
Winnipeg's Wally Hergesheimer was a 30-goal scorer with the New York Rangers in the early 1950s.
Wally Hergesheimer was one of the New York Rangers premier goal scorers of the 1950’s. In fact, there was a three-year period between 1951 and 1954 where only Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard and Ted Lindsay had scored more goals in the NHL than Hergesheimer.
New York Rangers general manager Frank Boucher respected and admired the Hergesheimer ability not to be pushed around by bigger opponents as he was only 5’8’’ and weighed about 150 pounds. “He’s one of the trickiest players I ever saw around the net,” Boucher said at the time. “And small as he is, he manages to roll with the bodychecks so that nobody ever seems to get a clean shot at him.”
Hergesheimer grew up in East Elmwood and enjoyed a successful junior career in his home province. He turned pro in 1947 and by 1951, Hergesheimer was voted the AHL's most outstanding rookie on the strength of his 96 points in 82 games with the Cleveland Barons. The New York Rangers brought him on board the following season and he quickly established a reputation for angling his way into the goal crease to turn rebounds into goals. His success earned him the nickname "Garbage Collector."
In addition to “Hergy” and “Garbage Collector,” he was also humorously known as "Fingers" because he'd lost his index and middle fingers up to the knuckles of his right hand in a punch-press accident when he was a teenager.
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