A Look At Wally Hergesheimer (Part Two)

Winnipeg's Wally Hergesheimer was a 30-goal scorer with the New York Rangers in the early 1950s.

Here is Part Two of a three-part series on Wally Hergesheimer:

In 1940, Wally was playing playground hockey with Chalmers and coming up as a budding prospect in his neighbourhood. By the 1943-44 season he was playing junior hockey in the MJHL with the Winnipeg Rangers. He played two seasons there followed by two seasons with the Brandon Elks, in addition to joining the Winnipeg Monarchs late in the 1944-45 season for their run through the Memorial Cup final where they lost the Abbott Cup final to Moose Jaw. The Monarchs, without Wally, would win the Memorial Cup the next season while he was playing in Brandon. 

Wally’s dad surprisingly only ever saw him play hockey once. Towards the end of the game, Wally scored, to which his dad quipped, “About time he scored he’s been out there all night.”

When Fred "Steamer" Maxwell, coach of 1920 Olympic champion Winnipeg Falcons and Hockey Hall of Famer, spotted Hergesheimer playing for Monarchs in the 1944-45 junior playoffs he called him the best prospect he had seen in years saying, "He's an artist on skates and has everything that goes into making a great player.”

“I had some great coaching along the way that really helped me,” Wally recalled. “There was Vince Leah when I played with his Excelsiors. Harry Neil was my first coach with the Winnipeg Rangers and Horace Nicholson who coached me with the Brandon Elks. These are all men that had a lot to do with my improving as a hockey player and moving up the ladder.”