It was the same kind of friendly hockey game that Bill Herrett played in Toronto’s fabled Maple Leaf Gardens as an 8-year-old in 1946.
Herrett was surrounded by friends, and embraced by a mutual love of hockey. There was a puck, some ice, and smiles all around.
Only this Sunday was special. Herrett and his family and friends were celebrating his 80th birthday with — what else — a game. Herrett still plays in an adult league at the Tucson Arena.
“I was never a great player,” he said while attempting to get his hockey pants on. “I just love the game.”
A few tugs from a friend helped get Herrett’s gear into place, and then he pulled on a game jersey, just like he’s done since the 1940s.
Bill Herrett gets help suiting up from his wife, Louise, before a recent game to celebrate his 80th birthday. “I was never a great player,” he says. “I just love the game.”
The birthday cake rinkside declared “Hockey Players Rule,” and that sentiment brought Herrett’s friends together to toast him and then bang him around a bit on the Tucson Convention Center ice during a friendly game.
Danny Plattner, who organizes the Tucson men’s league, has skated with Herrett for the past two decades, and his admiration radiated as the octogenarian took the ice for warmups.
“Bill’s dedication to hockey reminds me just how precious each and every game we play is,” Plattner told me. “In a moment, the game can be gone. We have to enjoy the now, because no one knows when hockey will be over for any of us.”
That poignancy draped the party at the Tucson Arena. Players stretched from 20-somethings to Herrett’s 80, and each player knew that at some point hockey will end for them because of injury, or death — or age.
Herrett grew up in Canada in the 1940s and 1950s, which meant he played hockey. In Nova Scotia, that also meant playing outdoor pond hockey on thin ice. “I played on both sides of the pond ice, if you know what I mean,” he said with a laugh, referring to chilly breaks through the ice.
Bill Herrett bought his first new pair of skates in 20 years last year and lost weight so he could keep up with younger players in his men’s league.
Herrett continued to play hockey after knee surgery. Then the other knee needed work. Herrett moved to Arizona in 1957, a full decade before pro hockey arrived. He found a rink in Phoenix and continued to play.
“I was pretty good in the 1950s,” he laughs, while adding the tale of his best ever game, a seven-goal outburst in Albuquerque in the late 1950s.
Displaying trademark Canadian humility, Herrett declared: “Well, it was one of those games where everything went wrong for the other team.”
Herrett eventually settled in Tucson and continued playing in adult leagues and pickup games. Last year he bought his first new pair of skates in 20 years, figuring they could last another 20. He lost weight to keep up with the kids he played against, and was rewarded by scoring a goal last season.
Herrett can still skate, puck-handle, follow the puck and stick his nose into a play. On one recent shift he fell down, and play went on up the ice without him. Herrett slowly got to one knee and lifted himself up to his feet with his stick — just like he was taught as an 8-year-old. Then he was back after the puck.
The other players showed Herrett the ultimate respect. If he needs help, he’ll ask for it. Until then, leave him be. He’s a hockey player. He’s as tough as nails.
Herrett is sharp, mobile, and sociable. He is not an old guy — he just now happens to be in his 80s.
Half suited up, Bill Herrett needs a hand or two from his wife Louise to get up on his skates, as he gets ready to his the ice for his league hockey team game at the Tucson Convention Center, Wednesday, January 24, 2018, Tucson, Ariz.
Before taking the ice for his birthday game, Herrett was asked about expectations — notably, how many goals he wanted to score. The 80-year-old laughed.
“If I touch the puck a couple times,” he said, “I will be a very happy man.”
And then, with a whoosh, he was on the ice.
Herrett then scored.