John Wensink
Representing the current generation of Glengarry professional athletes, Maxville’s John Wensink, former member of the Boston Bruins, was inducted into the Glengarry Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday, September 12th 1990 at the annual enshrinement banquet in the Maxville and District Sports Complex.
John Wensink is a son of the late George Wensink and his wife the former Nellie Bleyenberg. He was born April 1, 1953, at Pincher Creek, Alberta, and, it may be added, in an atmosphere of Western Canada’s pro-hockey productivity.
When John was still a toddler, the Wensink family gave up Alberta living in favour of a Glengarry home. They bought a dairy farm from C. Gordon McKillican on the south border of Maxville. At the tender age of seven John Wensink was a blossoming minor hockey player with the Sprites. He progressed each winter in his respective age groups through to Junior B coached by George Currier.
In the summer, after completing his allotment of farm chores, John Wensink played baseball, soccer, and he was also adept in handling a lacrosse stick.
In 1970 he attended the training camp of major Junior A Cornwall Royals and what he may have lacked in skills John Wensink was filled with desire and rugged style of play that impressed coach Orville Tessier, known as a tough task master; John Wensink was signed and played with the Royals.
The next season, not only did John Wensink’s play improve in hockey, but the entire team improved so much that Cornwall Royals won the Memorial Cup, emblematic of the Canadian Major Junior A championship.
In the following NHL draft, John Wensink was selected by the St. Louis Blues and in turn was instructed to report to their farm team Rochester of the American Hockey League. St. Louis Assistant GM Frank Mario had been keeping tabs on Wensink while he was with the Royals, Mario’s home town.
Don Cherry was Rochester’s coach and he was aware that all through Wensink’s Cornwall junior career his game stayed rather basic and not by choice. Cherry opined that when you are as big and as strong and as willing to mix it up as John Wensink and your coach has an ample supply of talented forwards and heavy defensemen, it’s not too surprising when you are tabbed as the club’s “enforcer.” John will always be that according to Cherry, who reserves a very special place in his heart for John. Quoting a Rochester sports writer, he stated, “his biggest attributes are his willingness to learn and ability to absorb. In fact his improvement since he first came to the Rochester camp has just been amazing.”
John Wensink’s pro hockey career, in 1976, was feared to be at an end due to a severe back injury. However, after a brief term with the Denver Spurs and major surgery he made a full recovery and was back in Rochester.
In the meantime, Don Cherry was behind the Bruins’ bench coaching and he still rated Wensink as NHL class so he drafted his favorite son to Boston.
Cherry’s confidence in Wensink was fully rewarded in the 1978-79 season as he scored 28 goals. Playing beside a star in the class of Terry O’Reilly and being a 6’2″, 195 pounder, John Wensink had fulfilled his lifetime ambition. He recorded four successful seasons in Boston. Harry Sinden, Boston’s manager, came to the parting of the ways with his coach Don Cherry. There were more changes including the trade of Wensink to Quebec Nordiques.
In the following season, 1981-8, Don Cherry and John Wensink were again united with the Colorado Rockies but the term was short lived as the club ceased to operate. Wensink was sold to New Jersey Devils but John retired from further play except for a brief period near his father’s home in Holland with the Vissers club in Nijegen.
Now in retirement and operating a lucrative home construction business in suburban St. Charles, John Wensink is still involved in his first love, hockey, coaching the St. Louis Peewees. They will play in the Quebec City tournament this winter again for the fourth consecutive year.
