Memoirs of a Hockey Nobody by Jerry Hack

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Five Things You Would Probably Never Guess About Jerry Hack

1. I am the world’s worst (or best) procrastinator. I will almost always leave things until the last possible moment. I once did my Christmas shopping at 5:00 on Christmas Eve. I had to buy seven presents. I did it at Blockbuster Video and 7-11. I tell my wife that I work best under pressure. She just rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

2. Compliments make me very uncomfortable. I like to hear them, but I will almost always quickly change the subject.

3. I am the king of useless information. A walking encyclopedia of things that don’t matter. For some reason trivial details will stick in my brain forever, like song lyrics or lines from a movie or small details that no one in their right mind would ever remember. But if I need to remember something important, like doctor’s appointments or family events, or answers to a test, it goes right out the window.

4. I saw the movie “The Exorcist” when I was 15. That night I couldn’t sleep a wink. I had to go to school the next day and I was like a zombie. I had trouble sleeping for a whole year. To this day, 43 years later, I can not watch that movie, it freaked me out so bad. Funny thing is I read the book before I saw the movie and it had zero affect on me.

5. I once had a boss who was, shall we say, the smartest person in the room only when he was by himself. I had a really bad headache one day and I asked him if it was okay for me to go home. His response was “why do you have a headache?” I told him, with a straight face, that in a previous life I was a soldier in the War of 1812 and one day, when I was on furlough, my girlfriend and I were in a field behind her house doing what young people do, when her father happened upon us. He hit me in the head with a rake causing a small fracture in my skull and it still gives me problems from time to time. He just stared at me blankly and said “I hope she was worth it” and let me go home.

Memoir of a Hockey Nobody is the unlikely true story of an average Canadian kid who grew up playing street hockey. Although he didn't learn how to skate until his late teens, he took a shot at entering the world of professional ice hockey with, shall we say, haphazard results.

This is an "against all odds" tale of one man's journey from Vancouver, to all over Western Canada, California, The Yukon, and Alaska. Seemingly blocked at every turn, from managers who believed that someone who came from such humble beginnings couldn't be any good, to coaches who would rather see big names with bigger reputations. It's a story of tragedy, triumph and determination. A roller coaster ride with hilarious anecdotes of all the characters he met along the way.

This is a tale for those who dare to live their dream!

Read an Excerpt

Just one final note about my senior hockey career. I’ve never been a big believer in statistics. I like the quote from Bobby Bragan, who was a baseball player in the early 20th century. I’m paraphrasing but I believe he said, “The problem with statistics is, if you have one foot on fire and the other in a bucket of ice, according to the statisticians, you should be perfectly comfortable”. In the 4 seasons that I played for the Rebels, I won the Best Goalie trophy every year. 11 other goalies came and went during that time, some specifically to take my spot. I also won the league trophy for Best Goals Against Average every year. In 35 years of playing competitive hockey, I won a lot of trophies. The danger of winning that many is that you can start to think that you’re better than you are, (I call it “The Red Light Lonnie Syndrome”). I only kept one trophy from all those years and my wife is under strict instructions to show it to me if my head starts to get too big. I assumed that when the league bought the trophy that year, they sent it out to be engraved in a shop that didn’t employ sports fans. When I won the Best Goals Against award and it was presented to me, I read the inscription and it read:

“Best Average Goalie” “Jerry Hack”

How apt is that?

About the Author:

I was born and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia. My sisters and I were raised by hard-working blue collar parents. We were and are a tight knit family. I grew up loving sports but hockey most of all. In fact, it was my passion. I read about it, watched it and played it. I was an average student and a good athlete. I could play most sports without looking out of place. But I was born to be a goalie. I graduated from high school in 1979 and a year later began my journey playing ice hockey. 40 years later, I am happily married with a 12 year old daughter and loving life more than ever.

Website: http://jerryhack.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Memoir-of-a-Hockey-Nobody-108751680786091

BUY LINKS

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Hockey-Nobody-couldnt-proved-ebook/dp/B086BM79H2/
Indigo/Chapters: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/memoir-of-a-hockey-nobody/9780228828037-item.html
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/memoir-of-a-hockey-nobody-jerry-hack/1136740350

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