Bill Wensink

William ‘Bill’ Wensink was in his days one of the most toughest and roughest players ever to wear a Bill Wensink (right) together with Leo KoopmansNijmegen-jersey. He came to Nijmegen from the North Lyort Rangers (Major A) in 1979 after also playing for the Kingston Canadians (OHA). When Andjelic saw Wensink play in the play-offs for his Canadian youth team he asked Wensink to come to Netherlands to play for Nijmegen.

In his first ever year at Nijmegen he scored 20 goals and 21 assists in 37 games. But he became well known in his first year for the 207 minutes in penalties he picked up. Later in his career Wensink shifted to defence. Wensink played 289 matches for Nijmegen during his 7-year stay at the club. He managed to pick up 396 points during this period and collected and astonishing 840 minutes in penalties. Not only was this Canadian-born player valued by his club but also by the Dutch National team.

He played 106 times for Holland and scored 19 goals and 48 assists. Not did he only score points but he also notched a dazzling 196 penalty minutes when playing for the Dutch National side. Bill Wensink left for Geleen in 1985 and came back to Nijmege in 1987. After his Nijmegen period he went on to play for Rotterdam later in his career. In his days at Nijmegen Bill Wensink brought his cousin John Wensink also to the club. John was a respected enforcer in the NHL. According to Wensink the best player he played with was Paul Coffey (during his period with the North York Rangers junior team) and the best Dutch players being Ben Tijnagel, Tony Collard and Henri Stoer.