At 80, Jack Hubert still ‘smart with the puck’
47 years in the league haven’t dulled his fun
His hockey career has spanned six decades and so, too, has some of the equipment Jack Hubert still wears for his weekly old-timers game.
At age 80, this 47-year veteran of Beaconsfield Oldtimers can’t bear to give up the game or the shoulder pads that are hanging on by a thread or two.
So what keeps Hubert, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Tuesday, still skating with guys half his age?
“I look around at some of the guys who are still playing and I say, ‘Well, can I keep up with some of them? And I say to myself, ‘You still enjoy it, so do it.’
“But there are a lot of guys who are faster, no question about that. I just do what I can out there and the guys still accept me.”
Hubert said he enjoys the camaraderie of Beaconsfield Oldtimers, celebrating its 50th anniversary.
“We have four teams in the league and we all play the same night. So there’s always somebody you’re talking to. It’s like my wife Barbara says, ‘No matter what time you play, you never get home till the late game is over.’ ”
“I don’t know why that is,” he added with a chuckle. “It’s not like I’m drinking a lot of beer.”
Hubert said old-timers is like a social club.
“Over the years, you meet so many people from so many walks of life. I worked for Canadian Technical Tape, which is Tuck Tape. I worked for them for 43 years. I retired 15 years ago when I was 65.”
Hubert, a Point St-Charles native who lives in Pincourt, has contemplated hockey retirement but this newly minted octogenarian still keeps coming back for more.
“Sometimes going to play the 11 o’clock late game is tough. But you know, once you get there, you don’t even think about the hour.
“I’m very lucky. I’m on no medication whatsoever. I still like to have a couple of beers and meet with the boys. But I know one day it’s going to come to an end, no question.
“I’ll know when to pack it in. There are so many new guys who are so much faster and younger. I don’t know, I don’t really know. I’m just lucky I’ve never been seriously hurt.
“In my younger days, I could score goals. I was in the Top 10. Not any more. Those days are gone.
“All my equipment is starting to fall apart,” said Hubert, who wears a hearing aid. “My pads are held together with duct tape. Do I buy a new pair or do I just hang in there and play it out?”
“I see these guys buying $800 skates and $300 sticks and I say to them, ‘Well, you don’t play any better?’ What the heck?”
Hubert is an inspiration to his fellow old-timers.
“Since I came into the league 12 years ago, I don’t think he’s slowed down that much,” said Spiro Krallis of the White team.
“He’s a great example. No medication, no cholesterol, no nothing. He just skates.
“And if you give him room, he’ll make that perfect pass to someone. He’s smart with the puck.
“Jack is quite a character in the room,” added teammate David Pelletier. “He likes to joke around and never misses a game.”
“The new guys are always amazed when they learn his age. He was playing old-timers before they were born.”