In Ontario, one of the most famous portraits of Queen Elizabeth II stands on the ice at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, a 90-minute drive northeast of Toronto. From his perch on the ledge, he has been a constant presence for the local junior hockey team, as well as an occasional participant in training.
Zac Bierk was a goaltender with the Petes, and in those quiet moments of the Ontario Hockey League season, he saw players first measuring the artwork, then scoring. Their goal was not just to make contact, but to make one of the seven white teeth visible on the canvas skip the puck.
“That’s not folklore: I’ve witnessed it,” Bierke said. “I don’t think it was seen as an act of disrespect, but you get a bunch of 16- to 20-year-olds getting bored at the end of a practice, it was a pretty fun game.”
The Queen has been part of the games played by Canadians for generations, perhaps not always in a literal way. He played in his first NHL game in 1951, two years before he was crowned. He held parties for the athletes at the Commonwealth Games. He attended more than one CFL game and made four trips to watch thoroughbreds race in the Queen’s Plate.
He spent 10 days in Canada during the 1976 Montreal Olympics, where he watched his daughter, Princess Anne, compete in the equestrian events. His image appeared in theaters across the country, from the first home of the Winnipeg Jets—his portrait reportedly measured five by seven feet—to Peterborough.
Bierke had a special connection with this last portrait: David was painted by his late father.
“I saw the perfect tooth shot more than once,” Zac Bierk said with a smile. “Whatever varnish or lacquer he put on it, I don’t recall any permanent record marks there.”
A young Queen Elizabeth II looks over the Peterborough Memorial Center Arena in Peterborough, Ontario. Portraiture of the Canadian monarch has a long tradition in Canada in halls, schools & other public buildings. 🏒 #cdnpoli #cdncrown #cdnhist #onpoli pic.twitter.com/ALVxXDhDwt
— Canadian Crown 🇨🇦 (@Canadian_Crown) April 4, 2022
The Queen was still a princess when she saw her first professional hockey game, on October 13, 1951, when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Black Hawks staged a 15-minute exhibition. He was at Maple Leaf Gardens, arriving a few minutes late due to his busy Royal schedule.
A month later he saw his first NHL game, at the Montreal Forum, and the Canadiens and Rangers players were warned against any “crassness”. After a late-game scrimmage, Canadiens manager Dick Irvin said, “Maybe they’d like to see a little pepper.”
The Queen did not attend another NHL game for 51 years.
It returned in 2002, in a ceremonial match between the Canucks and Sharks in Vancouver. Cassie Campbell-Pascall was invited to take to the ice with the Queen, after a criminal background check and briefing on etiquette, such as when to shake the Monarch’s hand (only if she arrives first) and when to give a hug (don’t even think about it).
“On the ice, they told him to put the puck in the blue spot at center ice, and he hit it,” Campbell-Pascall said. “We are all outside, and I think we have realized the magnitude of this moment. It was a big moment. There was a thunderous applause, and it was really surreal.’
Campbell-Pascall recently won gold as captain of Canada’s ice hockey team at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and she said of the Queen touching her medal: “I’ll be honest with you, she had a look on her face like, ‘Wow, woman. does one play hockey?’”.
Campbell-Pascall has a framed photo of the puck drop hanging in his office. The captains of the two teams — Markus Naslund (Canucks) and Mike Ricci (Sharks) — and the “kings” of Brantford, Ontario (Wayne Gretzky, who was also there for the puck drop), but no. the queen
“It’s one of the nicest things I have because it’s a nice moment,” he said. “I know Wayne very well, and … you can sense the moment with him as well.”
Canadian pentathlete Diane Jones-Konihowski shared a number of moments with the Queen, including the Royal Garden parties held before the Commonwealth Games. When the Games arrived in Edmonton in 1978 there was no such celebration, but there was brief concern about the wardrobe.
Jones-Konihowski was one of Canada’s most celebrated athletes of the decade, and was chosen to present the Queen’s baton at the Opening Ceremony. The protocol called for an appeal to the Monarch.
“And here I am in short shorts,” Jones-Konihowski said with a laugh. “A bit awkward, isn’t it? But I did it.”
He won gold in the pentathlon. The Queen presented her medal.
“I think he was really a sports fan, and a sports fan,” said Jones-Konihowski, who is a member of the Order of Canada. “You can find all these different sporting events that he was at. And he loved Canada.”
With his death, sports organizations are considering how to manage his legacy.
Discussions will soon take place at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, the most famous horse race on the Canadian calendar. Jim Lawson, the organization’s chief executive, said CBC talks would begin this month to rebrand the Queen’s Plate as the king’s plate.
A few cars away, flags would be flying at half-mast at the Peterborough Memorial Centre, where the future of the Queen’s famous portrait was also uncertain. In an email to The Athletic, Jeremy Giles, the facilities manager, said they would “take time to consider how the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II should be looked after”.
Alex Bierk suggested that his father’s work could remain on the field.
“They retire their jerseys there, where the players don’t play anymore,” he said. “The council has photos of all the past mayors.”
After living with leukemia, David Bierk died in 2002 at the age of 58. He had eight children, several of whom became artists. Sebastian Bierk was the lead singer of the rock band Skid Row. Heather Bierk became a model and actress. Alex Bierk is an artist entering the race for a seat at Peterborough City Hall this fall.
“I don’t think I ever heard of my dad doing (paintings) from him,” Alex said. “It was just part of the Memorial Center where I think I heard someone at a Petes game.”
“There were so many expressions of surprise that I could tell Dad had painted that,” said his brother, Zac.
Zac Bierk, 45, is now the goaltending coach with the Ottawa Senators. Bier doesn’t consider himself a great artist—”I think my five-year-old draws better than me”—but his father taught him to be appreciative. He can still see some of his father’s work on the road, whenever he stops in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto or at a former teammate’s house.
Sean Burke shared the net with Bierk for two seasons with the Phoenix Coyotes. After hearing about his teammate’s father, Burke announced that he had bought two of his paintings.
Zac Bier spent a lot of time with his father’s portrait of the Queen. The portrait—which may convey the artist’s counterculture message—faces the home team’s net in the first and third periods, which means it has a clear view of the goalie.
“For me, it’s forever,” Zac Bierk said. “There were some long nights in Peterborough where I was happy to see that smiling face my dad made. Sometimes it made me feel better.’
(Photo: Kim Stallknecht/AFP via Getty Images)
