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In 1968 the City Council in Nijmegen decided that Nijmegen should have an ice rink. This ice rink was built in the Bellefroid street in the city-area called 'Heyendaal'. The opening of the icerink was originally scheduled on January 4th 1969. The plan was to have a match between the Dutch national team and a a selection team of the Canadian Army, named 'The Rebels'. Unfortunately due to a fault in the pipe-system under the icefloor this game was cancelled. About a month later on February 10th 1969 a game was played between Dutch team Rotterdam and the 2nd team of Dusseldorf (Germany). This became the first game ever played in Nijmegen. It ended in a draw (6 - 6).

In December 1968 Icehockeyclub Nijmegen (NIJC) was founded by some hockey enthousiasts (Hans Janssen and Bas Nas) and they joined the Dutch Icehockey Federation that following year (March 1969). The first ever official game Nijmegen played was against the team HIJS-HOKY from The Hague on the 15th of march in 1969. In front of 300 spectators Nijmegen lost 2 - 8. In that first year Nijmegen played only a couple of exhibition games (a 4 - 2 win against Den Bosch and a draw against Geleen, 5 - 5).

In the 1969-1970 season Nijmegen entered the regular competition in the 3rd Division after having newly acquired Alex Andjelic from icehockey team Den Bosch as a playing coach. Alex Andjelic was a top player in Serbia with Partizan Belgrade and was member of the Yugoslav National team capping more than 40 international games. Andjelic continued to stay connected to Nijmegen up to 1985. In that 3rd division Nijmegen played both Dutch as Belgian teams.

In their first ever year in the 3rd Division the Nijmegen-team promoted to the 2nd Division while beating Belgian-team Brussels in the final Play-offs. Nijmegen conquered also the Fair Play Cup that year. The first ever official goal was made by former team captain Ben Smulders in a game against Geleen on the 8th of November after 8 minutes and 20 seconds. This goal was the first of many goals scored in the history of this club.

During these first years former Serbian International Alex Andjelic came to Nijmegen from Den Bosch as a player trainer. When he became the trainer of Nijmegen a famous quote of Andjelic always was: 'when I came here to Nijmegen there were two kinds of players: bad older players and bad younger players. I began by sending all the bad older players away and began working with the bad younger players.'

During these early years Nijmegen started working heavily on their youth program. Coach in the 1971-1972 season was Josef Kurek. Important for Nijmegen in that same period was that from 1972 onwards a Dutch insurance firm called "Nationale Nederlanden" started to act as the main sponsor for Nijmegen so that the youth program could be developed even further. Nationale Nederlanden would continue to be the main sponsor for the next seven years. Following years