January 18, 2008

Tributes mark Willie O'Ree's NHL debut : "You know, it was great to break the colour barrier. It's something I'll always be very proud of," O'Ree said. "But the work I've done over the last 10 years, working with boys and girls and introducing them to game, talking in schools, that has been the real reward."

read story | posted by tommytrump to Culture at 9:22 PM CDT (4 comments total)

This is a story that has flown a little under the radar this week, and very regrettably so.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 2:42 PM CDT on January 19

The NHL still has the stigma of being a lilly-white league, and non-fans of the sport are still shocked when they see black players on the ice. (I think the NHL could have publicized its first black scoring champion in Jarome Iginla a few years back without pandering.) While the NHL still isn't as integrated as most other professional sports, the frequency of minority (read: black, native american, hispanic) players is increasing. The league will never become MLB, with it's large hispanic community, or the NBA, with a high percentage of black players, but true fans nowadays are less than surprised when a minority player hits the ice. Mr. O'Ree played a large part in this acceptance and his accomplishment is worthy of acknowledgement. Also, wasn't he partially blind in one eye? Brave guy.

posted by tahoemoj at 3:11 PM CDT on January 19

I caught part of the ceremony on TV during the intermission of this afternoon's game. O'Ree gave a very nice speech, and there was quite a crowd on hand from Fredericton, NB, his home town. NHL.com has a story about it on their site. I'm old enough to remember when he first broke in to the league, and I can't believe it was 50 years ago.

posted by Howard_T at 3:18 PM CDT on January 19

Follow-up: Keith Knight's comic points to a book called Black Ice: The Lost History Of The Colored Hockey League Of The Maritimes, 1895-1925, which itself was discussed on SpoFi a while back.

posted by chicobangs at 2:20 PM CDT on January 20

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