HOCKEY’S HISTORIC HIGHLITES
By Glen R. Goodhand
BREAKING THE COLOUR BARRIER IN HOCKEY
The NHL showed a real touch of class during the recent All Star break, in celebrating Willie O’Ree’s 50th anniversary of breaking of the colour barrier in hockey! It was especially significant in that the festivities were held in Atlanta, which was for so many years a stronghold of segregation.
O’Ree himself experienced that first hand, in fact, in the South in 1956. He was an extremely talented baseball infielder, and was invited to the Milwaukee Brave’s training camp in that city, that spring. On one occasion he casually entered a drugstore for soft drink following Sunday church services. Two white men confronted he and his pals, abusing them with a liberal use of the word “nigger”, and forcing them out. When the club told him he would need minor league seasoning, he decided to return home to Fredericton and concentrate on hockey.
Willie was feted with a special luncheon, attended by several dignities, including a former mayor of Atlanta. Lisa Borders, Atlanta City Council President, presented him with a proclamation, “in honour of a living legend”! Among the 300 in attendance, who twice gave the trailblazer a standing ovation, were former shinny greats, Bobby Hull, Johnny Bower, and Ted Lindsay. Martin Luther King III was also present. O’Ree was featured in several newspaper articles, significant blogs on the Internet, and even on video clips on the league’s official website!
In conjunction with the NHL’s tribute were special recognition made by his hometown in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and a “night” sponsored by the Boston Bruins, the team for which he played in establishing the milestone. His sweater, which he wore while skating for the Beantowners, along with a special painting of himself, was hung in the TD Banknorth Garden for the occasion.
The 5’ 10”, 175-pound forward became the first black to skate in the NHL on January 18, 1958. “The greatest moment of my life”, he said in an interview that night. The Bruins were short on left-wingers because of injuries, and Willie was making a great showing with the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior League. He was summoned to join Boston at the Montreal Forum, where he would be placed on a line with Don McKenny and Jerry Toppazini. It was scary enough to step into an NHL contest, but to be pitted against the Montreal Canadiens, who were the class of the league at the time, was enough to make any rookie’s mouth go dry. While he failed to register any points, his team was victorious that night, 3-0. He remained with the B’s for the return match of the home-on-home series the next night, before being returned to the Aces.
He recalls that not much was made of his becoming the “Jackie Robinson of Hockey” with his big league debut. Racism was of little significance in La Belle Province at the time, scarcely causing a stir in the press. As well, the Bruin players made no big deal of it, treating him like any other novice—helping him with his game, and teasing him in a good-humoured way. The Boston fans gave him a rousing welcome, failing to make an issue of his colour.
But it was a different story when he became a more permanent fixture on the team during his second stint over the 1960-61 campaign. In places like New York, Detroit, and Chicago, racial taunts were commonplace—both from the bleachers and opposition players. It wasn’t the first time he had been taunted because of his race. But, for one who grew up in an atmosphere where, “the fact that I was black never came up”, it was no picnic to face full-scale prejudice. He admitted that by the time he had played pro hockey for a while, he had heard the “N” word so often, it sounded like “they were paying me a compliment!” He would hear slurs like: “Why don’t you go back to the South”, or, “Why aren’t you picking cotton?” In one arena they actually threw balls of cotton, and a black cat, on the playing surface, in showing their disrespect.
Early in his second tour of the Big Time, Eric Nesterenko of the Blackhawks butt-ended him in the mouth, then stood over him and verbally abused, while Willie picked up his two front teeth from the ice. Normally a peace-loving type, he went after his assailant with his stick. When a brawl ensued, the partisan crowd nearly rioted. O’Ree had to be escorted by Police to the dressing room for his own protection. In Detroit he accompanied the team into a restaurant—but was refused service. The rest of the Bruins simply got up and left the establishment in protest.
However, there were positive experiences amidst the biased treatment he faced. On January 1, 1961, he became the first black skater to score in the world’s premier league.
Interestingly enough, it was against the Habs, the first sextet against which he had played in the NHL. He skated around blueliner Tom Johnson, and slipped the disc past goalie Charlie Hodge. He participated in 43 contests that campaign, bringing his total stats to 4 goals, 10 assists, and 15 penalty minutes. That time in the sin bin came as a result of his occasional retaliation for being crosschecked, slashed, speared, or butt-ended—never in reaction to racial slurs. “Those”, he says, “I let go in one ear and out the other!”
He finished the ’60-’61 schedule in the Eastern Pro League with Hull/Ottawa. He then spent thirteen seasons in the Western (Pro) Hockey League, mainly with the Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls.
Now 72, O’Ree is the Director of Youth Development, part of the NHL’s Diversity Task Force. This programme is designed to assist kids of minorities to get a taste of hockey, and to develop the talents they have. At the aforementioned All Star banquet, league president Gary Bettman acknowledged the fact that he has helped over 40,000 kids, many who cannot afford the luxury of ice time fees and equipment cost, to get into the game.
While players of Afro-American/Canadian players are gaining increased opportunity to play the game, O’Ree points out that only 12 (13 with Robbie Earl’s promotion to the Leafs) current competitors, or 96%, in the NHL are black. Including O’Ree, only 52 have made it to that level of the game.
However, Willie did open the door for Negroes (as they used to be called) to reach the Big Time. Having said that, it was not until 1974 that the next black followed his lead. Mike Marson was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 1974. He did well in his rookie campaign, scoring 16 goals. But as one journalist wrote, “He was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He was thrust into the heart of racial unrest in D.C., and made matters worse with his non-conforming attitude, sporting a big afro hairdo and Fu-Manchu mustache, at a time when such styles were viewed as a sign of anti-establishmentism. He made matters worse by dating and marrying a white woman, when inter-racial marriage was a still very much a no-no! Afro-Canadian, Bill Riley, his Cap’s teammate, opined that his lone-wolf relationship toward other members of the team, and his embracing in Martin Luther King’s philosophies didn’t help. This only increased the racial slurs and death threats. Some of the latter came by phone—others were paste-ups, with slurs like: “You’re skating on thin ice, black boy!”, or, “This nigger is going to die if he thinks he belongs in a white man’s game!” After parts of five more seasons of being farmed out and recalled again and again, he quit hockey and returned home.
Undoubtedly the most successful skater, up until the arrival of present superstar Jerome Igilna, was Tony McKegney. He donned the mantle of minority in stride very quickly, making such an impression on the hockey world as a Buffalo Sabre, that many forgot Willie O’Ree’s right of passage, transferring the title of “Hockey’s Jackie Robinson” to the Montreal native. By the time he had completed thirteen seasons in the NHL, with seven different teams, he had lasted 912 regular-season games, and potted 320 goals.
His counterpart, goalie Grant Fuhr, took advantage of the waning racial prejudice evident by 1981, to rise to the top of his class in the netminding fraternity. As cool as a cucumber, he took a casual approach to life, and a devil-may-care attitude toward other people’s opinions. He was voted to All Star Teams twice, won the Vezina Trophy as the loop’s top backstop in 1988, and shared the Jennings award with Dominik Hasek in 1994.
Willie O’Ree was the first black to play in the NHL. But he was not the first to play professional hockey. Herb Carnegie came very close. He, his brother Ossie, and Manny MacIntrye formed an all-black line commencing in 1944-45 in the Quebec Provincial Hockey League, continuing through 1952-53 as members of the of his Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior League. Actually they were paid for their services, although the leagues were tagged as “amateur”. Their income came from the companies which sponsored the respective teams for which they played—first with the Rands in the QPHL, then with the Aces. The Anglo-Canadian Pulp and Paper Co. backed that team, and A-C-E came from “Anglo-Canadian Employees—because, in fact, they were employees . It is reported that Carnegie was pulling in $5,100.00 during the final campaign.
He was the pick of the trio, “an exquisite stickhandler”, and was called “Swivel Hips” because of his elusive moves around opposition players. He had a unique skating style, wherein he would sort of tip toe into the corner after the puck, slam on the brakes, and inevitably back peddle out, dragging the disc with him.
In the fall of 1948 he was invited to the New York Ranger’s training camp. Frank Boucher complimented him on his skills, but informed him he needed seasoning in the minors. With his secure job with the paper company with its stipend, which was more than the pros offered, he went back to Quebec. Conn Smythe, owner of the Leafs also saw his potential. He is purported to have said: “I would gave anyone $10,000. who could turn Herb Carnegie white!” Referee Red Story affirmed the between-the-lines implication: “The reason why Carnegie is not in the NHL is simple! He is black!”
Perhaps it is a moot point, in light of the money he was making—but the Quebec league did not turn fully and openly professional until 1953-54. So, technically, we are right in declaring that a little-know native of Stratford, Ontario, was the first professional “coloured” skater in shinny history. Charlie Lightfoot was a whiz kid in his native town, leading his Junior level squad to the All Ontario championship team in 1900. In fact he scored the winning tally in that series. Four years later he was the kingpin on the Intermediate level septet, when they claimed top honours in the Ontario Hockey Association. The local press praised him with: “To his splendid work Stratford must attribute their victory….he is lightning fast, and the “Guelphs” looked like they were selling platters!”
He made his pay-for-play debut with Portage La Prairie of the Manitoba Pro League in 1907. After three years at the Lakehead, playing semi-pro, he joined the Trenton/Belleville contingent of the Eastern Professional Hockey League. The following campaign he skated with the Halifax Socials of the Maritime Pro circuit. He then retired to his hometown, where he became a welder with the CNR.
Because of strict rules in the NHL concerning racist remarks, Afro-American/Canadian pucksters find life much easier than for Mr. O’Ree, and those who followed in his skate marks. To borrow a phrase: they have “come a long way, baby”. But none of that progress would have been possible without Willie—willing to take his lumps, physically and verbally, in his trailblazing role! Whatever tributes have come his way in recent weeks, he richly deserves.
