By TOM GODFREY
It was more than 60-years ago that Willie O’Ree valiantly stepped on the ice and stick-handled his way into becoming the first Black player to ever play for the iconic National Hockey League.
O’Ree, now 82, is still very active and serves as a NHL diversity ambassador. He was honoured by the Boston Bruins on January 17 to mark the 60th anniversary of when he took to the ice for the team to become the league’s first Black player.
His first game with Boston resulted in a 3-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens. He recalled that he didn’t know the significance of the game until reading a newspaper the next day that said he had broken the NHL’s colour barrier.
“It was a nice feeling,” O’Ree told The Canadian Press recently in an interview from his home in California. “I just happened to be playing and just happened to be Black.”
He only played one more game with the Bruins that season. He returned to the team for the 1960-61 season, playing a total of 45 games in the NHL, scoring a respectable four goals and 10 assists.
O’Ree for the last 20 years has been going to schools and other venues to speak to young people as part of a Hockey is for Everyone initiative.
Today, members of the Black community and some top Black NHL players, have written letters and are lobbying for O’Ree to be the first Black to be inducted into the legendary Hockey Hall of Fame, in Toronto.
The athlete touched Boston residents so much in his brief stint there that they also named a street hockey rink after him.
Brenda Samson, a friend of O’Ree in his hometown of Fredericton, said the anniversary sparked an effort to have the former player inducted into the Hall of Fame as a builder.
“I think the idea originated with all the celebrations taking place in Boston,” she said.
Organizers have received many letters of support for O’Ree’s nomination; including one from Karl Subban, whose famous sons P.K. play for the Nashville Predators, Malcolm with the Las Vegas Golden Knights and Jordan for the American Hockey League.
Subban said O’Ree broke the colour barrier for the Bruins in 1958, the same year that he was born.
“He is a pioneer and a trailblazer,” he wrote. “Willie achieved in the face of adversity. He changed the game and he changed society and he changed minds.”
Subban noted that O’Ree made it possible for his sons to play professional hockey.
“He changed hockey which is now for everyone,” he wrote. “Hockey needed him and so does the Hockey Hall of Fame. The time is right!”
Mike Eagles, director of athletics at St.Thomas University in Frederiction and a player in the NHL for 16 seasons, also threw in his support for O’Ree.
“Willie loved hockey so much that it helped him deal with and overcome all the challenges and racism he faced during his life and hockey career,” Eagles wrote.
The nomination bid has received letters from politicians and even children who received advice from O’Ree.
The youngster left Fredericton in 1954 at the age of 17 to play junior hockey with the Quebec Frontenacs. The next year he moved to Kitchener. It was during that second year in junior that he had an unfortunate accident.
“There was a slapshot, and I’m on the ice in front of the net. A ricochet came up and the puck struck me in the eye. I lost 97 per cent vision in my right eye. I was out of action for about six weeks,” he later recalled.
Through his career and the diversity that he faced, O’Ree never told others that he was blind in one eye, which meant he would not be allowed to play in the NHL.
Following his stint within the Bruins, he played in other leagues for teams in Ottawa, Los Angeles and San Diego.
The submission for O’Ree’s nomination into the Hall of Fame will be sent to a selection committee this month. A decision will be made by June if O’Ree will take his place in hockey’s top shrine.
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