Delayed diversity in the NHL

The New England Patriots’ Super Bowl victory provides an indication of the value of racial diversity. Without consideration of race, the team management selects players on the basis of talent and availability. Then, through practice and team discipline, the players become a united gridiron force on game day. Other professional sports teams — football, basketball and baseball — have a similar approach, but black players have not been prominent in hockey.

Some might think that is because hockey is a Canadian game that is alien to most blacks, but that is not the case. Blacks in Canada have always played hockey and they actually formed the Colored League there 22 years before the launch of the National Hockey League and 25 years before the Negro Baseball Leagues in the United States. Therefore it cannot be said that blacks in Canada had little interest in organized hockey.

Nonetheless, it was not until January 1958 that Willie O’Ree became the first black player in the NHL. He played right wing for the Boston Bruins. This breakthrough did not occur until 11 years after Jackie Robinson was signed to play baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

After O’Ree, it is believed that only seven black players were signed in the next 24 years when in 1982 Val James became the first African American to play in the NHL. O’Ree was a Canadian. James, who now lives in Niagara Falls, Ontario, was born and raised in Long Island, N.Y. He has recently published a book entitled “Black Ice: The Val James Story,” in which he tells about racial hostility from the fans.

There are presently about 30 black hockey players in the 30-team NHL, mostly Canadians. The Colored Hockey League in Canada disbanded in about 1925. “Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925” by George and Darril Fosty, published in 2004, provides the most thorough account of that history. One wonders what professional hockey would be like if there were more than an average of one black player on each NHL team.