Who was the First Black Hockey Player in the NHL?
While Jackie Robinson gets most of the media’s attention for breaking the color barrier in baseball, it seems that athletes who broke the barrier in other sports are virtually unknown. That’s not a knock on Robinson who was obviously a great man of high character, but athletes in other sports who faced similar challenges in their own sports deserve recognition as well. The sport of hockey has never been known as the most diverse sport in the world in terms of skin color (although it does feature players from many different countries, almost all of them are white), but the NHL’s color barrier was actually broken much longer ago than most people know. It was in 1958 that Willie O’Ree suited up for the NHL’s Boston Bruins. His first game was on January 18th of that year against the Montreal Canadiens and it would be one of only two he played the entire season. O’Ree was an injury replacement, however, so no one really expected him to stick around all that long in the first place. But just
The sport of hockey has never been known as the most diverse sport in the world in terms of skin color (although it does feature players from many different countries, almost all of them are white), but the NHL’s color barrier was actually broken much longer ago than most people know. It was in 1958 that Willie O’Ree suited up for the NHL’s Boston Bruins. His first game was on January 18th of that year against the Montreal Canadiens and it would be one of only two he played the entire season. O’Ree was an injury replacement, however, so no one really expected him to stick around all that long in the first place. But just making it to the NHL was a big enough accomplishment for O’Ree. Not only did he have to deal with the stereotype that black players weren’t good enough to play in a predominantly white sport, he also was almost entirely blind in his right eye after being hit in the face with a streaking puck. He also dealt with verbal abuse for much of his career in the NHL, especially
