There have been many well-known trailblazers in professional sports. Names such as Jackie Robinson (baseball), Yao Ming (basketball), Babe Didrikson Zaharias (golf), and Arthur Ashe (tennis) immediately come to mind. Yet, for every trailblazer we rightfully acknowledge, there are some we overlook.
Take Willie O’Ree, who has been deservingly dubbed the “Jackie Robinson of ice hockey.” Now 84, this native of New Brunswick, Canada, broke the National Hockey League’s color barrier on Jan. 18, 1958, when he laced up his skates for the Boston Bruins in a game against the Montreal Canadiens.
The subject of the acclaimed documentary Willie, which premiered on ESPN2 in February, O’Ree was a hockey prodigy who would go on to play 45 games in the NHL. He has served as the NHL’s diversity ambassador since 1998 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018. Most important, he paved the way for other black hockey players, including Grant Fuhr, Jarome Iginla, Tony McKegney, and P.K. Subban, to follow in his skates.
There’s no question O’Ree is an inspirational figure. But the story of a black player breaking hockey’s color barrier should contain some additional chapters.
Several quirks of fate could have led to a different player filling O’Ree’s historic role. Fred “Bud” Kelly played in the Ontario Hockey League in the 1910s and was reportedly scouted (but never signed) by the NHL’s Toronto St. Patricks. There was also Herb Carnegie, who was given a tryout by the New York Rangers in 1948 and offered a minor league contract on three occasions.
But the biggest omission of all involves the hockey league that time forgot.
I’m referring to the Colored Hockey League, founded in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It’s the hockey equivalent to baseball’s Negro Leagues, although it preceded this groundbreaking institution by 25 years — and the NHL by 22 years.
The CHL was the brainchild of four men dedicated to religion, higher education, and black achievement: pastor James Borden (Dartmouth Church), James A.R. Kinney (Cornwallis Street Church layman, first black graduate of Maritime Business College), James Robinson Johnston (Dartmouth University’s first black law school graduate), and Henry Sylvester Williams (Dalhousie University law student, founder of the first Pan-African Conference). Inspired by the writings of Booker T. Washington, they believed in racial equality through racial separation. The only rulebook they followed was the Bible.
The all-black league was primarily composed of players from families of freed slaves who had emigrated to Canada’s Maritime Provinces — including O’Ree’s home province, New Brunswick.
Hockey historian George Fosty, who authored Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League with his brother, Darril, provided an interesting snapshot of the league’s early days. “They just looked out onto the ponds and saw all these black kids playing hockey and they said, ‘well, let’s create church leagues,’” he told the Ottawa Citizen in a 2007 interview. “This is how it started, as a friendly (game) between churches and a way to bring younger people in. Also, you’ve got to remember, when the younger kids came to church, they were the ones who would take the wagons and bring in the older people.”
The CHL’s first team was the Dartmouth Jubilees. Other franchises popped up, including the Africville Sea-Sides, Charlottetown West End Rangers, Amherst Royals, and Truro Victorias. One of the most successful teams was the Halifax Eurekas, which won five straight league titles (1896-1900) and was featured on a stamp by Canada Post honoring the CHL during Black History Month.
Unfortunately, the league was disjointed from the get-go.
Many teams had lengthy periods of financial distress. Their equipment was less than stellar, and they used wooden pucks in games. No official game schedule was ever released; each match was arranged by either telegraph or local newspaper ads. The seasons were held between late January and early March, and they could only enter the local arenas once the all-white hockey leagues’ regular seasons had concluded. This meant the natural condition of the ice they played on was much poorer, even in the harshest of Canadian winters.
Nevertheless, the CHL had a memorable run.
Between 1900-1905, CHL teams reportedly had attendance numbers of between 1,200 to 1,500 spectators, which was higher than teams playing for the all-white Halifax City Hockey League. While professional hockey in Canada was segregated (even though the country wasn’t), CHL audiences contained a significant mix of black and white supporters. Some unique hockey innovations, including the butterfly stance for goalies and the slap shot (then called a “baseball shot”), may have started in this league, too.
It would have been interesting to see how the CHL champions matched up against the early Stanley Cup holders. Alas, when it came time to arrange a challenge series, which is how the Cup was defended until playoffs were instituted in 1915, only the all-white Maritime clubs were invited to compete.
The CHL closed in 1930 due to a lack of funding and a general drop in support for regional leagues as opposed to the NHL. A few teams continued to play in a nonleague capacity for several years, including the Truro Sheiks, Africville Brown Bombers, and Halifax Wizards. But by the time World War II began, traces of the all-black Maritime hockey teams were little more than a distant memory.
Fortunately, there’s been a new push to learn more about the Colored Hockey League and its important role in cultivating young black hockey players. The Hockey Hall of Fame should consider creating a small tribute to the trailblazers who played in this little-known league in the Canadian Maritimes. I strongly doubt that fellow trailblazer Willie O’Ree would object.
Michael Taube, a Troy Media syndicated columnist and political commentator, was a speechwriter for former Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper.
