January 18, 1958: Willie O'Ree makes his NHL debut, wearing Number 22 for the Boston Bruins, against the Montreal Canadiens, at the Montreal Forum. Despite the Habs being at almost the exact midpoint of their 5 straight Stanley Cups, the Bruins won the game, 3-0. O'Ree neither scored nor assisted, but simply by taking the ice, he changed hockey history.
Willie Eldon O'Ree (not "William") was born on October 15, 1935 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It was hard to break into an NHL team in the era of the "Original Six," when just 6 teams meant that there were only 120 spots open at the big-league level. It was harder still for O'Ree, because he was nearly blind in one eye. And on top of that, he faced discrimination because he was the 1st black player in the NHL.
At the time, the NHL was dominated by Canadians, and most black Canadians at the time were descended from runaway slaves, many of them marrying "First Nations" citizens -- what Canada calls American Indians.
He played 44 games for the Boston Bruins between 1958 and 1961, but was still playing at the hockey equivalent of Triple-A ball until he was 43, winning 2 scoring titles in the Western Hockey League.
A few players of Native American ancestry had played before him, and Larry Kwong, a Chinese-Canadian from British Columbia, played 1 NHL game, for the New York Rangers, on March 13, 1948. Like O'Ree, his debut was against the Canadiens at the Forum. The Canadiens won, 3-2. Kwong was on the ice for just 1 minute, and never returned. He later coached in both North America and Europe, and lived until 2018.
"Racist remarks were much worse in the U.S. cities than in Toronto and Montreal," O'Ree said. "Fans would yell, 'Go back to the South,' and, 'How come you're not picking cotton?' Things like that. It didn't bother me. I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine."
In his 45 games, he scored 4 goals and had 10 assists. He also had 26 penalty minutes: "Race never started a fight. I never fought because I had to. I fought because I wanted to." Sounds like a Boston Bruin to me!
After he last played for the Bruins in 1961, not until the expansion season of 1974-75 would there be another black player in the NHL, Mike Marson of the hopeless 1st-year Washington Capitals. After these African-Canadians, the first African-American to play in the NHL was Val James, a left wing from Ocala, Florida, who played 7 games for the Buffalo Sabres in 1982 and 4 more for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988, but spent most of his career in the minors.
O'Ree would go on to play in the Western Hockey League, for the Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls, scoring 328 goals in that league. He first played professionally for the Fredericton Junior Capitals of the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League in 1951, at age 15; and last for the San Diego Hawks of the Pacific Hockey League in 1979, at age 43.
I have no doubt that playing in the 6-team, 120-player era held him back, although he was only on the verge of his 32nd birthday at the time of the NHL's 1967 expansion, and the World Hockey Association had no qualms about taking "old men" when they started in 1972, as he was turning 37. He should have played in either of the big leagues again.
His Number 24 was retired by the Gulls (now defunct, but the banner still hangs at the San Diego Sports Arena), and he has been elected to the San Diego Hall of Champions, the city's equivalent of a municipal sports hall of fame. His hometown of Fredericton named its new arena Willie O'Ree Place, and his country has named him an Officer of the Order of Canada for his youth hockey work. His home Province has awarded him the Order of New Brunswick. The NHL gave him the 2000 Lester Patrick Award, for service to hockey in the U.S.
Today, April 18, 2022, 64 years after his debut, the Bruins will retire his uniform Number 22. (The ceremony was supposed to be last year, but was postponed due to COVID restrictions.) O'Ree is alive and well at age 86.
"Racist remarks were much worse in the U.S. cities than in Toronto and Montreal," O'Ree said. "Fans would yell, 'Go back to the South,' and, 'How come you're not picking cotton?' Things like that. It didn't bother me. I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine."
In his 45 games, he scored 4 goals and had 10 assists. He also had 26 penalty minutes: "Race never started a fight. I never fought because I had to. I fought because I wanted to." Sounds like a Boston Bruin to me!
After he last played for the Bruins in 1961, not until the expansion season of 1974-75 would there be another black player in the NHL, Mike Marson of the hopeless 1st-year Washington Capitals. After these African-Canadians, the first African-American to play in the NHL was Val James, a left wing from Ocala, Florida, who played 7 games for the Buffalo Sabres in 1982 and 4 more for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988, but spent most of his career in the minors.
O'Ree would go on to play in the Western Hockey League, for the Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls, scoring 328 goals in that league. He first played professionally for the Fredericton Junior Capitals of the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League in 1951, at age 15; and last for the San Diego Hawks of the Pacific Hockey League in 1979, at age 43.
I have no doubt that playing in the 6-team, 120-player era held him back, although he was only on the verge of his 32nd birthday at the time of the NHL's 1967 expansion, and the World Hockey Association had no qualms about taking "old men" when they started in 1972, as he was turning 37. He should have played in either of the big leagues again.
His Number 24 was retired by the Gulls (now defunct, but the banner still hangs at the San Diego Sports Arena), and he has been elected to the San Diego Hall of Champions, the city's equivalent of a municipal sports hall of fame. His hometown of Fredericton named its new arena Willie O'Ree Place, and his country has named him an Officer of the Order of Canada for his youth hockey work. His home Province has awarded him the Order of New Brunswick. The NHL gave him the 2000 Lester Patrick Award, for service to hockey in the U.S.
Today, April 18, 2022, 64 years after his debut, the Bruins will retire his uniform Number 22. (The ceremony was supposed to be last year, but was postponed due to COVID restrictions.) O'Ree is alive and well at age 86.
"I never get tired," O'Ree has said. "It's the thing that I experienced. When I broke the color barrier in 1958, it seemed to stick with me. The media called me the Jackie Robinson of hockey, and I'm very happy to be in the same category of Mr. Robinson. I met Mr. Robinson on two occasions. I met him in 1949 in Brooklyn, and I met him again in 1962, when he was the keynote speaker at a luncheon in Los Angeles. He made a big impact with me. I'm just happy when they say there's Willie O'Ree, he's the Jackie Robinson of hockey."
*
January 18, 1958 was a Saturday. Also in the NHL that day, the New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-2 at the Chicago Stadium; and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
There were 3 games played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Syracuse Nationals, 123-120 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Boston Celtics, 116-104 at the Philadelphia Civic Center.
* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-103 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.
Also, Arsenal lost to Leicester City, 2-1 at Filbert Street in Leicester.