This week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first black player in the NHL, Willie O’Ree, who was called up this month in 1958 by the Boston Bruins. O’Ree, who had lost the vision in his right eye in a junior league game long before his call up, kept that fact secret from the Bruins, because he wanted to play in the NHL so badly. There were only “The Original Six” teams back then…imagine how hard it was to make it when only the absolute best 120 players made it to the show.
A two sport star, O’Ree tried baseball first. Unfortunately, as he left his native Canada and landed in Southern Georgia to try out for the Milwaukee Braves organization, he encountered racism for the first time in his life, when he saw restrooms that had “whites only” and “blacks only” signs on them. He later came back to hockey. O’Ree’s NHL career consisted of only 45 games. He was fast and tough, but according to the USA Today story about him this week, the Bruins needed him to score. In that respect, he struggled, scoring only 4 goals. He was sent back down the next season, where he played 15 more years in the minors.
Sadly, much like Jackie Robinson before him, O’Ree has had to live with the death threats and racial taunts. But, here’s the important part and the point of this post: those death threats did NOT happen in 1958, or in his minor league hockey career.
Let me say that again: Those threats DID NOT happen 50 years ago. When did they happen? Here’s two paragraphs from the USA Today story this week:
 “The threats have come in the last several years, after the NHL hired him to work with the league’s diversity task force to help promote hockey to black youngsters or players of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
‘I still have the letters,” O’Ree says. “They said, ‘We know there are players of your kind in Canada, but you don’t need to bring them to the States.’ They said they knew what to do with my kind.’”
What to do with “his kind”? Nice. Amazing, isn’t it? Actually, it’s not. What it really is is sickening. And I’d be willing to bet anyone any amount of money that the letters have two things in common: 1) they come from the same part of the country he once played baseball is, and 2) it’s pretty obvious which way the letter writers lean when they vote. And for those who’ll pick out that single line and ignore the rest of this story, no, I don’t have proof of that, I said I was willing to bet anyone. And I bet I’d win.
4 responses so far ↓
1
Anon E. Mouse
// Jan 18, 2008 at 11:20 am
BJ – two parts to this posting of yours.
This is a very nice marking of the occasion of Willie O’Ree breaking the color barrier ion hockey. If memory serves me correctly, it wasn’t much of a big deal at the time.
I am proud, damn proud, to have a couple of kids – a couple of his “kind” – following in his footsteps, playing this great game. Even in Pekin – where my daughter plays and for four years before that when my son played – we haven’t heard a word of derision or even slightly insensitive about the fact that they are black.
Very nice.
2
Anon E. Mouse
// Jan 18, 2008 at 11:46 am
Now, part #2.
BJ – you are an insensitive and hypocritical a—–e!
It was a nice post until you got to your second point. I found that very personally insulting.I am sure you put that line in to egg me on, but this is making me reconsider the way I think about you, as a person, BJ. You commit the crime you are attempting to speak out against. It’s just another form of stereotype.
The point being that there are idiots out thee who paint with a very wide brush when ti comes to their opinions about people who are different than themselves. Folks who see things as two colors, black or white. You do that very thing right in that very sentence by trying to group these racist idiots in with a large group. You are as nearsighted as these letter writers, as you see only things as Republican or Democrat (or Conservative of Republican).
While you rail against the “your kind” statement, you basically made a “your kind” statement. Both of those statements were aimed, intentionally or not, at me – as a parent of bi-racial and black children and as a conservative voter.
I endeavor to be tolerant of those who are different than myself, whether it be from a different culture, different political spectrum, different religion, or whatever difference we may have. That is “my kind.”
One thing I am certain of, BJ is I am, most certainly NOT, one of “your kind”. I try not to paint with the wide brush. Instead I try to take people as they come, as individuals. I had you pegged as someone I disagreed with on some things, but not as an intolerant jerk. You are making me change my mind about that.
3
BJ Take Something Nice and Makes It Ugly
// Jan 18, 2008 at 4:12 pm
[...] BJ Stone over at Good Year for the Outlaw has a post that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the breaking of the color barrier in the NHL. Willie O”Ree is the NHL version of Jackie Robinson. As the father of a couple of very young black children who so happen to play hockey, I was very interested in the article. [...]
4
mcsey
// Jan 19, 2008 at 6:13 am
I wouldn’t take that bet on point one. R’s* are everywhere.
*That’s R for racist, what’d you think I meant?
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