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WILLIE O'REE

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It's been fifty years since Willie O'Ree broke the color barrier in the NHL.

The way he tells it, Willie O'Ree was so preoccupied with what GM's might think of the fact that he was blind in one eye—his eye was smashed by an errant puck at age 19—he couldn't bother to dwell on the fact that every time he laced up, he was doing something that had never been done. Still, fifty years ago, O'Ree became the first black player to play in the NHL when he stepped onto the ice for Boston.

How ahead of his time was he?

Well, in the NHL of 1958—ten years after Jackie Robinson had broken baseball's color barrier—there were only 6 teams, and after O'Ree showed up, another black player didn't suit up in the NHL until 1974. By the time Robinson retired, there were a number of blacks on baseball rosters.

Unlike Robinson, O'Ree didn't experience overt racism comingup as a hockey player, because as he says, "In Canada, they didn't care if you were black, purple or green. If you got on a bus up there, you didn't think about where you'd sit." His decision to play hockey, however, was a direct result of racism he experienced as a baseball player. As one of the top players in Canada, O'Ree had the opportunity to go down South in the States to play in front of scouts against American competition. It was the first time he'd seen signs that said "Whites Only", and he recalled how he and other black players on the team were worried about their safety.

As the trip wrapped up, the team hopped a bus back to Canada.

"The further north we'd go, I'd go up another few seats," said O'Ree.

Back in Canada, he once again felt comfortable in the front of a bus, and more assured that despite the non-existence of blacks in the sport of hockey, it couldn't be any worse than dealing with the rampant racism he might have to survive to move up through the minor league systems of U.S. baseball. Something Robinson knew all too well.

"The further north we'd go, I'd go up another few seats," said O'Ree.

"I actually had a chance to meet Jackie a couple times," says O'Ree, who stopped by The Mag offices last week. The first time was when the Dodger great showed up to greet a team of a Canadian All-Stars at a tournament. O'Ree was just 14.

"I told him I was also a hockey player," says O'Ree. "He just told me to work hard and do my best. Just encouraged me."

Ten years later, O'Ree met Robinson again, when one was considered an icon in the civil rights movement, and the other was still a relatively obscure athlete outside of hockey circles.

"Robinson saw me and said, 'Hey, you're the black hockey player!'" says O'Ree.

O'Ree played professionaly for some 23 seasons, spending most of his best seasons in the WHL, specifically with the San Diego Gulls, who retired his number. It hangs to this day in the San Diego Sports Arena. Today, he is involved with the NHL as an ambassador for Hockey is for Everyone, the league's diversity initiative, which sponsors youth programs which, in turn, outfit teams.

"The hardest part about hockey is the expenses," says O'Ree. "Ice time is expensive, and by the time you outfit a kid with all the gear he needs for a season, you could spend $900. We'll put the equipment on the kids, but we have a lot of work to do."

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