By: Gabriela Rosado   

On November 12, Willie O’Ree, the first African American NHL hockey player, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He became the third black player to be introduced to the Hall of Fame.

O’Ree played as a Winger for the Boston Bruins in 1958 and 1961. He broke the color barrier in the NHL on January 18, 1958, doing so while being blind in his right eye after a puck hit his eye two years earlier. Knowing that this would keep him from playing in the NHL, he hid his injury from league officials and played two games that season. O’Ree went on to play 43 games for the Bruins in 1961, where he scored 4 goals and had 10 assists.

It goes without saying that O’Ree faced racism and hatred while playing his beloved sport. At a game in Madison Square Garden against the Rangers, O’Ree was yanked by the back of his jersey and  pulled into the stands by hostile fans. In another game, he had his two front teeth knocked out by an opponent’s stick and had to be escorted off the ice by police. Aside from these two infamous incidents, O’Ree was threatened and verbally abused every night by people in the crowd, making his professional career a frightening one.

Decades later, some fans still show disdain towards black players in the league, although their actions are less violent and are more infrequent. Most recently, the altercation between four Chicago Blackhawks fans and Washington Capitals’ player, Devante Smith-Pelly, is reminiscent of the disdain that was present in O’Ree’s era.

During the Blackhawks vs Capitals game in the 2017-2018 season, the Capitals’ Smith-Pelly was sent to the penalty box for five minutes in the raucous United Center. Smith-Pelly, a black Canadian hockey player, was on the receiving end of provocative “basketball, basketball, basketball” chants from Chicago fans in the stands. The fans were ejected from the game and both the Chicago Blackhawks and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman released statements on the issue.

Despite this alarming encounter, the NHL does appear to be making progress. Over the past twenty years, the league has attempted to make Hockey inclusive by designating February as the Hockey Is For Everyone month. This program has had the intended purpose of diversifying the sport by emphasizing the NHL’s openness to people of every race, religion, culture, and sexuality.

As always, the NHL puts the year’s best performing or most iconic player on the cover of the most recent version of the EA Sports NHL video game. For NHL 19, the cover star was P.K. Subban, a black Canadian Defenseman for the Nashville Predators.

Although progress is being made towards greater inclusiveness in Hockey, there’s still much more work to be done in order for people to stop recognizing it as a “white man’s sport.” If the league wants to be known for its open environment, it should continue its efforts to diversify the game. This way, any child from diverse backgrounds may genuinely believe that they can become the next “trailblazer” in Hockey.