O’Ree blazed NHL trail 60 years ago

FREDERICTON • When Willie O’Ree donned a Boston Bruins jersey and jumped onto the ice at the Montreal Forum on Jan. 18, 1958, he had no idea he was making history.

Just a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in baseball, O’Ree had become the first black player in the National Hockey League.

Sixty years later, O’Ree looks back fondly on that game and a career in hockey that continues to this day.

“I didn’t even know I broke the colour barrier until I read it in the newspaper the next day,” O’Ree said while sitting in the stands of Willie O’Ree Place — a modern hockey arena, named in his honour, in his hometown of Fredericton, N.B.

“It was a nice feeling. I just happened to be playing and just happened to be black,” he said.

While O’Ree didn’t score during that game, his Bruins beat the Canadiens 3-0. He would play just one more game with the Bruins that season. O’Ree would return to the Bruins for the 1960-61 season, playing a total of 45 games in the NHL — scoring four goals and 10 assists — all while keeping a secret that would have kept him out of the league. He was blind in one eye.

He said colour was an issue when he played in junior and he would often be subjected to racial slurs and remarks, but he had learned from his older brother to ignore them and just go out and play hockey.

O’Ree said players on other teams would often make racial comments, but everyone in the Boston Bruins organization was very supportive, especially coach Milt Schmidt and general manager Lynn Patrick.

His No. 22 was never retired, and a few players have worn it, including Anson Carter, a BarbadianCanadian who played four years for Boston and asked to wear it.

Now, at the age of 82, O’Ree serves as the NHL’s diversity ambassador, and for the last 20 years he has been going to schools and elsewhere to speak to young people as part of the Hockey is for Everyone initiative.