Truro event to explore black hockey history

A locally organized Truro Hockey Fest will take place later this month and offer a peek into the town’s black hockey heritage.

The event will be held Oct. 28 and 29, the same weekend Rogers Hometown Hockey comes to Truro.

David Carter, a local hockey historian and member of the Truro Hockey Fest committee, said plans are in the works to include local black hockey history as part of the events being held at the Colchester Historeum, located next door to the Hometown Hockey event in the town’s civic square.

In the 1890s, the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes included an all- black team called the Truro Victorias. By the 1930s, the team was called the Truro Sheiks. Players included well known names such as Clyke, Paris and Dorrington.

By all accounts, including newspaper articles more than a century old, The Coloured Hockey League was a hotbed of excitement and invention – goalies falling to the ice to make saves, body checking, acrobatic plays and, some say, the origins of the slap shot.

Carter said he is excited in the growing public interest in black hockey and sports heritage.

“The interest level is high and, generally, the timing just right,” he said. “But I’d caution, as time goes on, we are losing connections with the past and the oldest players, etc. We need to honour, and learn from, the generations that played from the 40s onward.

“There’s lots to learn, consider and contribute to the growing conversation.”

Carter added towns such as Truro and Windsor had black hockey heroes long before professional hockey ranks signed players such as Truro’s Art Dorrington and Stan ( Chook) Maxwell.

“There’s more to hockey than play on ice, it’s also a game of life,” Carter said. “There are powerful stories that include Truro as a setting. Our own Truro Hockey Fest is a fresh means to explore deep roots and engage communities and families.”

Carter said more Truro Hockey Fest details will be made available in the coming days, including details on a number of hockey talks at the Colchester-East Hants Public Library.