Willie O'Ree
William Eldon "Willie" O'Ree, born on October 15, 1935, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, is recognized as the first player of African descent to compete in the National Hockey League (NHL). His early life was shaped by the challenges of being one of the few African Canadians in his community, which fueled his passion for hockey, a sport he began playing at an early age. O'Ree's athletic prowess led him to pursue both hockey and baseball; however, after experiencing racial discrimination during a baseball tryout, he chose to focus exclusively on hockey.
Despite a significant injury that left him nearly blind in one eye, O'Ree's determination saw him rise through the ranks to ultimately make his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins on January 18, 1958. His time in the league was brief, but his impact was profound, as he broke the color barrier in major league hockey. Following his NHL career, O'Ree continued to excel in the minor leagues and dedicated himself to promoting diversity within the sport. He has since received numerous accolades, including the Order of Canada and induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. His legacy continues through initiatives aimed at increasing participation among underrepresented groups in hockey, exemplified by the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award and his autobiography, which addresses ongoing racial issues.
Willie O'Ree
Ice Hockey Player
- Born: October 15, 1935
- Place of Birth: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
SPORT: Ice hockey
Early Life
Ice Hockey Player. William Eldon "Willie" O'Ree was born in Fredericton, the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, on October 15, 1935. The O'Rees were one of only two families in the town who were of African descent—although other African Canadians, including Willie's grandparents, lived in nearby communities. As a Canadian, O'Ree was drawn to the national game of ice hockey at an early age. He began skating at the age of three on ponds and frozen ice patches in his yard.
The Road to Excellence
As a teenager, O'Ree was extremely athletic and excelled in a variety of sports. He decided, however, to concentrate on the two he loved most—hockey and baseball. He played both junior hockey and Little League baseball. In 1949, his baseball team won a championship, and team members were rewarded with a trip to New York City to see the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. He got to meet Jackie Robinson, who was his baseball hero.
In time, O'Ree's baseball skills developed to the point that he was invited to a Milwaukee Braves training camp in 1956. The two-week tryout was held in Waycross, Georgia, and O'Ree was appalled at the racial discrimination and rigid segregation he experienced for the first time in his life. He decided against baseball in favor of hockey and Canada's less prejudicial society.
Meanwhile, he had taken a step up in hockey by signing with junior teams in Quebec and Ontario. He was not only honing his skills against better competition but also traveling over a wider area of Canada and becoming better known to scouts and owners of professional hockey teams. O'Ree's dream of playing in the National Hockey League (NHL), however, seemed forever dashed when he was hit in the face with a puck and hurt so badly that he lost almost all sight in his right eye. His doctor told him he would never play hockey again.
The Emerging Champion
Determined to overcome his new disability, in 1956, O'Ree signed his first pro hockey contract and played for a team in Quebec called the Aces. A left-winger, he was a fast skater who played aggressively and liked to shoot the puck. His athleticism compensated somewhat for his rather small size; he was 5 feet 10 inches and 180 pounds. His lack of peripheral vision, however, limited his effectiveness.
In September 1957, the Boston Bruins—one of only six teams in the NHL at that time—invited O'Ree to come to their preseason training camp. He was cut, however, and sent back to the minor leagues. Then, in January 1958, the Bruins called the Aces to ask O'Ree to fill in briefly for an injured player. He was to meet the team in Montreal for an away game against the Canadiens. Thus, on January 18, 1958, O'Ree broke the color barrier in major league hockey by becoming the first person of African descent to play in an NHL game. Unlike the attention that had been heaped upon Robinson a decade earlier, however, the media took little notice of O'Ree's groundbreaking accomplishment.
After two games with the Bruins, O'Ree toiled in the minors for the remainder of the 1957–58 season and for the next two years. Then, in 1960, he was called up to the Bruins and played in forty-three games during the 1960–61 campaign. At only twenty-five years of age, it seemed that his future in the NHL was secure.
Continuing the Story
O'Ree never played in the NHL again after the spring of 1961, however. Although he enjoyed a successful minor-league career until 1979, two factors conspired to keep him out of the NHL. First, in the summer of 1961, he was traded from the lowly Bruins, the worst team in the league at the time, to the Canadiens, then the NHL's best team. The talent pool for the Montreal club was so deep that O'Ree was relegated to the franchise's farm system.
Second, in 1967, the NHL began an expansion that doubled the number of teams from six to twelve. Although O'Ree's skills were such that he should have risen to the major league under these circumstances, the fact that he had sight in only one eye made him ineligible for NHL competition. This had also been the case when he played for the Bruins, but he had managed to keep his partial blindness a secret. By 1967, however, everyone in the hockey business knew about his condition. In fact, in 1964, a new coach of O'Ree's Los Angeles minor league team switched him from left to right wing because of his handicap. This move—which allowed him to see a greater portion of the playing surface—increased his productivity to the point that he won two league-scoring titles thereafter.
In 2010, he was awarded the Order of Canada, and in 2018, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2018, the NHL also introduced the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award, which is given to individuals who use hockey to improve their communities. The following year, the documentary Willie (2019) was released, telling O'Ree's story. In 2020, O’Ree published his autobiography, Willie: The Game-Changing Story of the NHL’s First Black Player, which not only detailed O’Ree’s own story but also put his experiences in the perspective of the racial injustices still experienced in the world in the 2020s. In January 2022, the Bruins retired O'Ree's number 22 jersey. That same month, the United States House of Representatives awarded O'Ree the Congressional Gold Medal for his role in breaking the color barrier in the NHL.
Summary
Willie O'Ree was a good professional hockey player for more than two decades. As such, he was able to play a game he loved at a level sufficient to support a family and fashion a successful career. His significance, however, does not lie in the fact that he was essentially a solid minor leaguer but that he was able to make it to the highest level of his sport—if only for a brief period. In doing so, he shattered the racial barrier of the last of the four major North American team sports to become integrated.
In 1998, the NHL and USA Hockey hired Willie to direct player development for a so-called diversity task force operated jointly by the two bodies. This allowed him to travel throughout the United States and Canada, teaching hockey to children of all races in an attempt to attract more minority players to this least racially diverse of the major team sports. On January 19, 2008, the NHL and the Boston Bruins honored Willie and ceremoniously commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the breaking of the league's color barrier.
Bibliography
Dorinson, Joseph. The Black Athlete As Hero: American Barrier Breakers from Nine Sports. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2022.
Harris, Cecil. Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey. Insomniac, 2003.
Humber, William. A Sporting Chance: Achievements of African-Canadian Athletes. Dundurn, 2012.
Kaplan, Emily. "Boston Bruins to Honor Willie O'Ree NHL's First Black Player." ESPN, 12 Jan. 2021, www.espn.com/nhl/story/‗/id/30698417/boston-bruins-honor-nhl-first-black-player-willie-oree. Accessed 20 June 2024.
Keene, Kerry. Tales from the Boston Bruins. Sports Publishing, 2018.
Kelly, Cathal. “'I've Been Blessed': Willie O'Ree's New Book Reflects On His Time As the NHL's First Black Player.” The Globe and Mail, 31 Oct. 2020, www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/article-willie-oree-looks-back-on-a-blessed-life-in-new-autobiography. Accessed 25 Apr. 2023.
Mizelle, Shawna. "House Passes Bill to Award Congressional Gold Medal to Willie O'Ree, the First Black NHL Player." CNN, 19 Jan. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/willie-oree-congressional-gold-medal-house-nhl/index.html. Accessed 7 Mar. 2022.
O'Ree, Willie, and Michael McKinley. Willie: The Game-Changing Story of the NHL's First Black Player. Viking Canada, 2020.
Ostrom, Hans A., and J. David Macey. Forgotten African American Firsts: An Encyclopedia of Pioneering History. Greenwood, 2023.
Patton, Hank. The Most Incredible Hockey Stories Ever Told: Inspirational and Legendary Tales from the Greatest Hockey Players and Games of All Time. Curious Press, 2023.
"Willie O’Ree: The Jackie Robinson of Hockey." The Sports Museum, www.sportsmuseum.org/curators-corner/willie-oree-the-jackie-robinson-of-hockey. Accessed 20 June 2024.