TheColorOfHockey

~ Hockey for Fans and Players of Color

TheColorOfHockey

Monthly Archives: January 2015

Val James, the NHL’s first African-American player, tells story in new book

30 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Joel Ward, Lindy Ruff, Montreal Canadiens, P.K. Subban, Toronto Maple Leafs, Val James, Willie O'Ree

Hockey wasn’t easy for Val James – from picking up the game as a young Long Island rink rat, to literally fighting his way through the minor leagues, to trading punches with some of the toughest enforcers in the National Hockey League.

But for James, the NHL’s first American-born black player, the roughest opponents often weren’t on the ice. They were in the stands.

“Think about going on the ice, 40 games a year on the road, and every three seconds of a 60-minute game, you’re getting a racial slur thrown at you over a 10-year period,” he told me recently.

Val James writes about the bitter and the sweet in his hockey career (Photo/Kwame Damon Mason)

Val James writes about the bitter and the sweet in his hockey career (Photo/Kwame Damon Mason)

James and co-author John Gallagher recount the hostility he endured and the good times the left wing experienced in hockey during the 1970s and 80s in his book, “Black Ice: The Val James Story,” which goes on sale Feb. 1.

He writes honestly about his career as an enforcer – not a goon – whose punching power instilled fear in opponents. He unflinchingly describes the racial abuse he endured during a professional career that spanned from 1978-79 with the Erie Blades of the old North Eastern Hockey League to 1987-88 with the Flint Spirits of the International Hockey League.

“You’d  get  depressed every now and then over it, thinking ‘why are these people doing this, they don’t know me.’ I’m just out to entertain them, to give them a night out with their families, their girlfriends, whoever,” he told  me. “It can  work on your psyche if you let it. I was lucky enough to have a lot of good people around me. My teammates supported me totally.”

James, the NHL's first African-American player, appropriately played for the AHL's Rochester Americans (Photo/Rochester Americans).

James, the NHL’s first African-American player, appropriately played for the AHL’s Rochester Americans (Photo/Rochester Americans).

Canadian-born Willie O’Ree became the NHL’s first black player when he debuted with the Boston Bruins in 1958. James, 57, was the league’s first U.S.-born black player and probably the only NHLer born in Ocala, Florida.

His path to hockey started when his family moved to New York and his jack-of-all-trades father took a job at the Long Island Arena.

“He started out being a night watchman there, fixing things when they needed to be fixed,” James told me. “Then he ended up getting into the operations of it all.”

With dad working in the arena, young Val James got freebies for every major 1970s rock & roll act when they played the Island – the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Burton Cummings.

He also regularly watched the EHL Long Island Ducks play and practice at the arena, fascinated by the speed and aggressiveness of the game. When James got his first pair of ice skates at 13, and with his dad owning a key to the stadium, the Long Island Arena became his practice facility.

“I’d grown up watching the Canadian men play hockey for the Long Island Ducks skate on this same ice,” James and Gallagher wrote. “I imagined myself as one of them.”

James developed into a good enough hockey player to be a 16th-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 1977, though he never played for the team. He cracked the Buffalo Sabres’ roster in 1981-82 after signing as an unrestricted free agent.

He appeared in seven games for Buffalo that season and found it hard getting a lot of ice time with a Sabres lineup that featured tough guys like defensemen Lindy Ruff and Larry Playfair.

“The top guy was Larry Playfair. He was a heavyweight, I was a heavyweight. So that spot was already filled,” James said. “The second line was Lindy Ruff. They all had multi-year contracts at the time because they never expected a guy like me to come along.”

After five seasons in the American Hockey League with the Rochester Americans

James enjoyed NHL tours with Buffalo and the Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo/Graig Abel).

James enjoyed NHL tours with Buffalo and the Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo/Graig Abel).

and the St. Catharines Saints, James returned to the NHL for four games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1986-87.

His NHL career stat line:  No goals, no assists and 30 penalty minutes. But it’s the minor leagues where James had his greatest impact. He played in 630 games, tallied  45 goals, 77 assists and accumulated more than 1,175 penalty minutes – most of them with the AHL Americans.

A lot of those minutes were fives for fighting.

“It was something I was really good at,” James said.

Mike Stothers, head coach of the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs, can attest to that. He and James fought 13 times during a seven-game playoff series when Stothers was a defenseman  for the Hershey Bears and James a winger for the St. Catharines.

“He was  very good, probably one of the toughest at the time in the American Hockey League. He might have been the toughest ever in the American Hockey League,” Stothers told me. “He was a big man, very strong.”

Stothers paid James the highest compliment one enforcer can give another: “He was an honest fighter.”

Mike Stothers fought James 13 times in one AHL playoff series (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers)

Mike Stothers fought James 13 times in one AHL playoff series (Photo/Philadelphia Flyers)

“There was never any extra stuff: no cheap shots or stick work involved,” he  added. “He never took liberties on skilled players.”

But that never stopped  so-called “fans” from taking liberties on James. Objects and racist taunts were routinely thrown his way.

“At that point in time when I was coming up, it was always bananas, pictures of people from Africa with the bone in their nose, spear in their hands, the shields,” James told me. “People would make 8-foot, 9-foot signs like that and display them. At that time, there was no governing of behavior, players or fans, by the leagues.”

It was so bad that when CBS followed James  in 1981 for a segment for “CBS News Sunday Morning,” the public address announcer at the Salem-Roanoke County Civic Center felt compelled to remind game attendees that use of offensive language was prohibited – something he’d never done before.

“Either way, neither the announcement nor the presence of the news cameras could stop the slurs and, as usual, not a single soul got tossed out for playing the racist fool,” James and co-author Gallagher wrote.

But there were times when people took stands against the abuse aimed at James. When two Richmond Rifles fans cast a fishing line with a toy monkey tied to it into the penalty box where James was sitting, referee Patrick Meehan stopped the EHL game and demanded the ejection of the offending fans.

“He did something that could have possibly at that point got him killed or lynched after the game,” James said. “But, nonetheless, he stood up for something, and that means a lot to me.”

Meehan, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, said he wasn’t trying to make a statement. He just trying to stop something that was “fundamentally wrong.”

“That’s not something that’s ‘fans just being fans.’ That can’t be tolerated,” Meehan

Former hockey referee-turned U.S. Congressman Patrick Meehan threatened to  stop an EHL game to halt abuse aimed at James.

Former hockey referee-turned U.S. Congressman Patrick Meehan threatened to stop an EHL game to halt abuse aimed at James.

told me recently. “I did blow the whistle and skated over to the penalty box and I told (Richmond Rifles officials) that if those fans weren’t ejected from the game, I wouldn’t continue officiating that game and that game would be done.”

“I remember the owner came down and he was like ‘What are you doing?'” Meehan added. “I looked at him and said ‘That’s wrong.’ He said ‘You can’t do it.’ I said ‘Whether I can or can’t, I am because I will not skate in a game that condones that activity, so you make a choice.'”

The fans were ejected and the game went on.

On most nights, James took racial justice in his own hands – taking out his anger at the crowd on an opposing player.

“Since I couldn’t act on my fantasy of shoving a hockey puck down the throat of every big-mouthed racist, one acceptable way for me to respond to these attacks was to turn up my physical play,” James and Gallagher wrote. “If I could knock one of their hometown players into next week, then some of my anger might fade.”

James said he’s pleased to see the growth of players of color in hockey, from youth leagues to the pros.

He thought the sport had put its racial woes behind it until some Boston Bruins “fans” unleashed online racist tirades against Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward for scoring a game-winning overtime goal that eliminated the Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2012 and Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban for scoring a double-overtime game-winning goal against Boston in last season’s  playoffs.

“It  tells me that the state of hockey has advanced but hasn’t advanced, all in the same breath,” he said. “Those Boston incidents, they might be the same relatives of the people that  tried to get me back in the 80s, right?”

Since hanging up his skates, James has traded hard ice for soft water. He works as a water park mechanic in Niagara Falls, Ontario, a short drive from Rochester and Buffalo – homes of his hockey glory days.

Rochester fans remember James not only for his fisticuffs but also for scoring the game-winning goal for the Americans in the deciding game of the 1983 Calder Cup championship against the Maine Mariners.

The Americans are holding a “Val James Legends Night” on Feb. 13 – the day before his birthday – at Rochester’s Blue Cross Arena. In Buffalo, he’s been invited to speak to the kids of Hasek’s Heroes, an inner-city hockey program founded by former Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek.

James hopes the attention from the book will lead to opportunities to get back into organized hockey, perhaps in the coaching ranks.

“I think I can help the sport out more than I have,” he said.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

African-American youth making a big splash in competitive swimming

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Sure, this blog is about ice hockey but every now and then we like to tell and share stores about people of color who are shattering the myth that we don’t participate in this sport or that because it’s “a white man’s game.”

Linked here is an excellent article from The Philadelphia Inquirer about a local African-American youth who’s making waves in the world of competitive swimming. Read it. Enjoy it. And don’t be surprised to see Reece Whitley in the Olympics in the near future.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

Fort Dupont’s “Kids on Ice” program gets NBC star treatment

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Fort Dupont Ice Arena

In life, you crawl before you can walk. In ice hockey, you’ve got to skate before you can play.

For years, the Fort Dupont Ice Arena in Washington, D.C., has helped transform kids from clumsy, crawling novices to confident skaters. Some grow confident enough to take the next step and join the Fort Dupont Cannons, the nation’s oldest minority-oriented youth hockey program run by longtime Head Coach Neal Henderson.

NBC takes a look at Fort Dupont Ice Arena's Kids on Ice program.

NBC takes a look at Fort Dupont Ice Arena’s Kids on Ice program.

Fort Dupont and its free Learn to Skate program, a magnet for families of all stripes in the District-Maryland-Virginia area, was featured recently in a profile aired during NBC’s telecast of the 2015 Prudential U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Prudential recently awarded the Kids on Ice $10,000, which will be used to help enhance and expand its synchronized skating program. Part of the funds will be used to send the synchronized team to Hershey, Pa., next month for its first-ever competition.

Fort Dupont skater gives an up-close and personal interview to NBC.

Fort Dupont skater gives an up-close and personal interview to NBC.

From the outside, the Fort Dupont rink doesn’t look like much – a non-descript 1970s-style structure in Southeast Washington. But the rink is one of Washington’s gems. It’s the only indoor skating facility in the District, more often than not has the fastest sheet of ice in he District-Virginia-Maryland area, and offers the most stunning views of Capitol Hill in the city.

Fort Dupont kids go from the  ice to the cameras in NBC feature on the rink's skating program.

Fort Dupont kids go from the ice to the cameras in NBC feature on the rink’s skating program.

One of the few ice rinks in America located in a mostly-minority community, Fort Dupont serves beyond its neighborhood boundaries. Several of the District’s private and Catholic school hockey programs call the rink home, as do several area colleges and universities. Law enforcement hockey teams, from D.C.’s police department to the U.S. Secret Service, have also practiced and played at the rink.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

J.R. loves P.K., and thinks Brooklyn would’ve, too

16 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Jeremy Roenick, Joshua Ho-Sang, Kyle Okposo, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, P.K. Subban

When former National Hockey League star Jeremy Roenick watches Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban play, he sees himself.

“And it would have been a great image to have me go against P.K. Subban,” Roenick told Greg Wyshynski, editor of Yahoo’s excellent Puck Daddy blog, in a great interview earlier this week. “He resembles me. Reminds me of myself as a young player.”

Make no mistake, Roenick, now an NBC Sports hockey analyst, LOVES Subban –  his game, his attitude, and the entertainment value he brings to the NHL. Several hockey purists complain that Subban is too flashy, too front-and-center both on and off the ice. Roenick, one of hockey’s true characters and showmen, strongly disagrees.

NBC's Jeremy Roenick thinks the NHL needs more entertaining players like Montreal's P.K. Subban and Washington's Alex Ovechkin  (Photo/Chuck Myers).

NBC’s Jeremy Roenick thinks the NHL needs more entertaining players like Montreal’s P.K. Subban and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (Photo/Chuck Myers).

“The NHL does a lot of different things. You’re almost like connected to strings. They want you to act a certain way, they want you to play a certain way, they want you to say certain things,” Roenick told Wyshynski. “Which is good, because I think the NHL has one of the best reputations of any of the other sports.”

He added: “But you need characters. You need (Washington Capitals forward Alexander) Ovechkin, guys like P.K. They bring that out. We just need more of it. And you can be outlandish and still be respectful. The NHL doesn’t like when someone rises above the head count. And guys are really respectful, too. You just have idiots like myself, because we knew it’s an entertainment sport.”

Roenick chided the Canadiens for taking Subban to the brink of arbitration over the summer before signing him to an eight-year, $72 million contract.

“If I was (New York Islanders General Manager) Garth Snow, who had nothing to lose, I would have offered him $10 million and made Montreal match it,” Roenick told Wyshynski. “You’re going into a new building (Brooklyn’s Barclays Center next season). You’re bringing in an ethnic kid that has so much pizzazz. It would have been the greatest thing.”

“P.K. in a Brooklyn jersey!” Roenick added. “It would have sold tickets.”

Can you imagine Subban, Kyle Okposo, and Joshua Ho-Sang, the Islanders’ slick-handed 2014 first-round draft pick, skating on the same shift? Great interview, Greg.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

5-4 win over Russia brings Gold Medal to Canada, honors to Darnell Nurse

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Darnell Nurse, Edmonton Oilers, Hockey Canada, Sarah Nurse, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, University of Wisconsin

Good night, Nurse!

After being snubbed by Hockey Canada last year for a slot on its junior national team, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds defenseman Darnell Nurse achieved a “How You Like Me Now” moment Monday night at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.

Nurse, a 2013 Edmonton Oilers first-round draft pick, was named Canada’s player of the game in Monday night’s 5-4 victory over Russia in the tournament’s Gold Medal game in Toronto.

Defenseman Darnell Nurse has a monster IIHF tournament for Canada (Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

Defenseman Darnell Nurse has a monster IIHF tournament for Canada (Matthew Murnaghan/Hockey Canada Images).

In addition, he was named one of Canada’s best three players in the tournament along with Max Domi, a forward for the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League and a 2013 Arizona Coyotes first-round draft pick, and Sam Reinhart, a forward for the Western Hockey League’s Kootenay Ice and a 2014 Buffalo Sabres first-rounder.

Monday’s win ended a five-year gold medal drought for Canada at the tourney for players under 20 years old, and the 19-year-old Nurse was a key component in the team winning the gold without a loss.

Monday night represented Mission Accomplished for Nurse. The nephew of retired Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb vowed to make Team Canada after not being named to the 2014 squad, a move that even stunned “Hockey Night in Canada” commentator Don Cherry.

Nurse is captain of the OHL's Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

Nurse is captain of the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

The 2014 Canadian team finished fourth at the tournament played in Malmo, Sweden, and failed to medal.

“That is an absolute joke not to have Darnell Nurse out there,” the bombastic Cherry

Nurse appeared in two games for Edmonton in 2014-15.

Nurse appeared in two games for Edmonton in 2014-15.

said last year.

As for Nurse, he took the snub and being cut in training camp by Edmonton in 2013 hard. He used those experiences and being sent back to Sault Ste. Marie after playing two games for the Oilers this season as fuel to make Team Canada this year.

“Not being (in Edmonton) opens up opportunities like this, which I have been looking

forward to all year,” he told reporters at Team Canada’s training camp last month. “I am going to develop playing junior and hope to play in this tournament.”

And play he did. Nurse had one goal, no assists, and a plus-minus of +8 in seven games. He also got off 10 shots, several of them missiles fired while rushing the puck up ice.  Opponents didn’t score while he was on the ice.

Apparently, there’s something about playing Russia that brings the best out of the Nurse family. Sarah Nurse, Darnell’s cousin and a forward for the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team, scored a goal for Canada’s National Women’s Development Team in a 5-1 win against Russia Sunday at the 2015 Nation’s Cup tournament in Germany.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Winter Classic across the pond

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Our friend Chris Kibui of Hockeytutorial.com, one of the United Kingdom’s biggest hockey enthusiasts, continues to try to grow the game in a soccer-mad part of the world. The UK Winter Classic wasn’t as large as the 2015 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, but don’t tell that to the folks who laced them up on a cold night in Nottingham.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Skype

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Posts

  • Asian & Pacific Islander heritage players on 2020-21 team rosters in pictures
  • Meet the Black players on NCAA women’s hockey rosters in 2020-21
  • Jaden Lindo adds new chapter to ‘Soul on Ice’ by winning hockey championship
  • Sarah Nurse seeks gold at IIHF world championship after winning Olympic silver
  • Hockey Family Photo Album, Page 2

Archives

  • May 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • December 2012

Categories

  • John Tortorella
  • nhl.com
  • Uncategorized

Hockey Links

  • American Collegiate Hockey Association
  • Black Ice Book
  • Detroit Hockey Association
  • Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation
  • Fort Dupont Ice Arena
  • Hasek's Heroes
  • Hockey is for Everyone
  • Hockeyland Canada
  • Ice Hockey in Harlem
  • International Ice Hockey Federation
  • Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation
  • Kevin Weekes Online
  • NHL official website
  • NHL Uniforms
  • Ted's Take
  • The American Hockey League
  • The ECHL
  • TSN
  • USA Hockey

Powered by WordPress.com.

 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: