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Tag Archives: Damon Kwame Mason

Jaden Lindo adds new chapter to ‘Soul on Ice’ by winning hockey championship

11 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Damon Kwame Mason, Jaden Lindo, Pittsburgh Penguins., Queens University, Soul on Ice

Forward Jaden Lindo keeps adding pages to the script.

Queens University forward Jaden Lindo.

Lindo, a main subject in award-winning filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s “Soul on Ice, Past, Present & Future” black hockey history documentary, helped power Canada’s Queens University to the Ontario University Athletics championship Saturday.

Lindo, a 2014 Pittsburgh Penguins sixth round draft pick, scored two goals for the Queens University Gaels in their 4-1 win over the University of Guelph Gryphons.

“Actually, it’s one of the best feelings I’ve had in my whole hockey career,” Lindo, 23, said Monday. “It’s been a long time since I’ve won a championship. The last time was minor hockey. Before I committed to Queens I told my coach I wanted to compete for a championship. And to do it in front of our home fans, it was an unbelievable experience.”

The victory gave the Gaels their first Queen’s Cup title since 1981 and Lindo was named Most Valuable Player of the championship game.

“I didn’t even know they gave out an MVP for the game,” he said. “Our speakers weren’t working too well, I couldn’t hear what they were saying and all the guys were calling my name and I was, like, ‘Oh, okay.’ I just skated up, and it was amazing.”

Forward Jaden Lindo and his Queens University teammates celebrate winning the Ontario University Athletics championship on Saturday (Photo/Courtesy Jaden Lindo).

The Gaels now compete for Canada’s U Sports national championship in a tournament that starts Thursday in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

For the “Soul on Ice” documentary, Mason followed Lindo, then a forward for the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack, through the high of awaiting the 2014 National Hockey League Draft and the low of suffering a severe season-ending knee injury that jeopardized his draft prospects.

The 2018-19 Queens University Gaels. The team won the Ontario University Athletics championship Saturday. Forward Jaden Lindo was the game’s MVP.

The dramatic arc in the film ends with the Penguins taking the injured Lindo in the sixth round with the 173rd overall pick in the draft.

But things didn’t work out, and Lindo and the Penguins parted ways. He was traded by Owen Sound to the Sarnia Sting in 2016-17. He scored 35 points (21 goals, 14 assists) in 58 regular season games with the OHL team.

Embed from Getty Images

He joined the Queens University team in 2017-18 and scored 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists) in 21 regular season games. He had 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists) in 12 regular season games but he came up big in the playoffs with 8 points (5 goals, 3 assists). He missed three months of the season recovering from a concussion.

“I was pretty upset when things didn’t happen the way as planned with Pittsburgh,” he said. “I didn’t believe it was all over. Playing in the NHL is my goal and has always been my dream. I’m at Queens right now, it’s a great program and I’m maturing as a young man. I’m happy where I’m at and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

 

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Hockey honors Willie O’Ree for becoming NHL’s first black player 60 years ago

18 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston Bruins, Damon Kwame Mason, Montreal Canadiens, Willie O'Ree

Willie O’Ree remembers the pre-game talk as if it were yesterday.

Boston Bruins Head Coach Milt Schmidt and General Manager Lynn Patrick sat down their rookie forward, a call-up from the Quebec Aces, before his debut against the Montreal Canadiens in the old Forum and told him “Willie O’Ree, we brought you up because we think you can add a spark to the team.”

‘”Don’t worry about anything else,”‘ O’Ree recalled them telling him. ‘”Just go out and play the game, the organization is behind you 100 percent.”‘

O’Ree didn’t realize the gravity of  that January 18, 1958 talk until after the Bruins blanked the Habs 3-0. O’Ree didn’t register a point on the stat sheet that night, but he made a mark in history as the National Hockey League’s first black player.

“I didn’t even know I broke the color barrier until I read it in the newspaper the next day,” O’Ree told me recently.

Hockey honored O’Ree on Wednesday for the 60th anniversary of his feat, a celebration that really began over the weekend in Boston.

But Wednesday was the big day. The Canadiens were in Boston to play the Bruins at TD Garden. Before the game, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh proclaimed January 18 as “Willie O’Ree Day.” The city also announced plans to refurbish a street hockey rink and name it in O’Ree’s honor.

60 years ago you changed the game forever. Thank you, Willie O’Ree! #HockeyIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/U1RVd1zqCU

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 17, 2018

“Willie’s speed, his skill and sheer perseverance earned him a job in a six-team National Hockey League where jobs were, indeed scarce – 60 years ago,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We celebrate not only the NHL games he played but the countless thousands of boys and girls he has inspired since becoming our ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ ambassador in 1998.”

The league pulled out all the stops Wednesday. O’Ree dropped a ceremonial puck before the B’s-Habs game. Players wore Willie O’Ree 60th anniversary patches commemorative patches on their jerseys.

Willie O’Ree made history when he entered the NHL with the Boston Bruins in 1958.

The NHL tapped Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason, director of the award-winning black history documentary “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future,” to help produce an O’Ree tribute video.

NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes sat down with O’Ree for a long interview about his history-making moment and  his legacy.

"Feels like yesterday."

Willie O'Ree sat down with @KevinWeekes to discuss the 60th anniversary of his first @NHL game.

Catch Part 2 of their conversation tomorrow on #NHLTonight. pic.twitter.com/H9SLeuHz95

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) January 18, 2018

O’Ree didn’t have a long NHL career. He only played 45 games over the 1957-58 and 1960-61 seasons and tallied 4 goals and 10 assists. He played those games carrying a secret: He was legally blind in his right eye, the result of being hit by a puck.

Still, he enjoyed a lengthy minor league career, mainly in the old Western Hockey League where he scored 328 goals and 311 assists with the Los Angeles Blades and San Diego Gulls from 1961-62 to 1973-74.

Several hockey aficionados are hoping that O’Ree gets more propers beyond the 60th anniversary celebration.

Folks from filmmaker Mason to retired NHL player-turned-TV analyst Anson Carter believe O’Ree should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builder’s category for his contributions to the game in mentoring many of the NHL’s minority players and for extending hockey’s reach to communities of color

San Jose Sharks forward Joel Ward suggested that the NHL should retire O’Ree’s Number 22 league-wide the same way Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s Number 42 in 1997. Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier when he broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

“I would like to be in the Hall of Fame. I mean, who wouldn’t?” O’Ree told me. “I’d be thrilled and honored to be selected and go into the hall.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. Download the Color of Hockey podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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Filmmaker joins call for Willie O’Ree and Herb Carnegie Hockey Hall induction

16 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Damon Kwame Mason, Herb Carnegie, Hockey Hall of Fame, Willie O'Ree

Damon Kwame Mason, a talented filmmaker and good friend, is as passionate about minorities in hockey as I am – if not more.

He gave his all to produce and direct “Soul on Ice, Past, Present & Future,” an award-winning black hockey history documentary. Now Kwame is giving his all to push for the inductions of Willie O’Ree, the National Hockey League’s first black player, and Herb Carnegie, a black man who the late hockey legend Jean Beliveau called one of the best players not to play in the NHL, into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Damon Kwame Mason (right) interviewed hockey great Herb Carnegie before he passed away in March 2012.

On a day the Hall of Fame inducted its Class of 2017, Kwame wrote a passionate Facebook post laying out the case for letting O’Ree and Carnegie into hockey’s shrine. Below is his eloquent and thoughtful post:

As most of you know I made the documentary Soul On Ice: Past, Present & Future which is about the history and contributions of black athletes in hockey, the subject of diversity and inclusion in the game has become something that I am passionate about and as a fan of the game I have taken it on my back to do my part to help grow this beautiful game. I don’t have a huge platform but I feel like I am doing ok and hope it will grow. I still am blessed to be able to screen the film for audiences and on special occasions with the support of the NHL I get to be apart of q&a’s with guys like Willie O’ree and Bryce Salvador. I feel like since the film has come out I have a new purpose and I will do what ever I can to make sure minority children all around the WORLD (yeah I think big lol) gives the beautiful game of Hockey a chance. With that being said here’s something I wanted to run by you all.

Willie O’Ree made history when he entered the NHL with the Boston Bruins in 1958.

HOCKEY HALL OF FAME 2018

I will try not to make this a long rant but if it is my apologies in advance.

The HOF class of 2017 has been inducted this past Monday and I would like to congratulate all the new members as they are all well deserved.

But I’d like to speak about two men that I feel have been deserving of this honour for a very long time. The two men I speak of are Herbert H Carnegie and Willie O’ree.

Embed from Getty Images

You can make it into the Hall Of Fame as either a player or a builder of the game. Mr. Carnegie did not have a chance to play in the NHL and Mr. O’ree did not have a huge impact on the game to be put into the Player category. But they can and should be inducted as Builders and here is why.

Willie O’ree has worked with the NHL for 30 years in there Diversity Task Force. The program was put together to help introduce and give opportunities to play Hockey directing their efforts to under privileged children in the United States. The program started out small, 5 in total, 30 years later there are over 30 in North America. Willie flies around the country countless amounts of times to give speeches, and visits these children to inspire them to not just continue and love the game of hockey but to get an education and be good people. I have witness the long lines, long stares and countless questions about that history making day when he entered the National Hockey League. Needless to say at the age of 82 years old, that’s right 82 years old he still gets on a plane when ever asked and continues to speak and promote the game of hockey to minorities all over the county. THAT IN MY OPINION IN BUILDING THE GAME.

Herbert H Carnegie on the ice was considered one of the best to play the game in his era. He had a 17 year long career starting in 1938 and ending in 1954. Hall of fame inductee Jean Beliveau had the opportunity to have Herb as a mentor and has stated in the past that Herb should have played in the NHL because he was just that good. Having to watch his peers go on to have careers in the NHL Herb held his head high and continued to win scoring titles and MVP awards. He lead his pro teams to 4 different championships, voted MOST VALUABLE PLAYER 3 YEARS IN A ROW 1947, 1948 and 1949. Again, even though he was the best leagues just below the NHL he was never given the change to play in the big leagues.
But that is not what this is about. This is about why he should be inducted as a builder in the 2018 HOF class.

Herb Carnegie checking his skates out before playing with the Quebec Aces.

Herb played centre to the first All Black line in semi pro hockey inspiring future black players that heard or seen them play like Willie Oree. After his career was over he established the FUTURE ACES HOCKEY SCHOOL in 1958, THE FIRST REGISTERED HOCKEY SCHOOL in Canada. As an inventor Mr Carnegie created a hockey instructional board called the Carnegie System (later called Coach a Boy which you can see used by coaches to this day). As an inventor he created a hockey game called PASS AND SCORE endorsed by legendary coach Punch Imlach and and Hall of fame member Frank Mahovlich. The FUTURE ACES philosophy he developed for the Hockey school has become a tool to build character in public schools all across Canada. In 1990 Herb Carnegie was featured in Marvel Comics Spider Man as he helped the web slinger fight off criminals trying to ship drugs in Hockey pucks. Lastly Herb Carnegie carries the Order of Canada, Queen Elizabeth Diamond, Golden, and Silver Jubilee Medal. He has been inducted into 9 sports hall of fames across Canada… when will he have his day in the biggest one.

So with that being said, I would like to figure out a way to get an online petition going to with at least 100,000 signatures that I can hand in to the Hall Of Fame gatekeepers to get these in as they are well deserving and MAN OH MAN how BIG WOULD THAT BE FOR THE GAME OF HOCKEY. It would say so much and would go a long way to the idea of HOCKEY IS FOR EVERYONE.

Please leave a comment and any suggestions you may have on how I should go about this mission.

p.s I reached out to Hall of Fame member Luc Robitaille about inducting Herb Carnegie into this years class with a 17 page outline on why Herb should be inducted. Obviously it was not enough, this year I want to add a petition to it and include Willie O’ree

Have a great day and let me know what you think and I would also love your help.

Kwame

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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‘Soul on Ice’ movie resonates with minority hockey legends in England

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Damon Kwame Mason, English Ice Hockey Association, Ice Hockey U.K., Soul on Ice

LONDON – They sat in the back of the movie theater last weekend, transfixed by Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future.”

“I felt like he was telling our story,” Brian Biddulph said after the London premiere of Mason’s award-winning documentary that chronicles the history, struggles, and growing impact of black players in North America and in the National Hockey League.

The movie spoke to Biddulph, a Londoner who played pro and semi-pro hockey in from 1982 to 2000. The rugged defenseman suffered through being called “Leroy” – after character Leroy Robinson from the 1980s hit movie and television show “Fame” – by white teammates at a Team Great Britain training camp.

It spoke to Charles Dacres, who had a lengthy playing career in the United Kingdom and is currently a director for the English Ice Hockey Association and a board member for Ice Hockey U.K., the kingdom’s governing body for the sport.

More fun stuff for London’s celebration of #BHM. This morning a bit of sports history at screening of ‘Soul on Ice’ https://t.co/SHgcfeEpbE pic.twitter.com/VcJQRjajc1

— Matthew Ryder (@rydermc) October 21, 2017

A scene in the film in which forward Val James, who was the NHL’s first U.S.-born black player, is showered with racial epithets by fans during a 1981 minor league game in Virginia took Dacres back to a racially unruly road game that he endured during his playing days.

There “was a mob of guys that were actually outside the changing room, baying for my blood, wanting me to come out,” Dacres recalled.

“We wound up being escorted out of that city – police escort out of the city,” he said. “I was the only black guy on the team. They were waiting for me on the exit route from the rink. We had to go out the back door. It probably was one of the worst moments of my life.”

It spoke to Mohammed Ashraff, a former Ice Hockey U.K. president. It spoke to Erskine Douglas, who captained and coached pro teams in England and served as the head of coaching for the EIHA.

It spoke to Eddie Joseph, a former semi-pro player who’s paying it forward hockey-wise through a “Hockey is for Everyone”-type program he runs at an East London rink.

U.K. minority hockey legends, left to right, Charles Dacres, Mohammed Ashraff, Brian Biddulph, London Deputy Mayor Matthew Ryder, Erskine Douglas, and Eddie Joseph at “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future” screening in London.

The documentary also spoke to London Deputy Mayor Matthew Ryder, who marveled at the impact that black Canadians and Americans have had on hockey.

Ryder and the EIHA helped make the “Soul on Ice”  showing possible as part of the U.K.’s Black History Month activities. The deputy mayor came away from the screening with a lesson that the United Kingdom has a rich minority hockey history of its own.

Wow – #BHM at its best! Went to movie on black people in US ice hockey… ended up meeting these historical pioneers in BRITISH ice hockey. pic.twitter.com/aTmrIvyS51

— Matthew Ryder (@rydermc) October 21, 2017

“I related to the film + facing discrimination because of colour. But for us, our faith also makes us visible.” @RimlaAkhtar of @TheMWSF pic.twitter.com/kGMEzWRBke

— Matthew Ryder (@rydermc) October 21, 2017

Dacres said the plight of minority players in the United Kingdom has improved since the days that he, Ashraff, Douglas, Joseph, and Biddulph skated.

There’s still a long way to go, Dacres added. And bringing a film like “Soul on Ice” to England helps.

“It’s important to recognize that not only did this film raise awareness of black players in the NHL, it raised awareness of ice hockey in the UK and the impact that minorities face in trying to access a sport where the playing numbers of ethnic minorities is significantly less than one percent,” he said.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

 

 

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‘Soul on Ice’ documentary to make London debut for U.K.’s Black History Month

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Charles Draces, Damon Kwame Mason, David Clarke, English Ice Hockey Association, Ice Hockey UK, Nottingham Panthers, P.K. Subban, Soul on Ice, Trevor Daley

“Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future,” the award-winning black hockey history documentary, is heading to London in October as part of the United Kingdom’s Black History Month celebration.

Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s hockey labor of love is scheduled to be screened at London’s Picturehouse Central on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 10:30 a.m., and Sunday, Oct. 22, at 9 p.m. The screenings will be followed by question and answer sessions with Mason.

As part of the Ourscreen program, advance tickets are sold for the two events. Tickets can be purchased online through the Ourscreen website linked here.

“Soul on Ice Past, Present and Future” chronicles the joy and the pain experienced by black players,  from members of the ground-breaking Colored Hockey League in the Canadian Maritimes from 1895 to 1925 to the stars skating on National Hockey League’s 31 teams.

Some familiar faces  – past and present – share their hockey stories: Philadelphia Flyers  All-Star forward Wayne Simmonds, Detroit Red Wings defenseman Trevor Daley, San Jose Sharks forward Joel Ward, Edmonton Oilers goaltending great Grant Fuhr, Buffalo Sabres/Quebec Nordiques/New York Rangers sniper Tony McKegney, and former Sabres/Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy Val James, the NHL’s first black player born in the United States.

Filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason (right) talks hockey with Detroit Red Wings defenseman Trevor Daley in “Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future.”

Mason devoted nearly four years and spent about $200,000 of mostly his own money to make the film. It won a People’s Choice Award at the Edmonton International Film Festival  in October 2015.

The NHL was so impressed by “Soul on Ice’s” educational and uplifting message that it hosted the film’s U.S. premiere in Washington in January 2016 and aired it on the NHL Network in February 2016 to commemorate U.S. Black History Month.

Vancouver Canucks defensive prospect Jordan Subban, left, prepares parents Karl and Maria for their close-ups in “Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future.” Karl and Maria are also the parents of Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban and Boston Bruins goaltending prospect Malcolm Subban.

Charles Dacres, a director for the English Ice Hockey Association, and a board member for Ice Hockey UK, said Mason’s film is perfect viewing for the U.K.’s Black History Month.

“It’s about doing some myth-breaking. You look at other sports where black athletes are underrepresented, and it’s a struggle to try to encourage young black people to get into them,” Dacres told me recently. “The parents will say ‘Why are you bothering the kids.’ And the kid’s mates will say ‘Hockey’s not the sport for you, black guys don’t skate.’ It’s about showing that we have some pioneers and some very strong role models that actually give people and young children something to work toward and aspire to.”

Charles Dacres, left, a director for the English Ice Hockey Association, says showing “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future” in London will help shatter the myth that black people don’t participate in certain sports (Phtoto/Courtesy Charles Dacres).

The movie is also deeply personal for Dacres, who endured racial slurs in his younger days when he played with the Bradford Bulldogs.

“They just kind of said ‘Just get on with it, mate, just play the game and get on with it,'” Dacres recalled the reaction to the slurs. “Today, we don’t need to do that. We can challenge that poor negative behavior but we can do that by showing some positive role models.”

Although there are few hockey players of color in the United Kingdom, they have made their presence felt.

Hilton Ruggles was one of the most prolific scorers in British hockey history in a career that spanned from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s.

Hilton Ruggles, a Montreal-born left wing, tallied 1,096 goals, 929 assists and 2,200 penalty minutes in 946 games in the British Hockey League, British Ice Hockey Superleague, and the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League. Ruggles was inducted into the UK Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009.

Forward David Clarke is the popular face of the EIHL’s Nottingham Panthers.

He’s one of the United Kingdom’s most-decorated players, having won an EIHL championship, an International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship Gold Medal in Division D1B in 2016-17, and scoring more goals than any other British-born player in the EIHL in 2006-07, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13, and 2013-14.

Clarke, a member of Great Britain’s national team, has notched 289 goals and 238 assists in 553 EIHL games.

Nottingham Panthers forward David Clarke is also a mainstay for Great Britain’s national hockey team (Photo/Dean Woolley).

And several talented black NHL players have found their way across the pond to play. Rumun Ndur, a Nigerian-born defenseman, played for the Sabres and Atlanta Thrashers (now the Winnipeg Jets) before skating for the EIHL’s Coventry Blaze and Clarke’s Panthers in Nottingham.

Former Toronto Maple Leafs right wing John Craighead , an American, played for the Panthers from 2003 to 2005.  Anthony Stewart, a  Canadian right wing who played for the Thrashers, Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, suited up for the Panthers in 2012-13 during the NHL’s player lockout that season.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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‘Soul on Ice’ star Jaden Lindo seeking to rewrite script toward NHL career

17 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Damon Kwame Mason, Jaden Lindo, Joel Ward, Owen Sound Attack, Philadelphia Flyers, San Jose Sharks, Soul on Ice, Wayne Simmonds

Jaden Lindo loves a happy ending to a movie as much as anyone.

Lindo thought he provided one as a leading man in filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s excellent black hockey history documentary “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future.”

Mason’s camera followed Lindo, then a forward for the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack, through the high of awaiting the 2014 National Hockey League Draft and the low of suffering a severe season-ending knee injury that jeopardized his draft prospects.

Jaden Lindo scored 21 goals for the Sarnia Sting in 2016-17 (Photo/Aaron Bell/OHL Images).

The dramatic arc in the film ends with the Pittsburgh Penguins taking the injured Lindo in the sixth round with the 173rd overall pick in the draft. Happily ever-after, right?  Well, not yet.

“It didn’t work out the way I hoped with Pittsburgh, but there are different routes to getting to there (to the NHL),” Lindo told me in a recent telephone conversation from Accra, Ghana, where he and his family were vacationing. “There’s still a lot more for me to achieve and I still have a lot of potential that I still haven’t reached.  I’m completely optimistic.”

Pittsburgh signed Lindo to an amateur tryout agreement in 2015, and he even saw some exhibition game time with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

But things didn’t work out with the Pens. Lindo returned to Owen Sound where the 6-foot-2, 214-pound right wing had 14 goals and 16 assists in the 2015-16 season.

He was traded to the Sarnia Sting for the 2016-17 season and tallied 21 goals and 14 assists in 58 games as a 21-year-old in his final year of OHL eligibility.

Lindo says his script to the NHL isn’t finished. He’s committed to play Canadian college hockey at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario this fall.  The team, which posted a 24-14-0 record last season, is stocked with former major junior players.

The Queen's Gaels have a commitment from forward Jaden Lindo from the Sarnia Sting for the 2017-18 season. pic.twitter.com/E7dNEhNyjH

— Victor Findlay (@Finder_24) May 11, 2017

Other former major junior players have taken the Canadian college route and landed in the NHL, most notably San Jose Sharks right wing Joel Ward, who skated for the University of Prince Edward Island after his Owen Sound career ended.

Like Ward, Lindo is a rugged power forward. But Lindo models his game after another Owen Sound alum, Philadelphia Flyers right wing Wayne Simmonds. Lindo even lived in the same billet residence that Simmonds did during his major junior days.

His season for Sarnia completed – he had 2 goals and 1 assist in 4 OHL playoff games for the Sting – Lindo played two exhibition games last week for the Jamaican national hockey team effort in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His family is of Jamaican descent.

.@battisctv eye to eye w/ @JLindo22 Bobsled to Blades Halifax, NS #jamaica #olympichockey #JOIHT pic.twitter.com/iZ21cUSuxe

— Jamaica Ice Hockey (@JOIHT) May 12, 2017

His play in the exhibition games caught the eye of Bill Riley, a Nova Scotia resident who became the NHL’s third black player when he joined the Washington Capitals in 1976.

“He has all the tools,” Riley told me. “I had a real good chat with him after the game. I said to him, ‘Look, you have everything it takes to be a pro.’ I told him it’s 90 percent mental, 10 percent physical. I said ‘if you’ve got the right mindset, don’t take no for an answer.”

Lindo appreciated the advice from Riley, who served as a Junior A hockey general manager and a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League head coach.

“He’s someone to reach out to and talk about hockey,” Lindo told me. “He knows the game, he’s been a pro, he knows what it takes. If I ever need that support, I have the ability to reach out and talk to him.”

For those who haven’t seen “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future,” the award-winning documentary by Damon Kwame Mason, catch it via iTunes, Amazon Video,  Google Play, Vudu, Microsoft Movies & TV,  or Sony PlayStation. It’s also available on Starz in the United States.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey.

 

 

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Showered with applause, Mike Marson basks in tribute by Washington Capitals

27 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Damon Kwame Mason, Mike Marson, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals

Finally, he’s feeling the love.

Mike Marson, an original member of the woeful Washington Capitals 1974-75 expansion team, returned to D.C. Saturday to the sustained applause and appreciation that eluded the National Hockey League’s second black player during a five-season professional career that ended nearly four decades ago.

The Capitals paid homage to Marson during  the team’s 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues Saturday with a video feature on the Verizon Center’s giant center ice scoreboard. Then, when Capitals public address announcer Wes Johnson pointed out that Marson was in attendance in the team’s luxury box, the sellout crowd stood and clapped, long and loud.

“Really, really moving,” a still-beaming Marson told me Sunday, the morning after the tribute. “I had a great time. My son said, ‘Dad, you look like the Pope.’ I was waving to the people. It was so moving. In a quiet moment, you might shed a tear.”

#Caps great Mike Marson is in the house for #CapsBlues. Thank you for the memories, Mike! https://t.co/CyqBFxgnHB pic.twitter.com/NVCxtUyHhC

— MonumentalSportsNet (@MonSportsNet) March 27, 2016

Welcome back Mike Marson, pioneer and a man of quiet dignity. https://t.co/eWn3Zm6fC4

— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) March 26, 2016

Mike Marson gets a standing ovation. Well deserved. #CapitalsTalk

— Chuck Gormley (@ChuckGormleyCSN) March 27, 2016

The love was a sea change from some of the treatment Marson received during an NHL career that spanned from 1974-75 to 1979-80. Racist taunts on and off the ice, mailed death threats, and racial intolerance – even from some teammates – greeted Marson from the moment he entered the NHL at age 19 as the Capitals’ 1974 second-round draft pick.

“I was called n****r and every other bad name in the book,” Marson said in author Cecil Harris’ book, “Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey,” “along with stuff I didn’t even know was in the book.”

Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis wanted to meet Marson after seeing his story captured in Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s black hockey history documentary “Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future,”  which had its U.S. premiere in Washington in January.

“I would like to and plan to invite him to join us for a game,” Leonsis wrote in his “Ted’s Take” blog shortly after the screening. “As a society and a league, we have come a long way since 1974, and I would like Mike to be closer to the Capitals family.”

Marson, a Toronto resident, appeared genuinely surprised by the reception he received Saturday from the Verizon Center crowd.

“Everybody was looking at me and clapping their hands – jubilation,” a smiling Marson told Comcast SportsNet’s Washington Capitals game reporter Al Koken shortly after the tribute.

Forward Mike Marson scored 16 goals for a Washington Capitals team that went 8-67-5 in its first NHL season in 1974-75 (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

Forward Mike Marson scored 16 goals for a Washington Capitals team that went 8-67-5 in its first NHL season in 1974-75 Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

Koken concluded his short interview by calling Marson’s tribute “long-overdue.” He urged hockey fans see Mason’s “Soul on Ice” and read Harris'”Breaking the Ice” book.

“Those are things you need to read,” Koken told the television audience. “Guys, I’ll leave you with this: 16 goals right out of junior hockey on one of the worst NHL teams ever. How about that man, Mike Marson, in his rookie year?”

 

 

 

 

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Washington Capitals to salute Mike Marson, the NHL’s 2nd black player

24 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Bill Riley, Damon Kwame Mason, Karl Subban, Mike Marson, Montreal Canadiens, P.K. Subban, Soul on Ice, Sudbury Wolves, Washington Capitals

When the Washington Capitals face the St. Louis Blues at the Verizon Center on Fan Appreciation Night Saturday, perhaps no one in the arena will be more appreciative than Mike Marson.

Mike Marson was drafted by the Washington Capitals at age 18 in 1974.

Mike Marson was drafted by the Washington Capitals at age 18 in 1974.

The Capitals are scheduled to honor Marson, who was the National Hockey League’s second black player, with a video salute on the Verizon Center’s giant scoreboard during a TV timeout.

“I’m very pleased that the Capitals made a move to invite me to come down,” Marson, a Toronto resident, told me recently. “It’s an honor and a pleasure.”

Marson and his Capitals teammates endured the indignity of an 8-67-5 record in the team’s inaugural 1974-75 season, one of the worst records in NHL history.

But Marson also endured the indignities of racism  – on and off the ice. Taunts and physical liberties by opposing players on the ice and racist letters delivered to his home and to the Capital Centre, the team’s original suburban Maryland home, were the unsettling norm.

“It was a culture shock,” Marson recalled.”Nobody should have to make a comment that you’re with the team to get on the plane; nobody should have to, when you get to the hotel, hear the staff ask the coach ‘is that gentleman with you?’ Or hear ‘we don’t have people like him stay at our hotel;’ and nobody should then have to go down in the morning for breakfast and have people usher by you non-stop because they won’t feed you. This is before you even get to the rink, before you have to deal with your opposition. It was non-stop.”

Marson’s story is chronicled in filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s black hockey history documentary, “Soul on Ice, Past, Present & Future,” which aired on NHL Network in February as part of Black History Month.

His professional hockey career was brief –  five seasons with the Capitals and three games with the Los Angeles Kings combined with stints with the American Hockey League’s Baltimore Clippers, Springfield Indians,  Binghamton Dusters and Hershey Bears.

The left wing tallied only 24 goals 24 assists in 196 NHL regular season games and never appeared in a Stanley Cup playoff game.

Still, Marson left an imprint on the game. It’s evident in Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban and New York Rangers forward Rick Nash, who, as youngsters climbing the hockey ladder, trained off-ice under Marson during his post-hockey career as a martial arts instructor.

“The main thing about Mike was he taught P.K. how to be mentally strong,” Karl Subban, P.K.’s father, told me recently. “If you look at P.K. today, that’s one of the traits he has as a hockey player. It doesn’t matter what’s happening off the ice, it doesn’t matter what’s written about him or what’s said about him. He’s going to go out and play. And I’ve got to give Mike Marson credit for that.”

The elder Subban also credits Marson for igniting his love for hockey – a passion that he passed onto P.K., middle son Malcolm, a goaltender for the AHL Providence Bruins, and youngest son Jordan, a defenseman for the AHL’s Utica Comets.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Karl Subban grew up in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, where Marson played major junior hockey for the Sudbury Wolves, then of the Ontario Hockey Association.

Marson was the Man in Sudbury: a black skating, scoring, and fighting machine who wore the captain’s “C” on his jersey. He exuded unabashed blackness – sporting an Afro, Fu Manchu mustache and mutton chop sideburns.

Mike Marson, front row center, with the 1973-74 Sudbury Wolves (Photo/Courtesy Sudbury Wolves)

Mike Marson, front row center, with the 1973-74 Sudbury Wolves (Photo/Courtesy Sudbury Wolves).

“Mike Marson gave my community a reason to watch hockey,” Karl Subban told me. “I loved the Sudbury Wolves.But when Mike came onto the scene I took it to another level. They were not just the Sudbury Wolves, they were my team because they had a player who looked like me.”

Between 1972 and 1974 Marson tallied 40 goals, 87 assists and amassed a whopping 263 penalty minutes in 126 regular season games for the Wolves. His hockey resume was strong enough that the expansion Capitals grabbed him with the first pick in the second round of the 1974 NHL Draft.

“I was pretty quick,” said Marson, who works as a bus driver in Toronto.”Having attended so many training camps where I was the only person of color, I had to be able to handle myself. I liked to score, I wasn’t afraid of the rough stuff.”

He was chosen ahead of Hockey Hall of Famers Bryan Trottier, a center who scored 1,425 career points mainly for the New York Islanders, and Mark Howe, who tallied 742 career points as a defenseman playing primarily with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Mike Marson scored 16 goals in his rookie season with the Capitals in 1974-75. (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

Mike Marson scored 16 goals in his rookie season with the Capitals in 1974-75. (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

The Capitals believed they had a solid pick, so did other hockey people. Plus, it didn’t hurt to have a black player as a potential gate attraction in a new hockey city with a sizable black population.

Marson graced the cover of The Hockey News in October 1974. When he made his regular season debut with the Caps at age 19, he became the NHL’s second black player, the first since forward Willie O’Ree played his last game for the Boston Bruins in the 1960-61 season. O’Ree  first joined the Bruins in the 1957-58 season.

Marson showed promise in an otherwise dismal inaugural season for the Capitals. The rookie finished third on the team in scoring with 16 and 12 assists in 76 games.

“He was a great talent – a great skater, great puck skills, tough as they come. He was the complete package,” said right wing Bill Riley, who became the NHL’s third black player when he joined the Capitals for one game in 1974-75 and went on to become a sometimes line mate of Marson’s from 1976 to 1979. “He was strong. I only came across two guys with that kind of strength: Stan Jonathan and Mike Marson. When Mike hit you, you knew you got hit.”

There weren't many NHL players stronger than Mike Marson, according to former Capitals teammate Bill Riley, who was the league's third black player (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

There weren’t many NHL players stronger than Mike Marson, according to former Capitals teammate Bill Riley, who was the league’s third black player (Photo/Washington Capitals archives).

Still, Riley, who went on to become Junior A hockey general manger and a head coach of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats in 1996-97, said “I was looking for bigger and better things for Mike.”

So was Marson. But being drafted at 18, becoming a $500,000 bonus baby, and going straight to the NHL without a proper apprenticeship in the minor leagues might have been too much too soon, he said.

And the culture shock of moving from Canada – where he considered himself a hockey player first – to an NHL city south of the U.S. Mason-Dixon line in the racially-tumultuous 1970s also took its toll.

“You can’t really compare my situation back in 1974 to today’s way of thinking,” he told me. “There’s no way to measure that by today’s uplifted society.”

But Marson says he doesn’t dwell on the painful past. Age brings perspective. And healing.

“You don’t get to be 60 and not have some regrets in your life – decisions you made here and there,” he told me. “You react differently than you did at 19 or 16. For me, it’s interesting to have put away all the negative things that transpired so many years ago – we’re talking over 40 years ago – when the world was a totally different place.”

 

 

 

 

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On #OscarsSoWhite night, a movie highlights hockey’s diversity

25 Thursday Feb 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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#OscarsSoWhite, Damon Kwame Mason, Soul on Ice

On an evening when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will struggle with the lack of diversity among its Oscars nominees, the NHL Network will highlight hockey’s gradually growing diversity with an encore presentation of “Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future.”

Damon Kwame Mason (right)interviewed hockey great Herb Carnegie before he passed away in March 2012.

Damon Kwame Mason (right)interviewed hockey great Herb Carnegie before he passed away in March 2012.

The cable network will air first-time filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s black hockey history documentary on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST. (Other time zones, check your local listings).

The network broadcast the film Wednesday night and NHLers from players such as Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley to Commissioner Gary Bettman and Washington Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis have taken to the airwaves to promote the film.

“It’s a special thing for someone for someone to put a film out like this,” Daley told “NHL Live Powered by Constellation.”

Bryce Salvador –  a retired defenseman who played for the St. Louis Blues, New Jersey Devils – called the movie “so important.”

“When I was 7-8 years old, just seeing Grant Fuhr play during the heydays of the Oilers really opened my mind to what was possible for someone of color,” Salvador said. “When you see diversity, how it’s growing, ‘Hockey is for Everyone,’ and where it’s going, it’s phenomenal.”

 

 

 

 

 

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“Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future” makes U.S. premiere in D.C.

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

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Damon Kwame Mason, Gary Bettman, Soul on Ice, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals, Willie O'Ree

What a week in Washington!

President Barack Obama delivered his last State of the Union address Tuesday and the National Hockey League and the Washington Capitals hosted a screening Wednesday of a full-length documentary on the history and growing impact of blacks in ice hockey.

“Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future” had its U.S. premiere before a near-capacity audience at Washington’s Landmark E Street Cinema with plenty of hockey star power on hand. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, Washington Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis and Capitals Head Coach Barry Trotz were in the house.

Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player, former NHL goaltender/turned NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes, former NHL forward and current MSG Networks and NBCSN hockey analyst Anson Carter were there for a post-screening question and answer session that I had the honor to moderate.

Left to right, Anson Carter, Kevin Weekes, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, hockey legend Willie O'Ree, filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason, and Washington Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis at U.S. screening of Mason's "Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future."

Left to right, Anson Carter, Kevin Weekes, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, hockey legend Willie O’Ree, filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason, and Washington Capitals Owner Ted Leonsis at U.S. screening of Mason’s “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future.”

“It’s a story that needed to be told, but not many people even imagined it could exist,” Bettman  said of the documentary. “If you told somebody about this movie without actually seeing it, they’d think it was a work of fiction, like ‘how could it be because I’ve never heard of such a thing’ is what you get from most people.”

Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason was on hand to gauge a U.S. audience’s response to a film that he poured his heart, soul, and wallet into for the last four years. Mason was so committed to the project that the former disc jockey sold his condo to help fund it.

Director of Soul on Ice, Kwame Mason and Commissioner Bettman. pic.twitter.com/ExsBa1utqZ

— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) January 13, 2016

Mason hasn’t seen a paycheck in about three years, but he basked in a wealth of applause and appreciative remarks from the D.C. audience Wednesday night.

“The biggest thing that this screening means to me is all that hard work,  all those midnights worrying, all that stressing out, all that wondering what’s going to happen the next day, it made me feel like it was all worth it,” he told me. “For a guy who dreamed about doing a film, and being in a position like this, is remarkable.”

The film tells the little-told story of blacks in hockey from the Coloured Hockey League in the Canadian Maritimes in the 1800s to the exploits of forward Herb Carnegie – regarded as the best Canadian hockey player never to skate in the NHL – to O’Ree breaking in with the Boston Bruins, despite being blind in one eye.

While paying homage to the past, “Soul on Ice” examines the present by focusing on current stars like Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds, Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban, and Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Trevor Daley.

It gives a glimpse of the game’s future by following the path of Owen Sound Attack forward Jaden Lindo from his Ontario Hockey League junior team to the 2014 NHL Draft in Philadelphia. He was chosen by the Penguins in the sixth round of the draft with the 173rd overall pick.

Bettman and other NHL officials had seen the movie earlier, but Ken Martin, the league’s senior vice president of community and diversity programming, didn’t let O’Ree, who is the NHL’s director of youth development, get an early peek at Mason’s product.

Color of Hockey Editor William Douglas with The Bearded One - NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman at "Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future" screening in Washington, D.C.

Color of Hockey Editor William Douglas with The Bearded One – NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman at “Soul on Ice, Past, Present and Future” screening in Washington, D.C.

When O’Ree watched his legacy on the big screen, the hockey pioneer who joined the Bruins in 1958, became emotional.

“Unbelievable,” he told NHL.com. “Now I know why he didn’t want me to see it. It was breathtaking, really. I was thrilled when I saw it.”

Trotz, who coached forward Joel Ward when he was with the Capitals and Nashville Predators, said the documentary was an eye-opener.

“What I liked about it is it was three stories for me – it was a history of the game, Kwame’s story, and it was young Jaden’s story,” Trotz told NHL.com. “There are some things that I feel ignorant on being someone in the game and not knowing all the story. It’s quite enlightening.”

MORNING READ: A new documentary, “Soul on Ice," explores the trials&triumphs of black hockey players https://t.co/9rkd6pLZW7 #whatimreading

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 14, 2016

Mason said the hard work of making the movie is over but the hard work of trying to get the documentary before the general public is still ahead of him.

He’s hoping to work with the NHL in getting it televised nationally by the NHL’s broadcast partners, NBC in the U.S. and Sportsnet in Canada.

TheColorOfHockey | Hockey for Fans and Players of Color. https://t.co/X4BjLgLp85

— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) January 14, 2016

For more information about the documentary, visit http://www.soulonicemovie.com.

 

 

 

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