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Ex-Caps Mike Marson and Bill Riley bask in Devante Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup heroics

12 Tuesday Jun 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Bill Riley, Devante Smith-Pelly, Mike Marson, Stanley Cup, Vegas Golden Knights, Washington Capitals

Mike Marson wasn’t able to make it to D.C. Tuesday to witness the Washington Capitals’ Stanley Cup victory parade with other Caps alumni members –  he was grounded by the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis.

But Marson was hooting and rooting from afar, basking in the glow of a championship won by the team that made him the National Hockey League’s second black player when it drafted him in its inaugural season in 1974.

“They had some tremendous play from (Alex) Ovechkin, Mr. Devante Smith-Pelly, (Braden) Holtby,” Marson told me. “So many guys played well.”

Former Washington Capitals forward Mike Marson is thrilled that his team finally won the Stanley Cup.

He had special praise for Smith-Pelly, a fellow black player from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, who came up big in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 7 goals and 1 assist in 23 post-season games.

“He was heroic. He scored the most-important goals, I believe,” Marson said. “I take my hat off to Devo. A lot of hard work there, a little bit of rough water occasionally, I think, but good for him. He came out the superstar and was all that he could be.”

Smith-Pelly scored three goals in the final three goals in the final three games against the Vegas Golden Knights, none bigger than the smooth (real smooth, reeaall smooth) Game 5 third-period tally he slid past goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury that tied the game at 3.

Capitals center Lars Eller scored the game-winning goal that secured a 4-3 win and the Cup for the Capitals. But without Smith-Pelly’s acrobatic goal, there’s no go-ahead goal by Eller.

Embed from Getty Images

Actor Denzel Washington may be The Equalizer in movie theaters this summer, but Smith-Pelly nailed the role on ice in Las Vegas last Thursday night, much to Marson’s delight.

Washington Capitals forward Mike Marson, circa 1974-75.

Marson was so thrilled by the right wing’s Game 5 goal that he threw a cushion at his television – an odd family tradition.

“When my dad, myself and my Uncle Romeo used to watch hockey, when something went one way or the other, we would throw out cushions at the TV and laugh, of course,” he said.

After the ceremonial cushion toss, Marson grabbed the phone and called Bill Riley, who became the NHL’s third black player when he joined Marson on the Capitals in 1974-75, to compare notes on what they just witnessed.

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

Riley, who played right wing, summed up Smith-Pelly’s Game equalizer to me in four emailed words: “Gives me goosebumps. Wicked.”

Marson and Riley take pride in Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup success because, like them, he has overcome.

Washington Capitals right wing Devante-Smith Pelly.

He’s overcome the racist ignorance of “fans” who taunted him with chants of “basketball” as he sat in the penalty box in Chicago in February during a game against the Blackhawks.

Marson endured racist taunts and death threats during his four seasons with the Capitals, a turbulent time chronicled in Canadian filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason’s seminal black hockey history documentary, “Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future.”

Still, Marson managed to score 24 goals and 24 assists in 196 NHL regular season games from 1974-75 to his final three games with the Los Angeles Kings in 1979-80.

Riley still recalls when “fans” in Detroit dismissively referred to him and Marson as “round ball players.” The racist indignities on and off the ice didn’t deter Riley from scoring 31 goals and 30 assists in 139 games with Washington and the Winnipeg Jets from 1974-75 to 1979-80.

Bill Riley and Mike Marson were teammates on the Washington Capitals in the mid-1970s. Both are proud as parents about Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly’s Stanley Cup Final success (Photos/Washington Capitals archives).

Both retired Caps are overjoyed that Smith-Pelly kept on keeping on after being cast aside and doubted by the Anaheim Ducks, the team that drafted him in the second round of the 2010, the Montreal Canadiens, and New Jersey Devils.

A free agent, he signed with the Capitals before the start of the 2017-18 season for the league minimum $650,000. He dutifully played on the Capitals fourth line, a checking line that didn’t get big minutes during the regular season.

Embed from Getty Images

“I was in touch with Devante,” Marson said. “Devo’s a Scarborough guy and this and that. He endured as a player, kept getting better every game, and was playing with confidence.”

Devante Smith-Pelly crushing beers in a WWE belt before noon is a big mood (via @Capitals) pic.twitter.com/BXrOwEoiJk

— SI Extra Mustard (@SI_ExtraMustard) June 12, 2018

Smith-Pelly made the most of his opportunities, notching 7 goals and 9 assists in 75 regular season games. Then came the Playoffs, The Goal, The Cup and The Parade.

“Devo was able to make it happen,” Marson 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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Ex-Capitals Mike Marson and Bill Riley feel Smith-Pelly’s pain on racist taunts

22 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Chicago Blackhawks, Devante Smith-Pelly, Mike Marson, Washington Capitals, Willie O'Ree

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA Mike Marson can relate to what Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly endured when four Chicago Blackhawks “fans” racially taunted him as he sat in the press box at the United Center last Saturday.

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

“One can only imagine what it must have felt like when a certain 18 year old was all by himself against such bad form on and off the ice,” Marson told me.

Marson doesn’t have to imagine it. He lived it his rookie year with the expansion Capitals in 1974-75. He was the National Hockey League’s second black player, entering the league 16 years after Willie O’Ree broke in with the Boston Bruins.

Marson expressed disgust that black players are being targeted with racial slurs and disdain for the fans – and sometimes players – who utter them.

“It’s a shame that pro hockey in all its greatness still has these low points,” he told me.

Bill Riley echoed Marson’s sentiment. Riley, a forward, joined the Capitals shortly after Marson. They say misery loves company, but Riley said he wouldn’t wish the racial vitriol that he and Marson endured on anyone.

“They referred to Mike Marson and I as round ball players in Detroit in the mid seventies and wasn’t (just) the fans,” Riley told me. “Hard to believe that garbage still exists 40 plus years later.”

The “fans” who were removed and subsequently banned from Blackhawks home games showered Smith-Pelly with a chorus of “basketball, basketball, basketball,” a not-too-thinly veiled message that he should be a power forward in the National Basketball Association, not the NHL.

Bill Riley and Mike Marson were teammates on the Washington Capitals in the mid-1970s. They experienced the same racists taunts that Capitals forward Devente Smith-Pelly endured in Chicago. Photos/Washngton Capitals).

“It’s pretty obvious what that means,” Smith-Pelly said of the taunts. “Whether it’s that word or any other word, I got the idea. And I’m sure they got the idea, too. Just one word, and that’s really all it takes.”

Marson and Riley didn’t go public about what they went through when they were playing.

Neither wanted to be viewed as complainers or malcontents because they thought it would be a sure way to get a one-way ticket to the minor leagues and hockey obscurity.

So they suffered in silence. Riley praises Smith-Pelly and other black players in the NHL for stepping up and speaking out against racist behavior on the ice and in the stands.

Pretty embarrassing that this still happens. Doesn't shock me though which is the saddest part of all. Those ppl should be banned from every rink in the NHL #ignorance @NHL @NHLBlackhawks

— Wayne Simmonds (@Simmonds17) February 19, 2018

Hockey is for everyone. If you think black athletes should only play basketball, than you clearly don’t know much about sports. There’s no room for racism in the rink or anywhere.

— Jt brownov (@JTBrown23) February 18, 2018

“Kudos to Smith-Pelly,” Riley 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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Eight is great for ‘Krash’ Green, just as it was for her NHL pioneer grandad

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Alex Ovechkin, Bill Riley, Kryshanda Green, Mike Marson, Ryerson University, Washington Capitals, Willie O'Ree

When Ryerson University hockey forward Kryshanda Green had to choose what number to wear on her jersey this season, she quickly picked No.8 in honor of a certain Washington Capitals player.

While high-scoring  Alex Ovechkin is currently Washington’s Great Eight, Green’s choice pays homage to a different No. 8 who she thinks is pretty great: her grandfather, Bill Riley.

Ryerson University's Kryshanda Green (Photo/Alex D'Addese).

Ryerson University’s Kryshanda Green (Photo/Alex D’Addese).

Riley, who the number for the Capitals from 1976 to 1979, was the National Hockey League’s third black player. He followed in the skates of teammate Mike Marson and Willie O’Ree, who became the league’s first black player when he joined the Boston Bruins in 1958.

“My grandfather is like a a huge influence on me, he’s very inspiring,” Green told me recently. “I know he dealt with a lot of adversity. His situation is something that I can be proud of for the rest of my life.”

Green took Riley’s number as a personal reminder of the obstacles that he had to overcome and the perseverance he displayed in not letting anyone  – including some racist fans and fellow players – or anything prevent him from achieving his goals.

“It was more when I was in the minor leagues – I went through a lot in the minors,” Riley, who grew up in Nova Scotia, told me recently. “I got called names down in the U.S., I didn’t even know what they meant. I had to ask another black guy. They used to call me ‘chitlin.‘ I didn’t know what a chitlin was. We don’t have chitlins up in Canada, we don’t eat chitlins in Canada.”

Riley appeared in 139 NHL games over five seasons with the Capitals and Winnipeg Jets, notching 31 goals and 30 assists.

Bill Riley, the NHL's third black player, donned the Number 8 for the Washington Capitals long before Alex Ovechkin made it famous.(Photos/Washington Capitals).

Bill Riley, the NHL’s third black player, donned the No. 8 for the Washington Capitals long before Alex Ovechkin made it famous.(Photos/Washington Capitals).

Green says she’s taking lessons from Riley’s perseverance and using it to revive a promising hockey career that hit a big red stop sign three seasons ago.

Green began her Canadian collegiate hockey career at London, Ontario’s Western University in 2012-13. She tallied 9 goals and 13 assists for the Mustangs and earned Ontario University Athletics’ All-Rookie Team honors that season.

But success on ice didn’t translate to success in the classroom. Hitting the books wasn’t her top priority.

“I wasn’t ready academically,” she said. “I wasn’t willing to do the work. I wasn’t willing to study or put dedication toward academics. I was certainly willing to play hockey. I did that day in and day out, anytime I could. I loved it. But academically, I hadn’t matured in the same way, and that was my downfall.”

Kryshanda Green leads Ryerson University's women's hockey team in scoring in the 2016-17 season (Photo by Alex D'Addese/ Ryerson Rams Athletics)

Kryshanda Green leads Ryerson University’s women’s hockey team in scoring in the 2016-17 season (Photo by Alex D’Addese/ Ryerson Rams Athletics)

Frustrated, Green left Western and quit hockey altogether – moves that broke her grandfather’s heart.

“It really disappointed me because I knew how good she was,” said Riley, 66. “She has a gear that a lot of players will never get, no matter how hard they work. She is so explosive to the outside, she’s unbelievable. And she shoots the puck a ton – she fires bullets for a girl that small. She was too darn good not to play.”

“To be honest, I think my grandfather was the most upset,” Green recalled. “He was like ‘What are you doing? How can you stop playing? You’ve got to get through this.'”

But Green said was stubbornly determined not to return to the rink. She filled the hockey void by getting in touch with her artistic side.

She collaborated with Toronto-area hip-hop artists and even released her own EP and video as the artist known as Krash.

But even as she busted rhymes, hockey remained on her mind.

“It was something that I knew I wasn’t done with, that I finished too early,” Green told me. “It was something that I was tired of keeping me up at night.”

While performing music was fun, working regular jobs in Toronto area warehouses and for a film services company from 2013 to 2015 were hardly inspiring, Green confessed.

Fortunately, a life-line came in the form of a phone call from Lisa Haley, Ryerson’s women’s hockey head coach and former assistant coach on the Canadian women’s national team that won gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Haley wanted to know if Green was interested in playing hockey again. Krash dropped the mic and grabbed a stick.

“I thought I wasn’t going to get another chance to finish what I started after all these years, so I took it because I thought that getting an education was the most valuable thing for me to get right now,” Green said.

Green was red-shirted at Ryerson last season, meaning she didn’t appear in single game for the Rams. That gave her time to focus on academics, which resulted in a 3.5 grade-point average last year, she said.

“This year, I’m currently a 3.0. After exams, hopefully, it will be higher,” Green, a politics and governance major, told me. “It’s the most important part.”

Her on-ice stats are pretty good, too. The 5-foot-4 forward from Brampton, Ontario, leads the Rams in scoring with 8 goals and 7 assists for 15 points in 12 games. She’s fourth in the OUA in points; fourth in goals; and eighth in assists.

She’s tenth in goals and thirteenth in points in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, the country’s version of the NCAA.

“It’s been amazing,” Green said of her success after the long hockey layoff. “I have a greater appreciation for the game that I never thought I’d have. It feels like home again…It’s honestly such a privilege for me to get on the ice. For me, just being able to step on the ice and play a game is huge.”

Kryshanda Green is thrilled to be playing hockey again after a lengthy layoff (Photo by Alex D'Addese/ Ryerson Rams Athletics)

Kryshanda Green is thrilled to be playing hockey again after a lengthy layoff (Photo by Alex D’Addese/ Ryerson Rams Athletics)

Green’s work ethic and dedication earned her an assistant captain’s “A” on her jersey this season, a symbol that she’s a team leader.

“She is highly skilled, she’s got blazing speed on the ice, but the bigger impact of ‘Krash’s’ legacy on our program has been her leadership,” Haley said. “She is the picture of accountability, integrity and perseverance. These are key qualities that every successful team embodies and she brought these to the rink every single day last year, knowing she wouldn’t even play a game the entire season.”

Just what proud grandpa Bill Riley likes to hear.

“She’s blowing the doors off her grades,” he said of his granddaughter. “And she’s blowing the doors off the hockey.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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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