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Griffin’s Korea ‘garbage goal’ Olympic puck enters Hockey Hall of Fame

23 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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2018 Winter Olympics, Harvard University, Hockey Hall of Fame, Korean unified team, Phil Pritchard, Randi Griffin

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA – Randi Griffin still can’t believe that someone picked up her “garbage.”

That’s what she calls the goal she scored for the unified Korean women’s hockey team against Japan at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The shot was a weak wrister that bounced on the ice and managed to dribble five-hole past the Japanese goaltender.

Korean-American Randi Griffin scored Korea’s first-ever Olympic ice hockey goal.

“It was a pretty crappy shot that took a couple of bounces and happened to go into the net,” the forward said after the game. “I got lucky.”

But Griffin quickly learned that one person’s garbage goal is another person’s history. Her goal was the first-ever Korean tally in Winter Olympics history, and someone had the smarts to quickly retrieve the puck from the ice.

It’s now in Toronto getting prepped to be showcased at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I still can’t believe my name will appear in the Hockey Hall of Fame because of a garbage goal, but it’s pretty cool,” she told me. “I also still can’t believe I just played hockey in the Olympics, so I guess it’s the perfect crazy unexpected ending to a crazy unexpected experience.”

The puck that forward Randi Griffin shot into the net for Korea’s first-ever Olympic ice hockey goal (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Korea unified women’s Olympic hockey team forward Randi Griffin said her goal against Japan wasn’t much of a shot. The Hockey Hall of Fame disagrees (Photo/Phil Pritchard/Hockey Hall of Fame).

Phil Pritchard,  the Hall’s curator, and keeper of the Stanley Cup, told me that the puck will be featured in the shrine’s World of Hockey display then take up permanent residence in the Olympic history display.

“Got the puck here…it is taped details of the goal etc. It’s not signed,” Pritchard told me in an email. “Once I get the artifacts back to the Hockey Hall of Fame, we will preserve, conserve and write up the proper paperwork and get captions made up.”

Embed from Getty Images

Griffin, a North Carolinian and former Harvard University player, is still pinching herself.

“I was honestly really surprised,” she told me.

The daughter of a South Korean mother and white father, Griffin was initially recruited by the Korea Ice Hockey Association in 2014 via an email asking if she’d be interested in joining its Olympic effort.

Griffin, who hadn’t played serious hockey since her senior season at Harvard in 2009-10, thought the email was a hoax and didn’t respond for months.

Once she determined it was real, she flew to South Korea for a mini-camp then joined the country’s national women’s team that would play at the Winter Games in PyeongChang.

Her crazy journey got even crazier when it was announced that 12 players from North Korea’s women’s hockey team would be added to the South Korean roster, creating a unified team.

It was the first time that players from the North and South Korean athletes played together on a single in the Winter Olympics. Initially, there was concern about how the players would bond given the tense political relationship between the two countries.

But the players apparently managed to form some bonds, despite the North Korean skaters sleeping in separate quarters and riding separate buses from the South Korean teammates.

Embed from Getty Images

Griffin, 29, recalled that she spotted some of the North Korean players getting McDonald’s Oreo McFlurries for breakfast in the dining hall at the Olympic Village.

“We all laughed about that and had McFlurries together for breakfast,” Griffin told reporters earlier this week.

The unified team struggled mightily on the ice, getting blown out by Switzerland and Sweden by 8-0 scores. They didn’t win any of its Olympic tournament games and they were outscored by opponents 2 goals to 20.

So when Griffin scored her seeing-eye goal, she knew it was Korea’s first Olympic goal, but she didn’t fully grasp what a big deal it was.

“I knew the goal would mean a lot to Korean supporters who wanted something to cheer for since we were losing games, and it certainly meant a lot to our team, but I didn’t thing anyone outside Korea would care.”

Griffin had designs for the puck – as a keepsake.

“I wanted the puck as a souvenir,” she said. “But obviously now that I know why they took it, I’m happy to let them have it.”

The Korean unified team member expects to have a reunion with the vulcanized rubber biscuit that made Olympic history when she returns to North America.

“I definitely will visit it!” Griffin said.

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Larry “King” Kwong’s jersey to hang in Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto

07 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Fred Sasaskamoose, Herb Carnegie, Hockey Hall of Fame, Larry Kwong, Montreal Canadiens, Phil Pritchard, Toronto Maple Leafs, Willie O'Ree

Larry Kwong, a Chinese-Canadian player who many believe was the first person of color to reach the National Hockey League, isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

But his hockey jersey will be.

Larry Kwong with jersey sent to Hockey Hall of Fame.

Larry Kwong with jersey sent to Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Hall recently received a  well-preserved 1942-43 Nanaimo Clippers jersey from Kwong, a diminutive scoring dynamo who made hockey history when he skated a single one-minute shift for the New York Rangers against the Montreal Canadiens during the 1947-48 season.  He accomplished the feat 10 years before forward Willie O’Ree joined the Boston Bruins and became the NHL’s first black player, skating against the Habs, and seven years before Chicago Blackhawks forward Fred Sasaskamoose became the league’s first Native/First Nations player, breaking the barrier against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Kwong, in strong voice at 90 years old, told me recently that it feels “wonderful” knowing that the jersey from his senior amateur team will hang in the Hall in Toronto and hopes that it will inspire more Chinese kids to lace up the skates, take up the game, and aim for the NHL.

“I hope it helps other Chinese players coming up,” said Kwong, who was nicknamed “King Kwong” and the “China Clipper” during his playing days. “When I first started, there was some discrimination and it was hard getting a job – I went to quite a few teams – and there was always some discrimination. I hope that this will start something, a ball rolling, and getting more Chinese boys in on the team.”

As thrilled as Kwong is of having a piece of his hockey legacy in the Hall, the Hall is overjoyed to have an artifact from Kwong’s lengthy playing and coaching career.

Larry Kwong's hockey jersey has a new home in Toronto (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Larry Kwong’s hockey jersey has a new home in Toronto (Photo/Phil Pritchard, Hockey Hall of Fame.)

“The Larry Kwong Nanaimo Clippers game worn jersey is a great addition to our Hometown Hockey display,” said Phil Pritchard, a vice president and curator at the Hockey Hall of Fame and the white-gloved gentleman who’s the keeper of the Stanley Cup. “Nanaimo has a rich hockey tradition and to have a (jersey) from ‘King Kwong’ adds to the great legacy of the game.”

Kwong’s NHL moment was brief, but the British Columbia native cherishes it as a high point of his playing career.

“I enjoyed it because all my life, when I first started as a youngster, my goal was to play in the NHL,” he said. “At that time I started with the Trail

Kwong back in the day with Nanaimo Clippers.

Kwong back in the day with Nanaimo Clippers.

Smoke Eaters, another senior team, then I went to Nanaimo, and then I went to Vancouver. All my life I wanted to play in the NHL, and then I got that chance.”

The journey of Kwong’s jersey to the Hall of Fame was aided by a 10-year-old boy’s curiosity. Quinn Soon was working on a heritage fair project on the late Herb Carnegie, a black Canadian regarded as one of the best hockey players never to reach the NHL because of his skin color. Quinn interviewed Carnegie’s daughter, Bernice, and Kwong, who played against Carnegie in the Quebec League, for the project.

Quinn remembered unsuccessful attempts to get Carnegie inducted into the Hall of Fame and wondered whether the shrine could make a display to showcase items from Carnegie – and Kwong.

“He realized they would need some memorabilia,” said Chad Soon, Quinn’s father and an educator who has championed long overdue recognition for Kwong. “So he contacted Bernice Carnegie, who agreed to donate Herb’s skates and a bunch of articles and pics. Quinn and I decided to see if we could get Larry in, too. With Bernice’s and Larry’s support, Quinn called Craig Campbell (manager of the Hall’s Resource Centre and archives), who was extremely enthusiastic about the idea.”

Bernice Carnegie says she’s still talking with Hall officials about her father’s artifacts. She believes having items from Kwong, her dad, and other players of color in the Hall is important in order for hockey to visually tell an under-told story.

Kwong's jersey joins Willie O'Ree's stick in Hall of Fame (Photo/Hockey Hall of Fame.)

Kwong’s jersey joins Willie O’Ree’s stick in Hall of Fame (Photo/Hockey Hall of Fame.)

“There are so many people who think they know all about the sport, but they are not really informed about all aspects of the sport and how difficult it actually was for people who were not like everybody else to open those doors,” she told me recently. “I think that actually just having something there to say ‘Here is another part of that wonderful sport’ that people might actually be surprised to know that there were minorities that were good enough to have played there (in the NHL) but just didn’t have that chance.”

These days, Kwong is enjoying accolades. Powered by efforts by Chad Soon and some of his students, Kwong was inducted last September into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. And his jersey adds to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s collection of minority hockey artifacts – memorabilia that includes a game-used O’Ree stick from the 1960-61 season; Hall of Fame goaltender Grant Fuhr’s equipment from his stints with the Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues; and a stick and Washington Capitals jersey from Reggie Savage, a black player who was the first NHL player to score on a penalty shot in his first game. The Hall would love to have more, Pritchard said.

“The Hockey Hall of Fame is always looking for artifacts…equipment, original slides, video, etc.,” he said. “Let us know.”

 

 

 

 

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