Willie O'Ree
William “Willie” O’Ree 1935 -
On January 18, 1958, Willie O’Ree became the first Black hockey player to compete in an NHL game. Though O’Ree was originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, O’Ree grew up idolizing baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson, whom he had the fortune of meeting while attending a Brooklyn Dodgers game as a teenager.
If not for the Underground Railroad, none of us would know the name Willie O’Ree. Thanks to the Underground Railroad, O’Ree’s grandparents were able to reach Canada after escaping escaping their enslavement in the United States.
O’Ree was no slouch on the ice. While his time with the Boston Bruins in the NHL was short, his professional hockey career was long and successful. Once his time in the NHL was up, O’Ree went on to play for the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens of the Eastern Professional Hockey League. He also skated for the Los Angeles Blades and San Diego Gulls of the Western Hockey League, where he won two scoring titles. O’Ree also played for the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League and for the San Diego Mariners of the Pacific Coast League. To say the least, O’Ree’s resume is extensive.
Most impressive about his playing career, was his hidden disability. O’Ree never told the Boston Bruins that he was blind in his right eye. After being called up to replace an injured player on the Bruins roster, O’Ree sought to avoid disclosing information that would certainly jeopardize his NHL career. Regardless, he found a way to make do. As O’Ree explains it:
“I didn’t let that stop me. Back then, they didn’t have physicals like the ones given today. I could still see out of my left eye. I wanted to play and I did what I had to do to compensate for the injury. After being injured, I came back and tried to play as if I had recovered.
To this day, O’Ree serves as the NHL’s Diversity Ambassador, a position he’s held since 1998. Long overdue, Willie O’Ree was finally inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018 following a grassroots movement initiated in his hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
