Sports

 

 

Willie O’Ree: Breaking Down Barriers

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

J anuary 18, 2008 marked the 50"
anniversary of Willie O’Ree’s debut in
the NHL with the Boston Bruins. O’Ree
was the first black player in NHL history,
and just like Jackie Robinson in baseball,
he had to endure taunts and racial slurs.
Unlike Robinson however, O’Ree was
allowed to fight back.

Before O’Ree played his
first NHL game against the Montreal
Canadians in Montreal on January 18,
1958, there had never been a black
NHLer in the league’s 47-year history.

In 1961 with Boston, during
his first ever road trip to Chicago to face
the Blackhawks, Chicago’s forward Eric
Nesterenko took a blatant cheap shot at
O’Ree, butt ending him with his stick
directly in the face, knocking out all of
O’Ree’s front teeth and busting open
his nose. Afterwards, as O’Ree clutched
his battered face and looked at the pool

of his own blood on the ice, Nesterenko
laughed cruelly and made demeaning
racial comments. O’Ree snapped and
bashed Nesterenko over the head with
his stick.

Pandemonium
ensued. Both benches
emptied and a full-scale
brawl broke out. The
much bigger Nesterenko
charged O’Ree and
pounded him. After
order was restored, the
officials tossed both
O’Ree and Nesterenko,
who had to have 15
stitches. It was in the
dressing room shortly
after his ejection that O’Ree recalls his
decision to stay in hockey.

“T turned out the lights and
meditated in the dark, I said to myself,
‘is this really worth it, do I really want to

“O’Ree was
forced to keep to
himself a secret
that dramatically

affected his
playing ability.”

subject myself to this every day?’ After
some soul-searching, I decided I couldn’t
give in. I wasn’t going to leave because
someone was trying to drive me out. I’d
gone through too much
already to quit.”

While his 45 career
NHL games doesn’t
sound impressive and
would suggest the career
of a journeyman player,
O’Ree was forced
to keep to himself a
secret that dramatically

affected his playing
ability: he was blind in
one eye.

During his final season
of junior in 1956 with the Kitchener
Rangers, O’Ree received a hard slap shot
to the face that broke his nose, shattered
his cheek bone and most damagingly,
broke the retina in his right eye beyond

repair. At just 19, O’Ree’s career
appeared to be over prematurely, but
he refused to quit and opted to continue
playing despite the injury. O’Ree had to
keep it a closely guarded secret, as NHL
rules prohibited players who couldn’t
meet the mandated vision requirements.

Now 73, O’Ree toiled for years
in the minor leagues and carved out a
successful career as an established scorer.
In 2000 he was presented with the Lester
Patrick award for services to hockey in
the United States and was honored earlier
this year in his hometown of Fredericton,
New Brunswick, which named the local
arena after him.

While his tenure in the National
Hockey League might have been limited,
Willie O’Ree displayed a sense of
courage that not many possess. He was
a pioneer for the game of hockey, and 50
years later, his accomplishments are still
worth celebrating.

 

Where Are They Now?

By Garth McLennan, Sports Editor

eae wonder what happened to the professional athletes who have disappeared
from the public eye? Here are a few whose glory years have passed them by.

 

 

 

   

Dustin Slade

The former Vancouver Giants record-
setting goaltender has faded into
obscurity after his terrible decision to
leave the G-Men in February of 2007.

After ditching the Giants in
mid-season to land a job in the pros
after he got tired of splitting time with
Tyson Sexsmith, no teams would sign
him. Slade, who despite a large amount
of talent, had always been a discipline
case.

Slade was frozen in hockey
limbo, unable to go professional and
unable to return to junior after the Giants
refused to trade his rights and declined his
request to return to the team. He worked
for his father, a building manager, before
finishing up the season, and his junior
career with the Halifax Wolverines in the
Maritime Junior A hockey league. Since
then, Slade has faded away.

 

Stan Smyl

After he retired from the NHL at the
conclusion of the 1990-91 season, Smyl
moved immediately into coaching. His
coaching career would span 13 seasons,
during which he was the Canucks
assistant coach until 1999.

After being relieved of his
duties as a Vancouver assistant, Smyl
was hired as the head coach of the
Syracuse Crucnch in the American
Hockey League. He would then shift as
the top man for the IHL’s Kansas City
Blades before becoming the coach of the
Manitoba Moose, the Canuck’s top AHL
affiliate.

Smyl was never able to turn
the Moose into an elite squad, and
Randy Caryle, who is now coaching the
Anaheim Ducks, replaced him. He was
retained in the Vancouver organization,
and is currently the Canucks’ director of
player development.

 

 

 

 

Marc Bergevin
Retirement just didn’t suit ex-
Vancouver Canuck Marc Bergevin, who
last played in the NHL in 2004. After
briefly retiring, Bergevin signed on
for two tours of duty in the American
Hockey League with several different
teams, Bergevin accepted a coaching
position with the Chicago Blackhawks
AHL affiliate.

He was soon back on the ice in
a playing capacity, as player shortages
for a few games allowed Bergevin to
return to the game as a player/coach.

Bergevin, who during his
lengthy professional hockey career was
widely known as the best practical joker
in the business, has at long last hung
up his skates for good. He is now the
Director of professional scouting for
the Blackhawks, the team he opened his
NHL career with.

In his position, Bergevin looks
to unearth the hockey gems buried
in the rough throughout all of the
professional leagues.

      

 

 

 

Al MacInnis
The legendary blueliner with the
booming shot may have retired from
playing due to a serious eye injury, but
Al MacInnis is still keeping busy. After
recently being inducted into the Hockey
Hall of Fame in one of the strongest
entry classes in history, MacInnis loves
his position of revitalizing the St. Louis
Blues franchise as the vice-president
of hockey operations, behind only
president John Davidson.

MacInnis played a remarkable
23 seasons in the NHL before
sustaining his injury. He was renowned
throughout the league as the possessor
of the hardest shot in NHL history, and
terrorized goaltenders for his entire
career. MacInnis soon went to work for
the team that retired his #2 sweater and
has played a major role in the Blues’
return to respectability in the NHL.

 

 

20