by Colin Dennis

Created on: April 21, 2009   Last Updated: May 02, 2009

Although there is some debate about when hockey was first played, there is agreement that the first recorded game was between Canadian soldiers around the middle of the 19th century. It is also accepted that the Montreal Gazette first published the rules of the game in 1877.

African-Canadians have had a history of participation in hockey that goes back to the start of hockey in Canada. In 1900, before the founding of the National Hockey League (NHL), African-Canadians formed a Colored Hockey League in Halifax, Nova Scotia that was attended by as many as 1,500 spectators, most of whom were white.

In 1957 Willie O'Ree became the first African-Canadian to play in the NHL. Mike Marson and Bill Riley who were signed by the Washington Capitals and played with the team between 1974 and 1979 followed O'Ree. In 1982 Val James who played for the Buffalo Sabres for four years, was the first African-American to play in the NHL. In the 2008/2009 season the only African-Americans were the Washington Capitals forward, Donald Brashear and San Jose Sharks forward Mike Grier.

While African-Canadians have had a long association with hockey, African-American athletes -a constant presence in basketball, football, baseball and boxing- have had a barely negligible presence in the NHL. What accounts for this discrepancy?

Because of hockey's Canadian heritage, a predominantly large number of minority hockey players in NHL have been Canadian. Therefore care has to be taken in differentiating between players who are born in the United States (African-American) and those born in Canada (African-Canadian). This clarification does not detract from the issues affecting either group's participation in the NHL, but African-Americans' relative absence from the league does bring the issue into sharper focus.

In general, hockey does not enjoy the popularity of the other major sports. In a January 2007 Harris poll of adults who follow more than one sport, professional football was the most popular sport in the U.S. with 29 percent of adults saying it was their favorite sport. This was followed by baseball (14%), college football (13%), auto racing (9%), basketball (7%) and hockey 4 percent.

It seems obvious from those statistics that African-Americans are more likely to participate in the more popular sports like football, baseball and basketball. Yet, there appears to be other factors at play: the lack of money and access to equipment and hockey rinks among African-American (and African-Canadian) families.

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