Breaking the color barrier in hockey

Most of you have heard of Jackie Robinson, and Althea Gibson the athletes who broke the color barrier in their respective sports of baseball and tennis, but a lot of you may have not heard of Willie O'Ree. Willie O'Ree was the first African American man to play the game of hockey. He played for the Boston Bruins in 1960 as a winger for 43 games scoring four goals and had ten assists. It was awesome that he was still able to play hockey because he was 95% blind in his right eye due to getting hit in the face with a puck. Normally, this would end a players career but this did not stop him from playing in the NHL. He also had experienced racism while playing and he stated "Fans would yell, 'Go back to the South' and 'How come you're not picking cotton?' Things like that. It didn't bother me. I just wanted to be a hockey player, and if they couldn't accept that fact, that was their problem, not mine."

Although hockey is not a pre-dominantly African American sport Willie O'Ree has opened the doors for many other African Americans to play hockey. He has inspired many of the African Americans that want to play in the NHL. As of the mid 2000's there has been 17 African American hockey players in the NHL. One of the most famous is Jerome Iginla who has played on the Canadian Olympic team as well as set scoring records. I feel that Willie O'Ree has been an amazing inspiration to the game of hockey and will be remembered by hockey fans just like how Jackie Robinson is remembered in the game of baseball.

Here is a link of a video I found on youtube of Willie O'Ree and his inspiration of him he has had on the game and playershttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhmbybWIPE