Willie O'Ree looks back

[Fenway]

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/willie-oree-nhl-color-barrier/

I didn’t even know.

It’s the darndest thing — but I didn’t even know.

On January 18, 1958, when I stepped onto the ice to play for the Boston Bruins, I honestly had no earthly idea that I was breaking hockey’s color barrier.

Willie O'Ree played for the Bruins 18 months before the Red Sox finally allowed a black player to play.

Boston of the 1950's was a very segregated city and that would continue for decades. Tom Yawkey may or may not have been racist but he certainly hired executives and managers that were. Yawkey feared integration would cause fans to stop coming and he may have been justified in thinking that way given what happened to the National League Braves. In 1950 the Braves signed Sam Jethro as a 33 year who would win 'Rookie of the Year' and attendance at Braves Field dropped dramatically. (Red Sox attendance stayed the same) The Braves core fanbase was Allston-Brighton, Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown and working class Newton. My Dad was a Sox fan, but my Mom was a Braves fan.

Now the Bruins bring up a black player in 1958 and O'Ree writes at length at what it was like. I do know Boston fans accepted him unconditionally. He was a Bruin.

I suspect the Bruins did it first because of Walter Brown who was indeed colorblind when it came to athletes. He helped start the NBA as a way to light up dark NHL arenas when the team was on the road.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/willie-oree-nhl-color-barrier/

I’s 1949, I’m 14 years old, and my hometown team has just won the Junior Championships.

In baseball, that is.

The reward for winning is a fairly good one: our whole team gets a trip to New York City. We’re going to visit Radio City Music Hall. We’re going to climb to the top of the Empire State Building. We’re going to walk along Coney Island.

Oh, and one more thing.

We’re going to meet Jackie Robinson.

It’s happening on our last day, after a Dodgers game in Brooklyn. Jackie has just broken baseball’s color barrier — only two years prior, in 1947 — and already, to us, he’s nothing short of an icon. So we watch the Dodgers game — one teammate more excited than the next. It ends, as games do. It’s finally time.

It’s time to meet Jackie.

They run and get him. The team forms a line as we each wait our turn. One by one, I watch my teammates shake the hand of The Great Jackie Robinson. Sometimes it’s a handshake and a smile. Sometimes it’s a quick word. At long last, Jackie gets to me.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Robinson,” I say. “I’m Willie O’Ree.”

“Nice to meet you, Willie,” Jackie says, shaking my hand.

He flashes a smile, and I can sense him moving on — shifting his posture to the next kid on the team. I turn to him, slightly.

“I’m a baseball player,” I say, raising my voice. “But what I really love — is hockey.”

“Oh?” Jackie says, turning back to me, still smiling. “I didn’t know black kids played hockey.”

I smile back.

“Yup.”

It’s 1962, I’m 27 years old, and I’ve just been invited to an NAACP luncheon.

I’m there with the coach of my current team, the Los Angeles Blades, and a few other players. My coach notices the guest of honor, standing over in the corner — minding his business, talking to some people. He waits a few minutes for their conversation to end. And then he brings me over.

He taps the guest of honor on the shoulder.

“Mr. Robinson, I’d like you to meet one of our players, Willie O’Ree.”

Jackie Robinson turns around, and looks at me for a moment.

“Willie O’Ree,” he says, shaking my hand. “You’re the young fellow I met in Brooklyn.”

 

[GordonHowe]

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/willie-oree-nhl-color-barrier/



Willie O'Ree played for the Bruins 18 months before the Red Sox finally allowed a black player to play.

Boston of the 1950's was a very segregated city and that would continue for decades. Tom Yawkey may or may not have been racist but he certainly hired executives and managers that were. Yawkey feared integration would cause fans to stop coming and he may have been justified in thinking that way given what happened to the National League Braves. In 1950 the Braves signed Sam Jethro as a 33 year who would win 'Rookie of the Year' and attendance at Braves Field dropped dramatically. (Red Sox attendance stayed the same) The Braves core fanbase was Allston-Brighton, Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown and working class Newton. My Dad was a Sox fan, but my Mom was a Braves fan.

Now the Bruins bring up a black player in 1958 and O'Ree writes at length at what it was like. I do know Boston fans accepted him unconditionally. He was a Bruin.

I suspect the Bruins did it first because of Walter Brown who was indeed colorblind when it came to athletes. He helped start the NBA as a way to light up dark NHL arenas when the team was on the road.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/willie-oree-nhl-color-barrier/

And you got the spelling right. Good on you.

 

[shackattack]

I met Wille a few years back.He would not sign no Bruins gear.Handed out photocopied hockey cards pre signed.

 

[jgatie]

I met Wille a few years back.He would not sign no Bruins gear.Handed out photocopied hockey cards pre signed.

Where exactly did you "meet" him? (Interrupting someone's day to demand they take a selfie or sign an autograph isn't "meeting" them, by the way) If I was a retired famous guy just out minding my own business, and idiots were approaching me for an autograph all the time, I'd have a bunch of pre-signed cards on me to ward off the flies too.

 

[Pie O My]

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/willie-oree-nhl-color-barrier/



Willie O'Ree played for the Bruins 18 months before the Red Sox finally allowed a black player to play.

Boston of the 1950's was a very segregated city and that would continue for decades. Tom Yawkey may or may not have been racist but he certainly hired executives and managers that were. Yawkey feared integration would cause fans to stop coming and he may have been justified in thinking that way given what happened to the National League Braves. In 1950 the Braves signed Sam Jethro as a 33 year who would win 'Rookie of the Year' and attendance at Braves Field dropped dramatically. (Red Sox attendance stayed the same) The Braves core fanbase was Allston-Brighton, Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown and working class Newton. My Dad was a Sox fan, but my Mom was a Braves fan.

Now the Bruins bring up a black player in 1958 and O'Ree writes at length at what it was like. I do know Boston fans accepted him unconditionally. He was a Bruin.

I suspect the Bruins did it first because of Walter Brown who was indeed colorblind when it came to athletes. He helped start the NBA as a way to light up dark NHL arenas when the team was on the road.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/willie-oree-nhl-color-barrier/

"good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are."

 

[zaYG]

Awesome article. Willie sounds like a rad dude. I especially loved that story about Gerald Coleman.

 

[LouJersey]

I met Wille a few years back.He would not sign no Bruins gear.Handed out photocopied hockey cards pre signed.

Are you like a 30 year old man with 15 items of memorabilia ?

 

[GarbageGoal]

I met Wille a few years back.He would not sign no Bruins gear.Handed out photocopied hockey cards pre signed.

Maybe the man has arthritis and doesn't like signing on the fly.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Where exactly did you "meet" him? (Interrupting someone's day to demand they take a selfie or sign an autograph isn't "meeting" them, by the way) If I was a retired famous guy just out minding my own business, and idiots were approaching me for an autograph all the time, I'd have a bunch of pre-signed cards on me to ward off the flies too.

He probably signed a contract with some sort of autograph dealer to not sign for anyone else and risks being sued whenever he does. So the cards are his way of being a nice guy.


Joe Montana for example is under a contract like this and can't sign. I was talking to the Syracuse University police officer who was his security escort at a game where he went to watch his kid when the kid was at Tulane and he told me Montana was taking all kinds of dogs abuse from morons desperate for an autograph and him to scribble something on their baseball cap (people can be such idiots) but he literaly couldn't sign a thing even if he wanted to due to this contract he had to not sign anything.

Adults need to have some self respect and not expect signatures from celebrities is uncalled for harassment a nod/hello/handshake and short conversation and a pleasant exchange is far better than pestering someone for their signature.


Anyways great post always good to hear from Willie one of the heroes of the game and a Bruins legend.

 

[jgatie]

Adults need to have some self respect and not expect signatures from celebrities is uncalled for harassment a nod/hello/handshake and short conversation and a pleasant exchange is far better than pestering someone for their signature.

The first time I ever asked for an autograph, I was 5 years old. My father (a commercial artist) had done a watercolor of Bobby Orr. When my brother attended Orr's sports camp in Ontario, we saw Bobby wandering around on visitor's day. My Dad got the painting out and sent my sister (4) and me over to ask him to sign it. We were just two little towheaded rug rats crossing a tennis court to ask the biggest star in the world to sign a painting, and Bobby could not have been more gracious. Even though I was stammering (and my sister just hid behind me), he knew exactly what we wanted. He even got down on one knee to talk to us for like 5 minutes, and he'd just come off surgery. Later he held my infant brother over his head and asked if he was going to play hockey someday.

It was also the last time I asked for an autograph, ever. Once you have the signature of a God, more mortals just won't do.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

The first time I ever asked for an autograph, I was 5 years old. My father (a commercial artist) had done a watercolor of Bobby Orr. When my brother attended Orr's sports camp in Ontario, we saw Bobby wandering around on visitor's day. My Dad got the painting out and sent my sister (4) and I over to ask him to sign it. We were just two little towheaded rug rats crossing a tennis court to ask the biggest star in the world to sign a painting, and Bobby could not have been more gracious. Even though I was stammering (and my sister just hid behind me), he knew exactly what we wanted. He even got down on one knee to talk to us for like 5 minutes, and he'd just come off surgery. Later he held my infant brother over his head and asked if he was going to play hockey someday.

It was also the last time I ever asked for an autograph, ever. Once you have the signature of a God, more mortals just won't do.

Haha same thing for me. Well I might have gotten Merloni's autograph at Fenway behind the dugout as a youngun on a hat before this. BUt anways I was at a Providence College game and Bobby Orr was there scouting and watching his nephew. I was able to go to the Pro Shop and get a stick for him to sign and he made it out to me (obviously so it was for me and not for my parent to turn around and sell.)

Good thing it was a lefty stick too and not a righty like I am since I'd have been tempted to shoot around with it merely since it had been touched by greatness.

Never wanted or needed another after that.

 

[GordonHowe]

The first time I ever asked for an autograph, I was 5 years old. My father (a commercial artist) had done a watercolor of Bobby Orr. When my brother attended Orr's sports camp in Ontario, we saw Bobby wandering around on visitor's day. My Dad got the painting out and sent my sister (4) and me over to ask him to sign it. We were just two little towheaded rug rats crossing a tennis court to ask the biggest star in the world to sign a painting, and Bobby could not have been more gracious. Even though I was stammering (and my sister just hid behind me), he knew exactly what we wanted. He even got down on one knee to talk to us for like 5 minutes, and he'd just come off surgery. Later he held my infant brother over his head and asked if he was going to play hockey someday.

It was also the last time I asked for an autograph, ever. Once you have the signature of a God, more mortals just won't do.

That's a nice story.

Frankly, I had never heard of Willie until KPD's piece in the Globe some years back (I think).

Everything I've heard since speaks very well of him.

 

[HumBucker]

Willie O'Ree

Fitting story to revisit for MLK Day.

On this day in 1958, Willie O'Ree made NHL history as the first black player in the league when he debuted for the Bruins.

But I had no idea, as this article points out, that he was blind in one eye, a secret he kept throughout his playing days.

 

[Ratty]

I remember Willie O'Ree when he first came up with the Bruins as an outstanding skater. Too bad his career was not longer in Boston. And, to think, the Sox had Willie Mays almost signed when the scouting staff was overruled by Tom Yawkey. To imagine of an outfield of Williams, Mays and Jensen and what could have been.....

 

[Fenway]

I remember Willie O'Ree when he first came up with the Bruins as an outstanding skater. Too bad his career was not longer in Boston. And, to think, the Sox had Willie Mays almost signed when the scouting staff was overruled by Tom Yawkey. To imagine of an outfield of Williams, Mays and Jensen and what could have been.....

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-...ge-digby-and-willie-mays-the-one-who-got-away

George Digby, the legendary Red Sox scout who died Friday at the age of 96, signed a Hall of Famer in Wade Boggs and other Sox stars in Mike Greenwell and Jody Reed, but could have altered the course of Sox history if he had not been blocked by the team's racist ownership.

"I had Willie Mays bought for $4,500," Digby told me when I interviewed him in 2005. "I called up the Red Sox. I said, 'I got Willie Mays. He'll break the color line.'"

Digby, who had been a high school baseball coach in New Orleans, was the team's first full-time scout in the South, and in 1949 -- two years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball -- recommended a 17-year-old Mays, who was playing for the Birmingham Black Barons. The Sox had a minor league team in Birmingham, the Barons, that shared the same ballpark, Rickwood Field, with the Black Barons.

Digby said he didn't know Sox GM Joe Cronin well enough at the time to make the call himself.

"Eddie Glennon, the GM of our club in Birmingham, called Cronin," recalled Digby. "The owner of the Black Barons had told us we could have Mays for $4,500. I said, 'I'll be back to you by tomorrow.' Glennon had asked me, 'What do you think?' I said, 'I think he's a big leaguer.' We could have had Mays in center and [Ted] Williams in left.

"Cronin sent another scout down to look at him, but [owner Tom] Yawkey and Cronin already had made up their minds they weren't going to take any black players."

 

[CamTheMan]

One of our city rinks is named after him!

This is the same rink where I saw Ray Bourque take a full on hard as he could slap shot from other blue line and put it top corner while a 7 year old kid was in net. It was insane. Like, the crowd didn't cheer. It was kind of scary. If that shot hit the kid he was dead. Oh during an Alumni charity event....lol

 

[Artemis]

Great story, and I love Willie O'Ree dearly. He is an absolutely awesome human being, and I'm proud he's a former Bruin.

However, for the sake of historical accuracy, though he was the first black player in the NHL, there was no "color barrier" to break, as there was in MLB. Not that there weren't racist owners and fans - of course there were/are, as O'Ree himself sadly attests. But there was no NHL equivalent to the bizarrely dubbed "gentlemen's agreement" of MLB. Obviously there wasn't a need for it, but to state that it was a tangible thing is inaccurate.

NESN broadcast a story a few years back about a reunion O'Ree and some of his former Bruins teammates had, and my favorite part was one of the Bruins players - forget who - remembering fans in other cities calling him the N-word, and the shock that registered in his voice. Like even decades later, he couldn't believe it.

 

[FRANK CANNON]

Willie O'Ree interview take two

What I was trying to say, before my router so rudely interrupted me, was that there was a fantastic Willie O'ree interview on PBS tonight.

If you like, and you should, you'll be able to catch a replay here:

http://video.wgbh.org/show/greater-boston/

 

[FRANK CANNON]

Looked fit and happy at 80 years old.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=8354

 

[Fenway]

Thanks Frank - here is a direct link to the O'Ree interview