Colored Hockey League

The Colored Hockey League was an all-black ice hockey league founded in Nova Scotia in 1895,[1] which featured teams from across Canada's Maritime Provinces.[2][3] The league operated for several decades lasting until 1930.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Colored Hockey League
Africville Sea-Sides, c.1921
SportIce hockey
CountriesCanada
ContinentNorth America

History

The league was founded in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada by a group of four black Baptist leaders and black intellectuals: Pastor James Borden of Dartmouth Church; James A.R Kinney, who would go on to be the first black graduate from the Maritime Business College; James Robinson Johnston, who would become the first black graduate from Dalhousie University's law program on top of being the first black Nova Scotian to graduate from University; and Henry Sylvester Williams, a Trinidadian intellectual who would go on to found the Pan African Association and the First Pan African Conference and become the first black Barrister to be called to the bar in the Cape Colony.[13]

Among the teams in the league were the Halifax Eurekas, based in Halifax, and the Amherst Royals, based in Amherst.[14] At its zenith, the league had teams in seven communities in Nova Scotia and one in Prince Edward Island.[14]

With as many as a dozen teams, over 400 African Canadian players from across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island participated in competition.[15] The Colored Hockey League is credited by some as being the first league to allow the goaltender to leave his feet to cover a puck in 1900. This practice was not permitted elsewhere until the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917. In their book Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925, historians George and Darril Fosty state that the first player to use the slapshot was Eddie Martin of the Halifax Eureka in 1906.[16][9][17]

Legacy

In January 2020, Canada Post unveiled a postage stamp featuring the 1906 champion Halifax Eurekas to commemorate the history of black hockey players in Canada.[14]

See also

References
  1. Black hockey hall of fame proposed for Dartmouth, CBC Sports, August 26, 2006
  2. Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora located in Canada. Books.google.co.uk. 2009-03-26. p. 82. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  3. "Black ice hockey players helped revolutionize the game | Our Weekly | Black News and Entertainment Los Angeles". Our Weekly. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  4. Wyshynski, Greg, The real roots of hockey Archived 2007-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, thefourthperiod.com, September 12, 2006
  5. ""Everything has a soul, and hockey is no different" – The Varsity". Thevarsity.ca. 2016-03-14. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  6. Bob Dawson. "Report : Panel Discussions on Aspects of Black Hockey and the Black Ice Project" (PDF). Smu.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  7. "NHL, Worry About Rigid Racial Lines Before Climate Change | Rachel Décoste". Huffingtonpost.ca. 2014-07-24. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  8. "Greg Wyshynski :: NHL Hockey Rumors, Trades, Breaking News and more". The Fourth Period. 2007-01-07. Archived from the original on 2016-12-11. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  9. Drake, Matt (2014-03-28). "Being black in the NHL: From breaking the colour barrier to the Norris trophy - Eyes On The Prize". Habseyesontheprize.com. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  10. "Black league significant in history | The Chronicle Herald". Thechronicleherald.ca. 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  11. Joe Lapointe. "On eve of NHL draft, Seth Jones poised to take hockey to new heights". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  12. Cecil Harris. Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey. Books.google.co.uk. p. 195. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  13. "Coloured Hockey League". The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2018-02-02. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  14. "New stamp commemorates black hockey league nearly lost to time". CBC News. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
  15. Martins, Daniel, Hockey historian credits black player with first slapshot Archived March 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, CanWest News Service, January 31, 2007
  16. Drake, Matt (28 March 2014). "Being black in the NHL". Retrieved 7 December 2016.
  17. C. Keith Harrison, Ed.D; Brad Brady, M.A., M.S.; Philip E. Hamilton, B.A.; Alicia Valdez, B.A. "Hockey: Barriers to Crossing the Color Line: the Neglected Story of the Pioneering Players" (DOC). Umich.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-28.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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