Customer Reviews

Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey

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4 star:		(1)
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The term "black hockey player" is not the oxymoron most people assume it to be. In fact, blacks have played hockey with distinction since the 19th century. A Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes existed in Canada until the 1920s. Breaking the Ice deeply explores the rich history of blacks in hockey, giving long-overdue attention to such stars from the 1940s and '50s as Herb Carnegie and Willie O'Ree ("the Jackie Robinson of hockey") as well as Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr and more contemporary National Hockey League stars such as Jarome Iginla, Georges Laraque and Kevin Weekes. These proud men talk candidly about the racial, economic, geographical and cultural obstacles they overcame to succeed in hockey. And the successes of these men have opened the door for other ethnic groups to participate in hockey at the highest level.

Unfortunately, this interesting topic is ultimately undone by the book's facile approach & its author's lame, 4th grade prose.

Mainly, the book collects biographical information & creates portraits of many of the game's black players. Some chapters are devoted to a single player, e.g. Jarome Iginla or Willie O'Ree (the first black man to play in the NHL). Other chapters focus on players with a common thread, e.g. black goaltenders. The book is rounded out by brief looks at the opportunities (or lack thereof) for coaching & organizational positions for blacks, and at youth & diversity programs that aim to increase access to hockey for minorities.

I enjoyed reading the players' stories, how they have handled racism in their careers, and about their passion for the game. Particularly good were the chapters about early players like Herb Carnegie, who never made it to the NHL, and those who first broke the color barrier. Most of the men profiled in the book have encountered overt racism along their way to becoming elite hockey players. In some cases, the racism was totally outrageous and shockingly premeditated. Fans throwing bananas or chicken bones on the ice. The organist at an opposing team's arena leading the crowd in singing racist taunts. The mind boggles.

However, a few players featured in the book faced hardly any racially-motivated opposition to pursuing hockey, while others experienced much more adversity. Here is where the book falls short of what I would have hoped for. Why would this be? Were there circumstances that made some towns or youth leagues more accepting? Were there significant social factors or immigration patterns that had an effect? The reader is left wondering. The book is also begging for a thoughtful treatment of the fact that <2% of Canadians are of African or Carribean etc. descent, which would obviously be a factor limiting the total # of hockey-playing blacks and contributing to racism generally.

Also annoying was the consistently faux turgid and/or florid sportswriter's prose. There were countless references to players benefiting because their predecessors "smoothed the ice" for them. And check out this groan-inducing passage that opens the chapter about youth programs for minorities:

"It would be easy to mistake the group's name for a dreadful situation comedy on the television network, UPN. But Ice Hockey In Harlem only sounds like a program that could follow `Homeboys In Outer Space' on a fledgling network's prime-time schedule. Fortunately, though, Ice Hockey In Harlem is a program worthy of attention."

Geez. Get an editor.

Bottom line: Barely Recommended. I learned things, so I can't condemn it outright. Only for hockey fans with low expectations.

Cecil Harris has chronicled the history of black hockey players attempting to professionally compete in the National Hockey League. Parellels abound with the countless Afro-American baseball players attempting to play professional baseball from the early 1900's to the ground breaking Jackie Robinson inclusion in 1947.
Bonafide NHL candidates like Herbie Carnegie and Manny McIntyre were denied entry into the NHL simply because they were black...yet they were permitted to play for the Quebec Aces along with Jean Beliveau...and excelled.
Read about Willie O'Ree becoming the first black to play in the NHL with the Boston Bruins. Enduring the insults and indignites just to professionally compete in the game of hockey, O'Ree was hockey's version of Jackie Robinson.
Today, thanks to Carnegie and O'Ree, we can view black players like Jarome Iginla leading Calgary's Stanley Cup quest, as one of the major stars of the 21st century.
Carnegie, McIntyre, O'Ree and countless others (meticulously outlined in Harris' text), clearly led the way for today's Iginla, Anson Carter and Nathan Robinson...
Cecil Harris provides a timely snapshot of a welome addition to the NHL, the black professional hockey player competing at the highest level as skilled players.

This is a great book! Highly recommended for hockey fans and non-hockey fans alike.

Despite the fact that I am not a sports fan, I became engrossed in the book Breaking The Ice. This literary work is a true page turner. In comparison to the typical sports book, which is filled with statistics and plays, Harris; expertise in this field yielded an exploratory history of Black Hockey Players? successes and many obstacles in pursuit of reaching the pinnacle of their game. For most that meant achieving the goal of being a National Hockey League player. Breaking The Ice examines those Black Hockey players who in their attempt to obtain this goal endured much inhumane treatment but continues to persevere. Along with the players? mental anguish, Harris? documents how players such as: Carnegie, Marson, O?Ree, and Mayers (to name a few) love of the game inspired them to continue following their dreams even in the face of outrageous resistance from the spectators, fellow players and coaches. The Black Hockey players were determined to make it and to overcome no matter what.

Despite the fact that I am not a sports fan, I became engrossed in the book Breaking The Ice. This literary work is a true page turner. In comparison to the typical sports book, which is filled with statistics and plays, Harris; expertise in this field yielded an exploratory history of Black Hockey Players? successes and many obstacles in pursuit of reaching the pinnacle of their game. For most that meant achieving the goal of being a National Hockey League player. Breaking The Ice examines those Black Hockey players who in their attempt to obtain this goal endured much inhumane treatment but continues to persevere. Along with the players? mental anguish, Harris? documents how players such as: Carnegie, Marson, O?Ree, and Mayers (to name a few) love of the game inspired them to continue following their dreams even in the face of outrageous resistance from the spectators, fellow players and coaches. The Black Hockey players were determined to make it and to overcome no matter what.