Bruins retire Willie O’Ree’s jersey. He once brought ‘hockey is for everyone’ to Raleigh

None of the kids recognized the elderly man when he first entered Raleigh’s Chavis Community Center in November 1999.

A hockey player? He didn’t look like a hockey player. Certainly not like the hockey players the kids might have seen with the Carolina Hurricanes — or on TV.

Willie O’Ree was different. He was African-American. The kids soon learned he was the first Black player to compete in a National Hockey League game, on Jan. 18, 1958, and that he had come to Raleigh with a simple message: Hockey is for everyone.

O’Ree, then 64, had been named director of youth development of the NHL/USA Hockey Diversity Task Force, with the task of introducing children of diverse backgrounds to the sport. That day in 1999, the News & Observer reported that more than 80 young African-American kids were there to listen, to learn, to hear his story.

O’Ree didn’t come alone. With him were defensemen Paul Coffey and David Tanabe of the Hurricanes, and three Black players from the Calgary Flames, then in town to face the Canes: goalies Grant Fuhr and Fred Brathwaite, and forward Jarome Iginla.

“When I played I don’t think anyone every envisioned a Black man on the ice,” O’Ree told the kids. “Guys would taunt me. I didn’t want to fight because of that, but I had to fight and I did. ...

“The barriers that I faced are down now. If you really set your mind to it you can make it.”

O’Ree played just 45 NHL games, all with the Boston Bruins, and all but two in the 1960-61 season. He spent another 17 seasons in the minor leagues, his career hampered but never ended by a serious eye injury suffered in 1954, when he was hit by a puck.

“People told me I could never make it to the NHL,” O’Ree said in 1999. “Three seasons later I played in the NHL.”

O’Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, and is inspiration to many, including Fuhr and Iginla, who are both in the Hockey Hall of Fame(along with Coffey.)

“Being from Canada I heard all about Willie O’Ree,” Fuhr told the N&O in 1999. “People in Canada love hockey history. It’s important to have a clinic like this so kids can meet Willie and learn about hockey history.”

O’Ree, 86, has become an indelible part of hockey and NHL history, and is the league’s “Diversity Ambassador.” His jersey, No. 22, was to be retired by the Bruins on Tuesday before the scheduled game against the Hurricanes at TD Garden, even though O’Ree was not able to attend because of the pandemic.

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Tuesday the O’Ree ceremony would mark a “great achievement,” and added, “It’s the ultimate honor when you get your jersey retired. That’s as good as it gets. ... It will be a good memory for him obviously, which is the No. 1 thing, but also for a lot of people. A special night.”