Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada - c. 1800
by Garth Vaughan © 2001
Hockeyists
Overview
African-N.S.
Hockey Heritage
Coloured Champs
Firsts
NS Roots
Desire to Play
Population
Overcoming
Getting Started
Game Time/Travel
Acceptance
Accomplishments
Goal Tender...
Social Aspects
Criticism
Three Decades...
Integration
Wider Acceptance
The Colored Hockey Championship of the Maritimes
by Dr. Garth Vaughan ©
Presented at “Putting it
on Ice” World Hockey Conference, St. Mary’s University, Oct 3, 2001
Segregation - Integration
Black
Hockey Roots of Nova Scotia:
As the Mi'kmaq carvers of Nova Scotia first
gathered both hornbeam and yellow birch trees from which to fashion sticks for
Ice Hockey, they called them "hockey roots". There is no doubt that
the "roots" of the very game of Ice Hockey lie within Nova Scotia, and
the deepest of those roots lies in Windsor.
Unfortunately, the roots of the problem of segregation of African Canadians from Ice Hockey also lie within Nova Scotia - but then again, so do the roots of integration. Racism is a learned behavior. It is much easier to prevent than to overcome. The secret to prevention lies in proper respect for people in general. Respect is a natural phenomenon with children that can be reinforced by caring adults. Research shows that the first indications of integration of Black players onto adult white hockey teams started in Windsor, Nova Scotia and began on the basis of "respect". The Paris family of Windsor agree with this theory for they were at the centre of the process and have played a vital part in the major contributions made to Ice Hockey by Maritime African Canadians in subsequent years.
The Desire to Play:
It is
generally understood that unless one begins to skate and to play Ice Hockey in
childhood, he or she never becomes good at either. Therefore, when Black men began
playing good, competitive games in public rinks in the Maritimes in 1895, it is
a given that they had been involved in both for a decade or more.
Maritime Black Population:
The first Black settlers in Nova Scotia arrived from Africa in 1741, followed
by Black United Empire Loyalists in 1763 and others after the War of 1812. By
1890, the Black population was 6000. Of these, 4000 lived in segregated neighborhoods
of the Halifax/Dartmouth area and fringe communities of Africville, Preston and
Hammond's Plains. Communities of 100 or so existed in other towns. Only 165 Blacks
lived on Prince Edward Island in a community known as The Bog in Charlottetown's
West End.
Overcoming:
Since segregation prevented Blacks from playing hockey with white teams, they
created their own. Since white teams refused to accept challenges to play, Blacks
played contests with each other and seven teams existed in the Maritimes by 1900.
They referred to the themselves as 'The Colored League", as they played for
"The Colored Hockey Championship of the Maritimes". Three teams chose
names out of respect for the monarchy like the Dartmouth Jubilees, Amherst Royals
and Truro Victorias. Others were the Halifax Eurekas, Africville Seasides, and
Hammond's Plains Mossbacks. Prince Edward Island's only team was Charlottetown's
West End Rangers. New Brunswick had a significant Black population in the Saint
John area but did not enter a team into competition. Cape Breton had a small Black
population of men who came from Alabama (three train car loads) to work in coal
mining. They would have had no knowledge of skating or Ice Hockey.
Getting Started:
Poverty
made it difficult for Black parents to feed and clothe their families, let alone
afford skates for young men to play Ice Hockey. Sticks were easily accessed as
Black craftsmen made and sold them at the local market along with native Mi'kmaq
carvers. Considering the level of poverty, discrimination, and segregation, it's
a wonder that any Blacks got to skate or to play Ice Hockey. However, their desire
to play transcended the cultural difficulties which otherwise denied them. Many
frozen ponds were available for games in the Halifax/Dartmouth area while "Government
Pond" at "The Bog" was the favorite site for The West End Rangers
of Charlottetown. Players developed competitive skills by a team of fathers playing
a team of sons. In that era, teams consisted of a spare and seven players who
played the entire game, so that in all, the seven Maritime teams consisted of
some 56 players. Their story is important to record as an important part of our
hockey heritage - the development and romance of the game.
Game Time and Travel:
Although
players and the press often referred to the Colored Hockey "League",
there was no "league" in the conventional sense of the term for there
was no set schedule of games, nor could there be, for Mother Nature was in complete
control of natural-ice conditions. Games were arranged by letter of invitation
or by a notice of a "challenge match" placed in a newspaper. This was
subject to a response, as well as to the availability of a rink. Since white teams
pre-booked ice time in the coldest part of the season, most Black encounters took
place in late February and early March, on slow, soft, often wet ice when white
teams were finished for the season. There were no cars at the time, and travel
between towns was by railway - Cape Breton and P.E.I. were reached by ferry.
Acceptance:
While regular
games by white teams brought crowds of 200-300, Black games attracted up to 1200
mainly white fans. The caliber of play was fairly well documented, considering
that journalists were only beginning to formulate terms for reporting hockey games.
Hard-fought games with exciting end-to-end rushes, frequent on-ice skirmishes,
and marked team-rivalry made for happy fans. Rink owners recognized the financial
opportunity and promoted games with prominent newspaper ads.
Accomplishments:
Entertainment at Black encounters was the name of the game for fans and players
alike. A race between the fastest players of each team preceded games, and the
ten minute intermission between the two thirty-minute periods, was filled with
acrobatics and circus-like comedy at high speed. The Black Communities of P.E.I.,
Truro and New Glasgow also had their own brass bands which performed before games
and between periods late into the 1920s.
Goal Tender Goes To Ice:
A
general rule of hockey in the early 1900s required the Goal Tender to remain upright
for the entire game. He used ordinary gloves, cricket pads and the same type stick
as other players, because the wider "goal stick" was not yet in common
use. Black teams were first to allow their Goal Tenders to go to ice, a practice
not allowed in games elsewhere until the formation of the NHL in 1917.
Social Aspects:
Following
each game, a social event took place featuring a banquet provided by the host
club and a cordial invitation by the visitors for a return match. Turkey and Goose
Dinners, and camaraderie amongst players were mentioned in newspaper accounts.
Play-off matches at the end of the season to decide the annual championship team
were often the only games played. No trophy was available for recognition - merely
the title, "Colored Hockey Championship of The Maritimes", which, probably
also meant "Colored Hockey Championship of the World"!
Criticism:
While large
crowds indicated general acceptance, newspaper accounts document that verbal abuse
flourished with both crowds and journalists. Reporters were racist in attitude
in the first couple of years, more respectful for a few years, and then reverted
to racist reporting for a short while - finally ignoring Black games. There is
nothing to gain by printing the epithets used, nevertheless, all common ones and
some never imagined, appeared in the Maritime press.
Three Decades of Black Hockeyists:
The relative popularity of Black teams in hockey in the Halifax area was short
lived, between 1900 and 1914. In 1906, The Acadian Recorder reported that the
games were not as interesting or as popular as previously, with only about 100
mostly Black people attending. Meanwhile, white teams did not play Black teams
nor did Black players get to play on white teams. As activity subsided in the
Halifax area, new teams were formed elsewhere and in 1920 as the Truro "SHIEKS"
beat the New Glasgow "SPEEDBOYS" to capture the "Colored Hockey
Championship". In 1921, the P.E.I. West End Rangers defeated the New Glasgow
"ROVERS" and retained the Championship for two years. Those three teams
continued the tradition until 1928.
Overview of Integration:
Games between Afro-Canadians which began in Nova Scotia in 1895 were also the
beginning of the struggle for Blacks everywhere to be accepted in Canada's National
Winter Sport. The gradually increasing level of respect for certain Black families
in small towns appears to have played a significant role in this integration as
Black players eventually got to play on white teams in the late 1930s.
In Windsor, the Paris and Jackson families lived within town limits through the 1920s and the children attended the public school. John "Buster" Paris and Percy Jackson first played pond hockey with young white friends, followed by junior high school intermural hockey. They went on to play in the Annapolis Valley High School Hockey League as members of otherwise white teams. In 1937, Buster was the only Black player in the Windsor Senior Town League.
In nearby Wolfville, during the 1930s, Mr. Clifford Oliver was a respected employee of Acadia University. His family members were well accepted in Wolfville at church and school where the children were high achievers. When Clifford's son William "Billy" Oliver attended Acadia University, he played in the Acadia "College Band", played on the water polo team and was a forward on the 1934 Acadia Hockey Team.
The Dorrington and Byard families followed a similar course in Truro. Art and Doug Dorrington played for the Truro Sheiks all Black team and went on to play for a white team, the Stellarton Royals in the APC League in the 1949-50 series. Art went to the New Haven Night Hawks and the Boston Americans before retiring from Ice Hockey to become a Sheriff in Alabama.
In the 1950s-60s, Buster Paris's children had become outstanding athletes and key players in the newly formed Windsor Minor Sports Program. Meanwhile, in the nearby rural community of Five Mile Plains there was a segregated Black school, and none of those children got to play with a white hockey team. When the children reached high school age, they transferred to the Windsor Academy, and thus became integrated into the white school system, but, not having achieved early hockey skills, they still did not get to play on white teams.
Wider Acceptance:
Maritime
African Canadian hockey players gradually became integrated onto white teams.
Manny MacIntyre of Devon, N.B. played on the incredible Sherbrooke Saints all-Black
line in Quebec during the 1950s along with Herbie and Ossie Carnegie of Ontario,
one of the greatest lines ever to play Ice Hockey in Canada.
1960- John Paris Jr. was playing for Windsor Royals Midget team when scouted by Scotty Bowman and taken to Quebec to play and later coach in Quebec Hockey Leagues and scout for the NHL.
In 1964, John's brother Percy played for King's College School in Windsor as the team won the Nova Scotia Headmaster's League Championship for the first time ever. He played on an all-Black line for Saint Marys University with Robert "Bob" Dawson of Dartmouth, N.S. and Darrel Maxwell (Chook Maxwell's younger brother) of Truro, N.S., a noted baseball and hockey player who was scouted by Punch Imlach along with Willie O'Ree of Frederickton to the Boston Bruins organization in 1955, and played in the WHL and the IHL for a decade. Willie O'Ree was accepted as first Black player in NHL for Boston Bruins in 1957.
Mike Paris, son of John Paris Sr. played with brothers John and Percy in Windsor, N.S. Minor Hockey Program in the 1960s.
Two decades followed before another Black player was admitted to the NHL. Bill Riley of Amherst joined the Washington Capitals of the NHL in 1974-1980. Eldon "Pokey" Reddick of Halifax became the first Black Goalie in the NHL when he joined the Winnipeg Jets in 1986, moving to the Edmonton Oilers from 1988-91. Then in 1994 John Paris Jr. of Windsor, Nova Scotia become the first Black coach in professional hockey with the Atlanta Knights, leading the team to the IHA Championship.
2001 March 3, 2001 John "Buster" Paris was inducted into the Birthplace of Hockey Hall of Fame as a "Builder".
There is an old adage which says "Walk a mile in another man's shoes to know what life is like for him." I fear we'd have to skate a long time on old-fashioned Starr Skates to know what life was like for the hockeyists in the "Colored Hockey Championship of the Maritimes", as well as all African Canadian players who have followed their lead.
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