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February is Black History Month, so I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate the great black hockey players in hockey history. There haven't been many, mainly for societal and cultural reasons, but blacks have been playing hockey as long as there have been pucks and ice.

Traditionally there have been very few blacks in hockey and in the National Hockey League.

Why is this? Traditionally NHL players came strictly from Canada, with European countries becoming more and more prevalent. All these countries, particularly Canada, have tiny black populations. The United States, which produces some of the best black athletes in the entire world, is traditionally not a hockey hotbed. Black athletes in the US also lack role models in hockey, and naturally focus their attention on sports which do, such as baseball, football, basketball, track and field and boxing, all of which offered better infrastructures.

Believe it or not though, blacks have a history in hockey dating back as long as hockey itself. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, there was a black hockey league. The league, which started as an informal game among African settlers in Nova Scotia, grew into the colored league, of sorts. It was not an officially sanctioned league of any kind but an assembling of devoted black hockey enthusiasts providing entertaining games to a predominantly white audience of nearly 1,500 spectators.

One of the earliest blacks in the sport of hockey was Hipple "Hippo" Galloway. Better known as a barnstorming baseball player, Galloway was a star player on his hometown Woodstock entry on the Central Ontario Hockey Association, as well as the local baseball team. Galloway left his hometown in 1899 after an American import on the baseball team objected to his inclusion on the team. A local sportswriter cried: "An effort should be made to keep Hippo in town. Our hockey team needs him." Hippo Galloway is a chartered member of the Black Hockey Hall of Fame.

In the late forties, there was the legendary Herb Carnegie. Carnegie was a star in the Quebec Senior Hockey League, impressing many including that circuit's biggest star Jean Beliveau. Carnegie was the key member of the Black Aces line, featuring his brother, Ossie, and Manny McIntyre. Those who saw Carnegie play describe him as one of the fastest and most skilled players ever. Both Beliveau and Frank Mahovlich have been outspoken advocates about Carnegie's greatness.

Carnegie should have been the first in the NHL had it not been for the alleged prejudice of the day. Unlike football, baseball or basketball, the NHL never had an official policy banning blacks from playing. But suspicions were always around about an unofficial policy, especially when Toronto Maple Leaf owner Conn Smythe is said to have said, "I'll give any man $10,000 who can make Herb Carnegie white." While Herbie Carnegie never made it to the NHL, his legend in Canadian hockey lore too has grown.

In fairness, Carnegie would get a shot at the NHL late in his career. The New York Rangers gave him a training camp tryout, and offered him a contract but they wanted him to apprentice a year in the minor leagues. Carnegie turned down the contract and returned home to his young family in Quebec where he actually earned more money than he would have in the NHL.

It was not until January 18, 1958 when Willie O'Ree took to the ice for the Boston Bruins in a game against the Montreal Canadians that a black man would debut in the NHL. By doing so O'Ree ensured himself a place in hockey history as the "Jackie Robinson of hockey."

"They've called me the Jackie Robinson of hockey, and I'm aware of being the first, and of the responsibilities, but I'm also aware that there have not been, and are not many colored players able to play hockey, that there has never been the discrimination in this game there was in baseball, and that I didn't face any of the very real problems Robinson had to face."

The only other black in professional hockey at the time was Art Dorrington, a career minor leaguer whose shot at the NHL never came due to a broken leg. The minor leaguer in the New York Rangers system also played baseball in the Boston Braves organization.

Hockey would have to wait another 15 years before seeing another black perform on the NHL ice. In the seventies came Mike Marson and Bill Riley of the Washington Capitals. Marson in particular faced a real tough time with racist remarks and actions.

It should be noted though that Alton White pre-dated Marson and Riley when he signed with the WHA. The former Providence Reds AHL star never had an opportunity to sign with a NHL team.

Tony McKegney, with nearly 350 NHL regular season and playoff goals, including a 40-goal season in 1987-88 with the St. Louis Blues, was the first bona fide star of African-Canadian background. Born in Montreal, he was adopted by a family in Sarnia at the age of one. "Sometimes I would wonder why I was trying to be a pro player when there were none to look up to. I'm proud of the fact that I was the first Black to establish myself in the NHL. Now there are a few. I hope that helps youngsters who need someone to emulate." He would serve as a role model for the many blacks to follow, including Jarome Iginla, probably the greatest black player to date.

Not far behind McKegney was Grant Fuhr. Perhaps because he was wearing a mask or perhaps because he was overshadowed by teammates such as Gretzky and Messier, not everyone seems to realize Fuhr is black. Fuhr backstopped the Oilers dynasty to 4 Stanley Cups, and became the first and only black inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and the first to have his name inducted on the Stanley Cup.

More and more blacks are now picking up sticks and strapping skates. The NHL has created a diversity program to get hockey into the grassroots levels of non-traditional cultures, namely black and Hispanic areas of the United States. The program has been greatly received, and has even produced its first NHL graduate - goaltender Gerald Coleman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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