willi o'ree

Willi o'ree (I Made It)

Willie O’ree was the first black person in the NHL. He was born in Fredericton New Brunswick. Willie started skating when he was 3 years old. He had beginner skates; two blocks of wood and a sharp peace of metal on each of them. He had two pieces of leather straps to attach to his foot.

Willie O'ree (I made it.)

The sports Willie enjoyed playing were volleyball, baseball, basketball, tennis, and of course hockey. His favourite player in baseball was Jackie Robinson. Then he narrowed it down to baseball and hockey, hockey coming first. Willie played baseball with his friend Mike. They played baseball in front of the neighbours.

willie in the penelty box (i made it my self)

Willie's favourite place to go was Island Lake, north of Fredericton. They would take the weekend whenever possible and do some camping. This gave him time to relax and fish and to be with his brothers and friends. Willie played for the Quebec Aces in the seniors' hockey league (which they got paid to play). He was determined to get to the NHL. He had to battle racism throughout. The fans in Quebec City were great. The problems happened when he went on road trips (small towns). He was in the penalty box many time--80 min out of 68 games. He had confrontations with the spectators. And what made it ugly was that back then they had no glass between the penalty box and the fans. So they could jump in the box at any time to start a fight.

hockey rink (I made it my self)

He received a letter from the Boston Bruins' Lynn Patrick himself in 1957 who invited him to the training camp.(unfortunately he did not make the team). Then he got invited back to actually play for a couple of games in 1958 which took him to his first NHL game. In the 1960-61 season it finally happened. The Bruins called him to be in the NHL for good; not just a back-up player. He played for that season and scored his first NHL goal, then found out that he got traded to the Montréal Canadiens' farm team the following year. During a practice for the team he was called in to find out that he was getting traded again to the LA Blades in 1961. Willie married in LA and had 2 children but got divorced because he was away traveling to much. He remained playing for the Blades for a couple more years and then ended up settling in Santiago playing for the team.