Canadian hockey player Willie O’Ree
Credit: © Len Lahman, Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas. 

In January 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the Willie O’Ree Congressional Gold Medal Act. O’Ree became the first National Hockey League (NHL) player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. This happened shortly after the Boston Bruins retired his jersey number, 22. The city of Boston also declared January 18 “Willie O’Ree Day.”

O’Ree was the first Black hockey player in the NHL. O’Ree played right wing for the Quebec Aces, a minor league affiliate of the NHL Boston Bruins, before being called up to play for the Bruins in January 1958.

William Eldon O’Ree was born on Oct. 15, 1935, in Fredericton, Canada. He grew up the youngest of 13 children, in an area with few Black families. He began skating at the age of 3. For most of his youth, he played hockey and baseball. In 1955, O’Ree was invited to try out for the Milwaukee (now Atlanta) Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). He instead chose to join the Kitchener Canucks of the Ontario Hockey Association. An injury on the rink caused O’Ree to lose sight in his right eye. Despite this, he was invited to play right wing for the Quebec Aces. O’Ree scored 22 goals that season, and the Quebec Aces won the Quebec Senior Hockey League championship.

The following season, the Boston Bruins called up O’Ree as a temporary replacement. On Jan. 18, 1958, O’Ree became the first Black hockey player to play for an NHL team. O’Ree spent the next few seasons playing on a few different teams, before being invited back to play for the Bruins in 1961. That year, he played 43 games for the Bruins, scoring a total of 14 points. O’Ree spent the last 18 years of his career playing on minor league teams, including the Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls, before retiring in 1979. In 1998, O’Ree became the director of youth development for the NHL’s Diversity Task Force. In 2018, O’Ree was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada. If you want to learn more about O’Ree, the award-winning documentary Willie (2019) tells his life story.