The first time Jordan Samuels-Thomas met Willie O’Ree, he really didn’t need an introduction. I’ve known who he was since I started playing hockey,” said Samuels-Thomas, a forward with the San Diego Gulls, the Ducks’ American Hockey League affiliate. O’Ree became the first black to play in the NHL when he debuted for the Boston Bruins in January 1958. He just wanted to play hockey at a time when NHL rosters were as white as the ice the teams skated on. I just see a man,” said O’Ree, who, at 81, still travels regularly as the league’s director of youth development and an ambassador for the NHL’s diversity program.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 16, 2017 04:51 UTC