A blacker NHL?

CalBear

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More Blacks in Canada would be a great start. In 1950 the TOTAL Black population of Canada was 18,000 out of 13.7 million or 0.13%. As late as 1971 the population was pegged at 35,000 out of 21.9 million (0.16%). Even today (well, 2006) only 2.5% of Canada's population self identifies as "black". To get professional players, you need young players.

Looking at the 35,000 number that would leave you, at best, 4,000 males in the basic age group for the NHL (18-32). How many of those men would have the skill set to play at the elite professional level? Especially in a league where there were only NINE Teams, so a total of around 320 slots?

BTW: I use Canada since, even today with the massive influx of European and American players better than half of ALL NHL players (53%) are Canadian with 21% being American, mainly from the Northeast and States bordering Canada (don't get a lot of kids playing on backyard rinks in Georgia or greater Los Angeles).
 
CalBear said:
More Blacks in Canada would be a great start.
That should have occurred to me first, since I live there, & since I already know the bulk of players are Canadian...:eek::eek:

Yet even with hockey dominating Canadian sports (to a degree hard to imagine outside, I'd say), the number of Canadian blacks wanting to play in the NHL (let alone able) doesn't seem high. The preference seems to be for baseball or basketball. NHL still seems to attract the middle/lower class whites, in the main. (That's a purely subjective assessment, backed by absolutely no demographic data at all.:p)
CalBear said:
21% being American, mainly from the Northeast and States bordering Canada
It was mainly those I was thinking might be attracted. And those south of that who happen to get interested in the game. (There have to be a few dozen...:p)

As for Carnegie, I have some doubts he could have made it in the senior league. He was good where he was, but he wasn't Gretzky or Orr AFAICT.
 
The problem, at least in the US, is that Hockey is an expensive sport. An ice rink is pricey to maintain and that sort of investment on the less white parts of cities isn't something any city wanted to make before the 70s. That is a great deal of institutional and structural racism to overcome, especially when there is no demand for it compared to basketball or other sports.

Street Hockey may be a start but still a tough jump.
 
When i grew up EVERYBODY played hockey. Oops, all boys. Even me, and i was about as unathletic as they come. Boards were put up in the playgrounds of every public school, and the ground flooded. Kids had skates, helmet and shin pads, and hockey stick. Rink had boards, nets, and a shack to put your skates on. Then we played hockey until the ice melted, about 3 months later.

It never occurred to me that ice would melt in the winter until i went to gradschool in southern ontario.

Thats why so many of the hockey players in the old days came from the prairies, northern quebec or northern ontario. Because hockey in the winter was as easy as pickup basketball is in the summer.

Most canadian blacks are in urban ontario and montreal, where hockey is expensive.

I knew one single unique black kid growing up.
 
I'd argue that it's upper-middle class Canadians who play Hockey, it very very expensive.

This. Outside of semi-rural and rural communities where hockey is a way of life (and a way out), hockey equipment and league fees are often too expensive for many people. That's part of why soccer is the biggest sport internationally, and basketball became so popular among economically marginalized black communities; it doesn't cost as much to play.

Now, if Canada manages to take on British Caribbean colonies as LoN mandates in the 1920, annex the West Indies Federation or have some other sort of political-economic agreement with them causing massive inflows of Caribbean immigration in the 1950s, you may see a lot more black Canadian players.
 
The problem, at least in the US, is that Hockey is an expensive sport. An ice rink is pricey to maintain and that sort of investment on the less white parts of cities isn't something any city wanted to make before the 70s. That is a great deal of institutional and structural racism to overcome, especially when there is no demand for it compared to basketball or other sports.

Street Hockey may be a start but still a tough jump.

I'd also submit the prospect that it's based on cultural things. Most American Blacks have their origins in the South. The forefathers of Black Americans came from the South due to slavery. That is not a region fertile for winter sports due to there never really being much of a winter depending on your region. I lived in the South for a while when I was younger, and I live in Upstate NY now, and Southerners have no idea what to do with Winter. Some short examples are Southerners driving really slowly in what was not that much snowfall, and being excited and running to get their kids coats for what I believe one of my neighbors called a blizzard (which was light snowfall). Compare that to the Northern United States and Canada. And any of the White population already living in the North who were taking part in winter activities, Black Americans did not really intermingle with due to racism and segregation.
 
Assuming the NHL doesn't really have a whole lot of racism, I see a few possibilities:

1. More blacks in the Northeast, AND provided that they are richer AND they get absorbed by the surrounding white communities. Maine, NY, MA, and MN are hockey states.

AND/OR

2. More blacks move to hockey-crazy towns and cities in Canada, and again, are absorbed by the surrounding culture. And they're rich.

Hockey is a fairly expensive sport, and most players come from middle-class (and up) families. This is partially why many post-retirement players don't have too much financial difficulties either.
 
I'd also submit the prospect that it's based on cultural things. Most American Blacks have their origins in the South. The forefathers of Black Americans came from the South due to slavery. That is not a region fertile for winter sports due to there never really being much of a winter depending on your region. I lived in the South for a while when I was younger, and I live in Upstate NY now, and Southerners have no idea what to do with Winter. Some short examples are Southerners driving really slowly in what was not that much snowfall, and being excited and running to get their kids coats for what I believe one of my neighbors called a blizzard (which was light snowfall). Compare that to the Northern United States and Canada. And any of the White population already living in the North who were taking part in winter activities, Black Americans did not really intermingle with due to racism and segregation.

I agree with this about blacks not having much exposure to cold weather. I grew up in the southern tip of Texas and now live in the Houston area. It's rare for it to be cold enough for snow in the first place. When we have freezes, it's usually just for about a day or two. It just doesn't get cold enough to ponds and lakes to solidify enough for hockey.

I've always considered hockey to be more of a regional sport in the US. Once you get out of the Northeast and Great Lakes area, it's just not as popular as football, baseball, basketball or soccer.
 
pieman3141 said:
More blacks in the Northeast
Given the changes of the Depression, & WW2, this looks just possible. It would need to be balanced by no redlining & less overt racism, which is a whole 'nother problem...:rolleyes:

Unless you push the move back even further, to WW1 & early '20s, or even post-ACW, & that opens up even bigger cultural issues.
pieman3141 said:
Maine, NY, MA, and MN are hockey states.
Maybe. I'm thinking about MI, IL, OH: Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincy, Green Bay, St Paul...

Which comes back to when the migration is. Also why, & the white response.
 
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