Black Ice: The Val James Story

This is the cover image of Black ice, a new autobiography by former NHLer Val James.

Black Ice: The Val James Story
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 Who is Val James? He is an almost entirely forgotten about hockey player from the past. But hey, I don't blame you for that. He played only 11 NHL games (plus 3 more in the playoffs) in his career and there are 1000s of guys like that who equally as memorable than him.

So why has Val James his autobiography and, more importantly, why should you read it?

First off, a bit more about the book. From the back cover, "Val James became the first African American player in the NHL when he took to the ice with the Buffalo Sabres in 1982, and in 1987 he became the first black player of any nationality to skate for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Born in central Florida, James grew up on Long Island and received his first pair of skates for his 13th birthday. At 16, James left home to play in Canada, where he was the only black person in junior and, often, in the whole town. While popular for his tough play and winning personality, the teenager faced racist taunts at opposing arenas, and the prejudice continued at all levels of the game. In his two NHL stints, James defined himself as a smart team player and opponent, known for his pugilistic skills.

Black Ice is the untold story of a trail-blazing athlete who endured and overcame discrimination to realize his dreams and become an inspiration for future generations."

That doesn't do nearly as good a job of catching your attention as in the inside flap:

"His teammates looked away, pretending not to notice that feared hockey enforcer Valmore James was crying . . . Less than one hour earlier, Val and the Buffalo Sabres had finished playing a fierce road contest against the Bruins at hockey's hallowed Boston Garden.

The years of dreaming and hard work and fighting - especially the fighting - had all brough him to this point. The moment he took to the ice, on a spring evening in 1982, he had become part of a tiny fraternity of American players who made it to the pinnacle of Canada's national pastime. Much more than that, Val James had become the first black American to ever play in the NHL. There had been no ceremony, no public address announcement. But Val knew. And if his dad were still alive, he would have known, too. Still, the tears were not born of the joy of finally making it to the show. Nor were they from the pride of being the first African American to do so. The tears that slipped past his scarred fists were tears of shame. And rage."

Now that is more like it. It immediately draws us in, capturing our attention with an intriguing story, as well as the promise of well written text (John Gallagher writes with James).

Unfortunately it turns out that James was crying because some classless Boston Bruins fans were blocking the Sabres team uttering racial slurs, while his teammates stayed silent.

No, Val James hockey story is not your typical story.  Here's more from Gallagher, as told to a recent SIHR audience:

"Val was the son of migrant farm workers from the Deep South who moved to Long Island during the JFK years to work on the farms that then filled large swaths of Long Island. Val was introduced to ice hockey at the late age of 13 when his father was hired as a night watchman at the Long Island Arena, home rink of John Brophy and the Long Island Ducks of the old Eastern Hockey League. From these humble roots, Val worked his way up through the lowest minor leagues to a place in hockey history as the first American-born black player to skate in the NHL as a member of Scotty Bowman's Buffalo Sabres. He would also become the first black player of any nationality to play for the Maple Leafs in the hockey mecca of Toronto. Val is remembered as a legendary enforcer and beloved teammate but the untold story of the abuse he had to endure and overcome on the way to his impossible dream is shocking and inspiring."

The book ends with a chapter called "As others recall it" where nothing by quotes by former players, coaches and team officials tell some of the James story. Those voices include Scotty Bowman, Mike Keenan, John Brophy, Paul Stewart, Ted Nolan and Nick Fotiu. It is an interesting, honest read.

George Fosty Interview

In the past I've talked about a book by brothers George and Darril Fosty called Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925

It is a pretty interesting book about one of the least known group of hockey players ever. The maritime league was an all black league featuring back when black hockey players were never heard of.

George Fosty was a guest on CBC radio's Sportology recently. Here's the link to the short audio podcast.

Black Ice by George and Darril Fosty

Brothers George and Darril Fosty have re-released their book Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925

Though Willie O'Ree did not become the first black NHL hockey player until 1958, blacks playing hockey dates back to the 1870s, nearly as long as the great game itself.

Twenty-five years before the negro baseball leagues in the United States and twenty-two years before the birth of the National Hockey League, the Coloured League helped to pioneer not only black athletics in Canada but the entire emerging sport of ihockey. The authors argue that the black contributions to hockey were conveniently ignored or simply stolen by whites who observed such elements as the "flopping" goalie and the slap shot.

That's right. The authors suggest a 3'6" goalie named Henry "Braces" Franklin was the first goalie to drop down to the ice on his knees, back when standard rules prohibited such tactics. And a fellow named Eddie Martin may have originated the slap shot three decades before Boom Boom Geoffrion was born.

Starring the sons and grandsons of escaped American slaves, the Colored League was fascinatingly complex. It was led by black ministers of the Baptist Church. Proponents of black pride, these men represented a concept in sports never before seen: Their rule book was The Bible. Their game book comprised the coded words and oral history derived from the experiences of American slavery and the Underground Railroad. Their strategy was based on the principles and teachings of American black leader Booker T. Washington, a believer in the concept of racial equality through racial separation.

The book is a bit too academic, reading a little dry if you are not drawn into the topic fully. The book also seems angry. The authors tell it as they see it, and they clearly are disgusted with the treatment of the black people both in hockey and Canadian history.

It was interesting to read about teams like the Africville Brown Bombers, the New Glasglow Speed Boys, the Ralph Waldo Emersons and the Harlem Globetrotters-like Black Panthers. The league started on outdoor ponds, but soon enough moved into indoor arenas and turned pro, charging admission to pay the bills. The audience? Mostly middle class white people fascinated with the black's fast and clean style of play.

The book does not have a lot of great information on individual players. I always find that draws my interest further into the text. Still, I'm a sucker for stories about people, specifically players, and such biographical information is sparsely spread throughout the book.

This is partly because there is so little material out there on these players, despite the authors' obviously thorough research. How thorough? These guys are professional historians. They spent 7 years scouring through more than 6,000 sources of information, much of it quite obscure, to piece together Black Ice, originally published in 2004.

I have a special fondness for the authors of this book, neither of whom are black, by the way. The authors were born in my neck of the northern British Columbian woods. George, a Canadian historian and documentary filmmaker currently living in New York City, was born down the road in sleepy Prince Rupert. He later studied at the University of Hawaii and London City Polytechnic in England. Brother Darril was born in Terrace, and is also a Canadian historian and documentary filmmaker. He studied History and Journalism at Western Washington University.

In the early 1970s, before I was even born, both brothers were local youth stars here in Terrace. They later moved to the Okanagan before far more worldly adventures took them around the globe. In conversations with George, Northwest BC still remains deep in their hearts.

The duo also turned the original text into a short film which won rave reviews. At the Annual Roxbury Film Festival in Boston the Fostys won the best short film documentary award, beating out films by Spike Lee and Danny Glover, despite a tiny budget of just $40,000