Colored Hockey League
{{short description|Canadian ice hockey league, 1894–1930}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox sports league
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| sport = Ice hockey
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| founded = {{start date|1894}}
| folded = {{circa|1911 and 1930}}
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| country = Canada
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| founder = {{ubl|James Borden|James Robinson Johnston|James A.R. Kinney|Henry Sylvester Williams}}
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File:ColouredHockeyLeagueNovaScotia.png
The Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL) was an all-black ice hockey league founded in Nova Scotia in 1894,{{Cite news|date=2006-08-25|title=Black hockey hall of fame proposed for Dartmouth|language=en-US|work=CBC Sports|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/black-hockey-hall-of-fame-proposed-for-dartmouth-1.621898|access-date=2020-11-17}} which featured teams from across Canada's Maritime Provinces.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9PoYBwAAQBAJ&q=Coloured+Hockey+League&pg=PA82 |title=Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora located in Canada |page=82 |date=2009-03-26 |isbn=9781443807586 |access-date=2016-10-26|last1=Divine |first1=David |publisher=Cambridge Scholars }}{{cite web|last=Lewis|first=Jason|date=2016-02-25|title=Black ice hockey players helped revolutionize the game|url=http://ourweekly.com/news/2016/feb/25/black-ice-hockey-players-helped-revolutionize-game/#.V2t6nGulbMI.twitter|access-date=2016-10-26|website=Our Weekly}} The league operated for several decades lasting until 1930.{{cite web|author=Kikulis|first=Emma|date=2016-03-14|title="Everything has a soul, and hockey is no different"|url=http://thevarsity.ca/2016/03/14/everything-has-a-soul-and-hockey-is-no-different/|access-date=2016-10-26|website=The Varsity}}{{cite web|author=Dawson|first=Bob|date=July 2014|title=Report : Panel Discussions on Aspects of Black Hockey and the Black Ice Project|url=https://www.smu.ca/webfiles/7Dawson.pdf|access-date=2016-10-26|publisher=Saint Mary's University}}{{cite web|date=2012-07-12|title=Black league significant in history|url=http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/116216-black-league-significant-in-history|access-date=2016-10-26|website=The Chronicle Herald|archive-date=October 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027071527/http://thechronicleherald.ca/sports/116216-black-league-significant-in-history|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|author=Harris|first=Cecil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8E74agb2dk4C&q=Coloured+Hockey+League&pg=PA195|title=Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey|year=2007|isbn=9781897415054|page=195|publisher=Insomniac Press |access-date=2016-10-26}}
History
The league was founded in 1895 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada by a group of four black Baptist leaders and black intellectuals: Pastor James Borden of Dartmouth Church, James A.R Kinney, lawyer and community leader James Robinson Johnston, and lawyer and Pan-African organizer Henry Sylvester Williams.{{cite news|last1=Fosty|first1=George|last2=Fosty|first2=Darril|date=2018-02-02|title=Coloured Hockey League|publisher=The Canadian Encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/coloured-hockey-league|access-date=2020-06-04}} The league was constructed to attract young black men to Sunday worship with the promise of a hockey game between rival churches after the services. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, "with the influence of the Black Nationalism Movement—and with rising interest in the sport of hockey—the league came to be seen as a potential driving force for the equality of Black Canadians."
Among the teams in the league were the Halifax Eurekas, based in Halifax, and the Amherst Royals, based in Amherst.{{cite news|last=Julian|first=Jack|date=2020-01-23|title=New stamp commemorates black hockey league nearly lost to time|work=CBC News|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/new-stamp-commemorates-black-hockey-league-1.5437722|access-date=2020-01-23}} At its zenith, the league had teams in seven communities in Nova Scotia and one in Prince Edward Island, the West End Rangers from The Bog in Charlottetown.
With as many as a dozen teams, over 400 Black Canadian players from across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island participated in competition.Martins, Daniel, [http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=47513069-431d-4a81-8f50-6a5d3bbd48d8&k=68012 Hockey historian credits black player with first slapshot] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323113253/http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/story.html?id=47513069-431d-4a81-8f50-6a5d3bbd48d8&k=68012 |date=March 23, 2012 }}, CanWest News Service, January 31, 2007 The Colored Hockey League is credited by some{{who|date=August 2021}} as being the first league to allow the goaltender to leave his feet to cover a puck in 1900. This practice was not permitted elsewhere until the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917. It is also claimed that the first player to use the slapshot was Eddie Martin of the Halifax Eureka in 1906.{{cite web|last=Drake|first=Matt|date=2014-03-28|title=Being black in the NHL: From breaking the colour barrier to the Norris trophy|url=http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/2014/3/28/5493088/the-history-of-black-players-in-the-nhl|access-date=2016-10-26|website=Eyes On The Prize|publisher=SB Nation}}{{cite web|last1=Harrison|first1=C. Keith|last2=Brady|first2=Brad|last3=Hamilton|first3=Philip E.|last4=Valdez|first4=Alicia|title=Hockey: Barriers to Crossing the Color Line: the Neglected Story of the Pioneering Players|url=http://www.umich.edu/~paulball/webpage%20papers/Hockey.doc|access-date=2016-10-28|publisher=University of Michigan|format=DOC}}
Legacy
In January 2020, Canada Post issued a postage stamp featuring the 1906 champion Halifax Eurekas to commemorate the history of black hockey players in Canada.{{cite news|title=SONAHHR Returns To Its New York Roots |url=https://boxscorenews.com/sonahhr-returns-to-its-new-york-roots-p162346-297.htm |access-date=1 August 2021 |work=www.boxscorenews.com |date=August 14, 2021 |language=en}}
The history of the league is profiled in Darril Fosty and George Fosty's 2004 non-fiction book Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925, 2014 book Tribes: An International Hockey History, which expands on their previous work, and in Hubert Davis's 2022 documentary film Black Ice.Pat Mullen, [https://povmagazine.com/hubert-daviss-black-ice-leads-docs-in-tiff-gala-announcement/ "Hubert Davis’s Black Ice Leads Docs in TIFF Gala Announcement"]. Point of View, July 28, 2022.
The history of the league, including its destruction and the destruction of its black community in Africville by the Halifax government trying to expand their railway, is also visited in Canadaland's Hockey #2 — "The Birth of Black Hockey"{{Cite episode |last=Mann |first=Arshy |title=The Birth of Black Hockey | series=HOCKEY |number=2 |url=https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/hockey-2-the-birth-of-black-hockey/}}
See also
{{Portal|Ice hockey}}
- Black Nova Scotians
- Soul on Ice (film)
- https://www.nfb.ca/film/ice-breakers/
References
{{Reflist}}
Category:Defunct ice hockey leagues in New Brunswick
Category:Defunct ice hockey leagues in Prince Edward Island
Category:History of Black people in Canada
Category:Defunct ice hockey leagues in Nova Scotia
Category:Sports leagues established in 1895
Category:Sports leagues disestablished in 1930
Category:Black Canadian organizations
Category:Black Canadian culture in Halifax, Nova Scotia