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This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Hockey. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Hockey.

African-Americans have lost a lot of their history due to slavery and racism before during and after the civil rights movement. Yet history was made when a Canadian-born black man named Willie O’Ree who played 41 games (3 1/2 years/seasons) with the Boston Bruins and this was 1958 at a time blacks didn’t have much ground in the world since this was a milestone since hockey was a white male dominated sport and for O’Ree since at the time he started his career he was 23 years old. The sport hockey was about 10 years late when it came to integration of minorities in the NHL because all the other sports had already made the transition by the 1950.

Hockey was the only sport holding out since it was what you called the whitest sport ever since they had no black players, team owners, or sportswriters. O’Ree was crossing lines many blacks of his time had a heck of a time playing and being taken seriously in sports. Blacks have not made their place in the hockey world again for nearly 30 years.

It wasn’t until 1998 that Willie O’Ree was formally acknowledged for his groundbreaking historical position as the first black in the NHL and was appointed director for youth development for the NHL/USA Hockey diversity task force where he goes all over the country establishing programs with different teams. This was a milestone that was long overdue to happen because the face of sports would show some sign that the walls of racism and segregation have started to crumble down. When someone who lived in a time where the color of your skin limited you to advance in something, but it was one man who stepped out of the confinements of racism and segregation to be one of the best players in the NHL. Today’s NHL has recruited people of other ethnic backgrounds to the pro teams that currently make up the team list.

Those of you not familiar with the latest on Hockey now have at least a basic understanding. But there’s more to come.

It’s showing that it’s not just whites who made the NHL it’s the fact that more opportunities in the league now more than ever with how they’re recruiting players, team managers, and other areas of the league. When you remove racism and segregation the world of opportunity looks brighter for those who are of a different ethnic background to feel like they can succeed in another area of the sports world.

Hockey will definitely improve with time to allow other ethnic groups to be recruited to play hockey. Until then it will be a majority black and white issue in the league and that’s up to the world to demand to see the full equality that should be in the league and around not just players, team owners/management, but also stretching itself to the audience the sport is trying to draw in to diversify the sport to be a sport anyone can play and enjoy watching. Willie O’Ree spends much of his time in San Diego since he left the league when his knee was so bad that later on he had to undergo a full knee replacement, but his time is spent traveling the country lecturing and working his position as director of youth development for the NHL’s diversity task force. With O’Ree’s current position this should set the league in the right direction in terms of diversifying the sport of hockey.

Diversity has opened the door for people of all ethnicities to enjoy and it’s a shared interest across the board for all ages. Some make it a family event to incorporate a single sport and in a region where hockey is popular it’s the choice sport for some people.

I hope that reading the above information was both enjoyable and educational for you. Your learning process should be ongoing–the more you understand about any subject, the more you will be able to share with others.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

The following paragraphs summarize the work of Hockey experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of Hockey. Heed their advice to avoid any Hockey surprises.

herbert Brooks coached the miracle hockey team of the Olympics of 1980. He had skated in two Olympic teams himself, was a long time college hockey coach, and spent 1979 looking for recruits for the team. In 1980, the US did not recruit NHL stars, for the players were still of entirely amateur status. Herbie Brooks went to the National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Co in 1979 and found those players who were the most willing to adapt to his style of hockey playing. His style was to skate hard and fast and work together as a team, with no individual standouts. He gave them psychological tests as well as physical ones, and tried to determine which players could not play together due to intense regional rivalry. Hockey was strong in only a few places back in 1980, and the rivalry between the University of Minnesota and Boston University was intense, culminating in a 1976 NCAA semifinal that was one of the nastiest college games played until that point.

Twelve of the young men he was considering for the team were from Minnesota, and Brooks had coached nine of them at the University of Minnesota. Four were from Boston University, and Brooks was not sure if they could forget their regional allegiance to play together for the Olympic team as a true team. The Easterners thought that Brooks was especially hard on them, but the men who had skated under Brooks said that his motto was “I’m here to be your coach; I’m not here to be your friend.” Brooks was given a whip by the team as a gag gift for Christmas.

You can see that there’s practical value in learning more about Hockey. Can you think of ways to apply what’s been covered so far?

To get the team to work together, Brooks had six weeks of training camp, and then sixty-one hockey games played all over Europe and America during a five month period. Brooks ran them ragged, criticized them, and left the morale building to his assistant coaches. During this five month period he went over and over the team plans, looking for how to play the perfect game of hockey. When the team was winning, he congratulated them, but kept working over the plans. When the team tied, as they did in Norway, he was disgusted with the lack of effort. After the game was over, he told his players “If you don’t want to skate during the game, then you’ll skate after it.” And the team did just that, skating line sprints: end line to blue line and back, end line to red line and back, end line to end line and back. The crowd left, the janitors turned out the lights, and still the team skated. The next night, the team won, 9 to 0.

Herbert Brooks died in an automobile accident on August 11, 2003. His Lake Placid team came to pay their respects to a hard taskmaster, but a beloved and respected coach. As they said in the eulogy “Herbie had a dream. And his players had a dream.” He pursued that dream to the remarkable gold medal team of Lake Placid in 1980.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO

To find hockey players that could brave exhaustion, hockey fights, and sleet and snow, we have to go way back to 1905 and an early Stanley Cup contest. The Stanley Cup had started in 1892, and in those days there was no playoff structure, so an opposing team could simply issue a challenge to the reigning champion. The team from Ottawa presently held the title, and a team from Dawson City in the Klondike issued a challenge to Frank McGee and his Ottawa team. The Klondike in the Alaskan wilderness that was having a gold rush just like the one in California in the 1840s. Adventurers and people looking to strike it rich rushed into the area, and one of the lucky ones, Colonel Joe Boyle, issued a challenge to the Ottawa Silver Seven for the Stanley Cup.

The Silver Seven were known for their physical and sometimes cruel playing style, but this rough and tumble town felt they were up to the match. The team had raised the $3000 they needed to get to Ottawa, and now they just needed to get a few more players. They picked up Albert Forrest, a seventeen-year-old goalie, and the youngest player in Stanley Cup history. In the middle of their journey the rag-tag hockey team picked up their last team member.

So far, we’ve uncovered some interesting facts about Hockey. You may decide that the following information is even more interesting.

The journey started in mid December in the frozen north, leaving Dawson City by dogsled. The team covered about forty miles a day, and temperatures got as low as twenty-eight degrees below zero. Travel by dogsled requires that you walk alongside the sleds for large stretches of time, and most of the team got sore feet and blisters on this part of the trip. They arrived near Juneau, Alaska too late for the weekly steamboat, and waited a week for the next boat to Seattle. The hockey team finally got to Vancouver, where they caught the train to take them to Ottawa. As the train traveled across the Canadian north, towns were alerted that the hockey team was coming, and they were met at the station by enthusiastic crowds that
cheered them on.

It took twenty-four days to go from Dawson City to Ottawa, and the visiting hockey team arrived only one day before the Stanley Cup competition was scheduled to begin. Tired from travel, the train, and the dogsled, they asked for an extension. The Ottawa Silver Seven said no, and so the contest of three hockey matches began the next day. Ottawa won the first game nine to two. That evening one of the Klondikers remarked that the legendary McGee of the Silver Seven, who was blind in one eye, “didn’t look like much”, since he had scored only one goal.

The remark was reported to McGee, who responded in Game 2 with fourteen goals total, including eight goals in a row. The final score for Game 2 was twenty-three to two. One of the most difficult trips to get to a Stanley Cup competition ended in the worst rout of any game in its history. And the final blow for Forrest, the youngest of the Klondikers: once he was back in Alaska, he had to walk the final 350 miles to his home.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, feel free to visit his top ranked GVO affiliate site: GVO

Ice hockey has increased in popularity in women’s sports with the number of participants increasing by 400% in the last decade. It wasn’t until 1998 when women’s hockey was added as a medal event at the winter games in Nagano, Japan. The United States won gold that year with Canada winning silver and Finland coming in last with bronze. The minor difference in women’s hockey and men’s hockey is that there’s no body checking in women’s hockey. After a 1990 hockey match body checking was eliminated all together in women’s hockey due to the fact that female players in some countries don’t have the body mass and size that many North American players.

With the rising number of females who are almost half the size and shape of their male counterparts it’s making them just as equal as their male counterparts. In some matches body checking is a minor penalty, which is enforceable at the referee’s discretion. Full-face guards are required in female hockey matches. The first women’s team was formed in 1921, but since then women have only played in small independent leagues since there’s no professional league for women like they do for basketball. In time there will be a chance for women to go professional in the United States in hockey, yet that’s a long ways away.

Think about what you’ve read so far. Does it reinforce what you already know about Hockey? Or was there something completely new? What about the remaining paragraphs?

Women have made their mark in the sporting world by taking on a sport that’s been predominantly male since it was invented in the 18th century and has since carried an audience that spreads to many parts of the world. Women are moving up the ranks quickly in terms of their participation and the formation of teams, and it’s just a matter of time and acceptance of women entering this sport. If women could enter the world of professional basketball and play domestically instead of going overseas then it’s just a matter of introducing hockey into this country in the same fashion.

It hasn’t been an easy journey for women to enter this sport because of the constant scrutiny of women playing sports that were mostly reserved for men to participate in. Women still deal with the inequality in this sport because people still view women differently than they do for men. Males dominated this sport since the sport was invented more than 100 years ago, but recently with the 100-year anniversary since the foundation of the National Hockey League (NHL). It would sound strange if they had a professional league called the WNHL since they managed to establish the WNBA for women’s basketball.

It would be pretty cool to see women have a leg in the professional world of hockey since women can play just as hard as a man and be just as good as her male counterparts, if given a chance to prove herself. Unfortunately, the world hasn’t really accepted women in professional sports since it was a long journey to get basketball on the map, now it’s just getting the world to be open to professional hockey league for women. A woman can play just has hard as the guys if not better, but the world still don’t agree that women shouldn’t play sports that has been dominated by males for more than 100 years and women should have the opportunity to play hockey professionally like males do. Females had to break the glass ceiling to even push for the opportunity to play professional sports in America, but it started with basketball and now hopefully hockey will establish itself one day as a professional sport that’s played the same way in the NHL.

When word gets around about your command of Hockey facts, others who need to know about Hockey will start to actively seek you out.

About the Author
By Anders Eriksson, proud owner of this top ranked web hosting reseller site: GVO