Tiger Woods of Hockey? Next? Maybe

The article linked to this post focuses on the black Canadian hockey player Jarome Iginla, pictured above, who plays for the Calgary Flames, and the sport and its relationship with blacks. The story reminds me of a conversation I had with an old retired white Catholic priest a couple of years ago. The topic was on blacks in hockey, and why there was very little representation. But after speaking with him a few times, eventually, he changed his old ways of thinking.

"Their ankles aren't built like whites to handle the ice." He went on to state blacks' ankles were built a certain way for jumping (e.g., basketball). Not hockey. Yes, he said their right in front of me, as if I were any shade other than brown. Then I went on to educate and remind him of the lack of skating rinks in predominately black neighborhoods, interest, cost of equipment and rink rental fees, and other factors which slowed the interest of black youths into this sport. I reminded him of barriers broken in other areas and that is was possible for black to succeed in hockey, the factors lacking, in general, were opportunity and exposure. But I won't get further into the lengthy discussions we had on race.

Here is an excerpt from the Time magazine article:

" Bottom line: hockey needs a transcendent African-American star, a Tiger Woods, to market the game to a black audience. "If you had somebody of that caliber who was African-American, then, yeah, I think that would break the barrier," says James Jemison, a black hockey fan from Atlanta." READ MORE...

Reference: Time.com