THE LOST HISTORY OF THE COLORED HOCKEY LEAGUE OF THE MARITIMES 1895-1925
The Society of North American Hockey Historians And Researchers (Sonahhr USA/Canada) , New York Black Ice Hockey And Sports Hall Of Fame, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Condensed from The Book Black Ice by George and Darril Fosty (Stryker-Indigo, New York, 2004)
Nova Scotia is considered the birthplace of modern hockey. The quantity and convenience of natural ponds, ideal for skating, combined with the British tradition of shinny, bandy and hurley, along with the local Mi’kmaq Indian version of the game, helped facilitate the geographic and social conditions necessary for the development and creation of the game we now know as Canadian hockey.
Our knowledge of the roots of Canadian hockey have been based almost solely on the historical records maintained by early White historians. Because of this, the misconception that hockey is a White man’s invention has persisted. We know today, such an assumption could not be further from historical fact. The roots of early Canadian hockey originate with the North American Indians. The roots of modern Canadian hockey originate, in large part, from the influence of an even more surprising source, that of early African-Canadian hockey. For it was Black hockey players in the later half of the nineteenth century whose style of play and innovations helped shape the sport, effectively changing the game of hockey forever.
With certainty, we can only date Black hockey to the early 1870’s, yet we know that hockey and Black history in Nova Scotia have parallel roots, going back almost 100 years . Among the first reports of hockey being played occur in 1815 along the isolated Northwest Arm, south of Halifax. The date is important for the simple fact that as late as October 1815 the region was not home to a large White settlement but was instead the site of a small Black enclave. Four Black families originally from the Chesapeake Bay area, with a total of fifteen children, had relocated and settled on the Arm. It is reported that these families, Couney, Williams, Munro and Leale, received adequate food, lodging and employment implying that their children were healthy and would have been able to play hockey during the winter months when the Arm was frozen and suitable for skating. Were these children among the first Canadians to play the game of hockey? We do not know. All we can say is that the coincidence between the date of the Northwest Arm’s Black settlement and the first records of hockey being played in the area are worthy of reflection.
As early as 1828 hockey had been reportedly played on Dartmouth, Nova Scotia’s Lake Banook, an area inhabited by poor Whites and Blacks. At the time it was considered the most popular place where people, regardless of race, could come to skate and to play hockey. This implied evidence suggests that Black Canadians ad been playing organized hockey, in non-segregated pick-up games on frozen ponds and lakes throughout Nova Scotia, as far back as the 1820’s. By the mid-1850’s, ice hockey had evolved in popularity to a point where it was common throughout Nova Scotia.
From the 1880’s to the mid-1890’s, hockey continued to spread across Canada yet no evidence exists to indicate that Black hockey players had been allowed to join White teams. Not a single Black name appears on known championship rosters of the time inferring that they remained separate of the mainstream. Given the skills of the players, had they been allowed access to White leagues many would have surely emerged as some of the so-called “best” players of their regions.
Unfortunately, in keeping with the elitism of the day, only the games and influences of the upper classes, and their teams and leagues, were recorded for posterity. It was the Englishman, Lord Stanley of Preston the sixth Governor General of Canada and 16th Earl of Derby, who gave the game its most sought after prize. In 1892 Lord Stanley sent his aide, Captain Charles Colville, to England to purchase a trophy envisioned as being an annual challenge cup awarded to the recognized amateur champions of Canada.
For a mere ten pounds, Colville purchased what has become the oldest and most prestigious trophy in North American sports. Within a season, the first Challenge Cup Championships, later nicknamed the Stanley Cup, would take place in Canada. Lord Stanley’s concepts on sport were in keeping with his time. During the nineteenth century, it had been the English who had introduced the concept of competitive sports to much of the world. In an age of the Victorians and Victorian ideals, sports were regarded as models of teamwork and fair play. Many believed that sports could raise the lower classes and non-White races to a higher level of civilization and social development. All was well, the theory held as long as White men continued to win at whatever sport they played. Hockey was no different.
By recognizing Canadian hockey Stanley had accomplished something more. He has given the game “royal acceptance” removing its status as a game of the lowly masses and creating a tiered sport based on club elitism and commercialism. It is no secret that the Stanley Cup was only to be competed for by select teams within Canada. At the time of its presentation, it was a symbol for self-promotion all the while serving a “supposed need”. In time, those who controlled the Challenge Cup controlled hockey, effectively creating a “bourgeoisie” sport. A sport that now, by its very nature, would exclude and fail to recognize Black contributions.
In the early 1880’s, within Nova Scotia and the other Canadian Maritime Provinces urbanized Black communities formed separate sporting clubs. Semi-professional Black Baseball Teams began touring the region playing exhibition matches against other rural African-Canadian clubs. By the 1890’s, with the newfound interest in sports sweeping Canadian Society, “all-Black” baseball sports clubs were well established throughout the province of Nova Scotia as well as other parts of Eastern Canada. By the mid-1890’s these all-Black sports clubs functioned year-round, as these same baseball players turned their attention to the winter sport of hockey. In an era when many believed Blacks could not endure cold, possessed ankles too weak to effectively skate, and lacked the intelligence for organized sport, these men defied the status quo. Segregated from their White counterparts Black Canadians would create their own hockey league.
The first recorded mention of all-Black hockey teams appears in 1895. Following the matches, the host teams often entertained the visiting squad with an after game dinner. By 1900, The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes had been created, headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Despite hardships and prejudice, the league would exist until the mid-1920s.
Historically speaking, The Colored Hockey League was like no other hockey or sports league before or since. Primarily located in a province, reputed to be the birthplace of Canadian hockey, the league would in time produce a quality of player and athlete that would rival the best of White Canada. Such was the skill of the teams that they would be seen by as worthy candidates for local representation in the annual national quest for Canadian hockey’s ultimate prize - the Stanley Cup.
Twenty-five years before the Negro Baseball Leagues in the United States, and twenty-two years before the birth of the National Hockey League, Black Canadians helped pioneer the sport of ice hockey changing this winter game from the primitive “gentleman’s past-time” of the nineteenth century to the modern fast moving game of today. Led by skilled and educated leadership, the Colored League would emerge as a premier force in Canadian hockey and supply the resilience necessary to preserve a unique culture; a culture that exists to this day. Unfortunately, such was their fate, that their contributions were conveniently ignored, or simply stolen, as White teams and hockey officials, influenced by the Black league, copied elements of the Black style or sought to take self-credit for Black hockey innovations.
The Colored Hockey League was one of the most complex sports organizations ever created. It was a League led by Baptist Ministers and Church Laymen. Natural leaders and proponents of Black Pride, these men represented a concept in sports never before seen. Their Rule Book was The Bible. Their Game Book, the words, oral history, and lessons derived from the experiences of the Black struggle and the Underground Railroad. Their strategy, the principles and teachings of the American Black leader Booker T. Washington the founder of the Tuskegee Institute and a believer in the concept of racial equality through racial separation. The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes was a league built on religious beliefs that were cornerstone of the Baptist religion. A league comprised of determined Black athletes and organizers who would be the personification of athletic and spiritual excellence. The Baptist Articles of Faith, a 17-point declaration, was for many their unofficial Oath of Allegiance. An allegiance understood and upheld by all who wore the team uniforms. An allegiance rooted in faith and hope and one that spoke of a bright tomorrow and the promise of a new world to come. Seventeen points designed to guide the human soul and to serve as a foundation of belief. A declaration of faith and covenant that declares among other points that there is “but one living and true God.”
Because of the popularity of hockey in Canada, versus baseball, it would be winter’s golden game that would become the beacon of the Nova Scotia Black sports movement. Hockey would in turn become a game with ties to religion, social mobility, politics, and the emergence of Black Nationalism. For it would be hockey, not baseball, that would be the initial driving force for the ultimate liberation and equality of Black Canadians.
The first Black Nova Scotian hockey games played within an organized league would occur in the spring of 1895. With the help of a young Black Baptist leadership, two hockey teams, the Halifax Eurekas and the Halifax Stanley, drawn from players of the Black tenements on Gottingen Street. These teams, the first “organized” Black clubs of their kind in Halifax, would eventually become part of an emerging Black presence in hockey throughout the region, becoming true hallmarks of Black Pride. Subsequently, following the creation of these two club teams, Black community leaders in Halifax and Dartmouth would work to form and promote their own segregated hockey league. Black respect for the past, and a burning memory of the struggle that was the language and experience of the Black race on North American shores. The Code of the Underground Railroad would become the language of the Colored Hockey League.
For decades it had been the practice of Black ministers and leaders to codify their language. To speak of something that, on the outside, appeared to mean one thing but to those who understood the language of the Black struggle, would have a different understanding. This practice had become an art during the years of the Underground Railroad. The Code of the Underground Railroad was found in the songs of the plantation slave. In order to ensure the success of runaways fleeing northward to Canada, Blacks communicated by way of coded messages often put to verse. These songs were sung during religious services or in the field, with each song having a specific meaning or message to those for whom it was intended. It was as Longfellow once said, “For the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem.”
To the White community of Nova Scotia, the Dartmouth “Jubilees” hockey team were named in honor of Queen Victoria and her Diamond Jubilee celebrations. To the Blacks, Jubilee referred to “the year of Emancipation” a “time of future happiness” when all Blacks would be free. Other team names would hold religious meaning: Eureka, a term associated with the discovery of gold was later thought to be in reference to the Klondike Gold rush. In fact, “Eureka” meant, “I have found” a reference to those who had found God.
Later, Hammond Plains, a community with the largest contingent of people who could trace their origins to the Underground Railroad, would name their team the “Moss Backs”. Associated with the Underground Railroad, the “Moss Backs” referred to the side of a dead tree on which moss grows. At night, guided only by the stars, Black slaves fleeing north to Canada often traveled by touch through dense woodlands. In the pitch darkness the practice of placing one’s hand in front of the body, feeling the sides of trees and determining where the moss grew, allowed those fleeing to remain on course; for, as all slaves knew well, moss grows on the north side of a tree. And as anyone who has walked through the woods at night also knows, the ability to see at night without light is nearly impossible, forcing the person to walk constantly with their hands extended, feeling the air in front of them.
It is in the naming of the Halifax “Stanley” hockey team that this impact is most visible. In 1890, newspapers had reported on a movement within the upper echelons of British society to promote the idea of educated Black men returning to Western Africa in an attempt to “uplift” the primitive masses and to ensure British Empire control over the region. Arguing that environmental factors made it more feasible for Blacks, rather than Whites, to follow in the footsteps of Lord Stanley - the great explorer who had ventured deep into the Congo - these elitists believed that an army of “Black Stanleys” could stabilize the region and achieve the greatest benefits for the British cause.
By naming the team “the Stanley” the league leaders had spoken volumes, making both a political, as well as a mocking statement of the current political theories. This bold “in your face” did not sit well within the halls of White Haligonian society.
Though the Colored Hockey League appeared on the outside to be simply an avenue of recreation for young Black men, in fact, it was something much more. Never before had Canadian hockey witnessed such a phenomena. Never before had a hockey league been organized using religious leadership as the guiding organizational force. Never before, or since, has the message been so clear. The league’s rulebook would be The Bible. Their Game Book, the words, oral history and lessons derived from the Black Canadian experience and the legacy of the Underground Railroad. Their strategy, to uplift the Black man to a level that would make him equal to their White brethren, all-the-while installing a sense of leadership, organization, community, purpose, determination, teamwork, and duty in to the hearts and minds of young Black men. The Colored Hockey League was more than just a sports organization; it was in fact, the first Black Pride sports movement in history – truly a magnificent undertaking considering nothing like it had ever been attempted, either before or since.
By virtue of the age of many of the players, it is possible to trace the early roots of Black hockey back to the early to mid-1870’s. During the 1870’s, the first Black athletes were learning to skate on lakes and ponds in ample numbers that by the mid-1880’s, just as in baseball, the numbers of Black children and young men playing hockey would have been sufficient to allow for the first organized all-Black recreational games to be played. By the early 1890’s, the number of quality Black hockey players would allow for the formation of an all-Black hockey league.
By the winter of 1895, the Colored Hockey League had not just formed out of air but instead it had simply tapped into, and organized, a resource that had been present for some time in the region. Many of these individuals had grown up playing the game at a time when the roots of modern hockey were only just beginning to bear fruit. 1895 was simply the first year that Black hockey was organized and had become a league with a purpose. A league that, behind the scenes, was being run by the regions best and brightest young Black men and leaders; a league with sufficient support and funds to rent arenas, and a league that was now just receiving its initial mention in the Halifax press.
Given the respect and interest that hockey elicited, it is no wonder that many within the lower Canadian social classes would use the sport as an instrument to aid in their social advancement. It is also not surprising that aspirating Black Canadians would also see hockey as an acceptable tool for social upward mobility.
Among the Colored League players, was a three-and-a-half foot tall goaltender named Henry “Braces” Franklyn. According to Dr. Garth Vaughn’s groundbreaking book, The Puck Stops Here, Franklyn’s play was revolutionary, as he was the first recorded goaltender to go down onto the ice to stop a shot. At the time other leagues adopted a “stand-up only” position for their net minder, occasionally even issuing fines to goaltenders if they fell to the ice while playing the puck. It would not be until almost twenty years later that Franklyn’s style of play would become the standard throughout all of amateur and professional hockey. Today, hockey’s Hall-of-Fame brothers Lynn and Frank Patrick and their Pacific Coast Hockey League, are recognized as the first individuals and league to allow a goaltenders to play in this manner. This is a falsehood that needs to be corrected. The first league to allow the goalie to go down on ice was the Colored League, the first goalie to do so being Henry “Braces” Franklyn.
Going down onto the ice was not Franklyn’s only innovative technique, as the pint-sized goaltender would also regularly wander out of his goal to play the puck. A style that would not be seen until the emergence of legendary National Hockey League Hall-of-Fame goaltender Jacques Plante in the mid-1950’s. Braces, was a half-century ahead of his time, displaying a style all his own.
Apparently Franklyn died prematurely in 1899. The cause of his death is unknown. However, it was dramatic enough to cause his wife, Emeline, to be institutionalized at the Mount Hope Insane Asylum. In addition, his father, who was 68 years of age at the time, would be placed into a boarding home as he was unable to look after himself. It also appears that Franklyn left behind a small family, including a young daughter of thirteen. The girl and her three younger sisters were adopted into the home of Franklyn’s younger sister, a woman of 28. The fate of their family is not known.
The Africville Sea-Sides team name held a double meaning, one to the larger White community, and an altogether different meaning to the smaller Black culture. To the White population, the double “S” insignia on Africville’s jersey signified the “Sea-Sides” – a geographical reference to Africville and the inner harbor that it borders. As a result, the White media would print the team name as “Seasides” giving it a grammatically correct yet, misrepresentative spelling. The Sea-Sides uniform was not fashioned in honor of Africville, but the double “S” held a more important meaning. In the days of the Underground Railroad, it had been the mark of a “Slave Stealer,” individuals who helped slaves escape north into Canada. Those who were caught helping slaves were often beaten, murdered, or imprisoned. As a way of identifying captured slave stealers, slave owners often branded their victims with a double “S” on their bodies — most often on their right hands or their face — as a way to “mark” them for life. In the eyes of the slaves however, the double “S” was a sign of heroism, one of pride —”Slave Salvation”; and anyone who bore the mark was to be trusted, respected, and admired. It is in John Greenleaf Whittier’s famous 1841poem, The Branded Hand about the American Jonathan Walker, a sea captain who was captured by Southerners while he was attempting to smuggle slaves at the height of the Underground Railroad, that the concept of the slave stealer is forever immortalized. It reads:
Then lift that manly right hand,
Bold plowman of the wave,
Its branded palm shall prophesy
Salvation to the Slave;
In terms of historic significance, the Sea-Sides uniform is perhaps the most important hockey uniform ever made.
By 1900, professionalism had entered into the League. As the league now entered its highest, most competitive stage of development, one point was clear, the players of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes were some of Canada’s finest.
As the majority of the Nova Scotia Black players were also baseball players, this high sticking style of play may not have been considered unusual; instead it would most likely be viewed as natural. Eddie Martin, of the Eurekas, was said to have had an incredible hard and accurate shot. Descriptions of his play indicate that he may have, inadvertently, been a pioneer of the hockey slap-shot. Twenty-five years before future hockey hall-of-fame player Frank “Bun” Cook introduced the slap-shot to the National Hockey League and half a century before Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion and Andy Bathgate perfected it as an effective way to shooting the puck in the 1950’s, Martin appears to have already mastered it. The Colored League was on the rise and James Kinney was rapidly becoming one of the leading voices of Black Pride and self-determination within Nova Scotian society.
During the same period, in 1905-06, the City of Halifax moved to expropriate lands in the Africville area, the hub of the Colored Hockey League, as part of an agreement with two powerful railroad barons. The resulting political and legal fight between the local Black residents and the City would be a pivotal point for the league.
Most of the land needed for the HSWRC was located along the coastline running west from South Halifax through Africville and out towards Bedford. Rather than compensate the Black residents of Halifax, the City chose to argue that the Blacks had no legal claims to the property and as such would not be awarded any compensation for lands taken. Seven properties, owned by John Brown, Walter Thomas, Alex Carvery and William Carvery, were of interest to the City and were slated to be seized. But the men, with the help of local Black leaders, petitioned both the City Council as well as the Courts, seeking a halt to construction and a negotiated settlement. The City refused to halt their efforts leaving the plaintiffs to move forward on his own through the courts. It would be a battle which would last five years as the city and its attorneys worked to draw out the case and to undercut the will and financial strength of the Black community.
In terms of the lawsuit against the City, what made the situation even more intriguing was that a number of the Black plaintiffs were high profile players of the Colored League – men well known in the community. Their willingness to take on City Hall caused a ripple effect and a series of subtle “paybacks” began as the City and its supporters worked to undercut the Black opposition. The first casualty from this backlash would be the league.
The teams no longer received ice time. When they finally did, it was not until conditions were so poor that the ice was virtually unplayable. With no ice-time, there was no media coverage. Challenges between teams would no longer be printed, and if any games did occur, the results of matches were no longer recorded for the public record. No longer would a value be placed on the Colored Hockey League. Immediately following the peak of its success, the league would receive no press in 1905 and only one reference in 1906, the lone reference being a match between the Eurekas and the Jubilees played at the Empire Rink on March 29th of that year. By 1906, the Colored League now found itself outdoors. Its enemies expecting it to die a slow death. Just as in the 1880’s, the teams would be playing back on the ponds with little public notice.
Aside from effectively killing the league, economic repercussions also began to occur. The hiring of Blacks for City jobs were curtailed and employment preferences shifted to the hiring of foreign emigrants for work jobs traditionally earmarked for Blacks. This overt act became so evident that it caused some within the White community to speak out on behalf of displaced Black workers. The last thing the City Fathers wish to do was strengthen Black economics and resolve. The economic ability of Black men to provide food for their families was now in question. The City, if they could not steal the land outright, was prepared to starve the Blacks and their families into submission. The screws of the City Council were turning and the Blacks of Halifax were in its vice.
By 1907 the assault on Black economic businesses had shifted from individual merchants to an attack on the whole Black community. The Health Department at the urging of unnamed White businessmen announced an effort to put an end to the Halifax Green Market, a tradition that had existed for well over one hundred and twenty years. The Market, the economic life of both local Blacks and Mi’kmaq Indians, was said to be in violation of Health Department codes (codes rarely enforced) prohibiting the sale of food on sidewalks. Blacks and Mi’kmaqs would now have to buy “vendor stalls” at a new White controlled market house being built. Many of the Blacks and Native Indians objected publicly to the closure believing that the move was a deliberate attempt to drive them out of business or steal their profits. Leading the fight for the Green Market closure were the editors and owners of the Halifax Herald Newspaper – a company long said to be anti-Black.
With the advent of World War One, and the destruction of Halifax City during the 1917 Halifax Explosion, Black hockey disappeared from the Canadian landscape. Later, during the 1920’s, Black hockey players would make a return to the Nova Scotia ice arenas. New teams had emerged and once again the Colored Hockey League would be recognized in the local media. Some teams had continued the tradition of dual meaning team names. For example, the Halifax Diamonds name referred to the North Star Constellation, which had served as a directional beacon of hope in the night for fleeing slaves moving northward to Canada in the days of the Underground Railroad. Additional teams were known to exist which included the New Glasgow Speed Boys and the Africville Brown Bombers. The name “Bombers” being an old English slang for “the successes.”
Although the league had reemerged to some prominence by 1921, the Colored Hockey League was essentially dead as far as its social significance. Racism, the war, the Halifax Explosion and economic factors had all played their part in the league’s demise. From this point on only scattered mention of the all-Black teams would appear in the newspapers.
Today, on the North Side of Halifax, on the site that was once Africville, a hub and birthplace of modern Canadian hockey, one finds Seaview Park. In the park stands a sundial monument bearing the names of the original families who settled Africville. The monument is designed to show the slow movement of time by the position of the sun. It is a symbol of years past and a haunting epitaph to the historic Black struggle in Canadian society. During the nineteenth century, bigoted Whites would often mutter the expression; “Nigger don’t let the Sun set on your back in this Community.” It is an expression understood by all men of color who have witnessed the anger of White mobs determined to rid their neighborhoods of people they deemed “inferior”. It is a haunting expression that echoes in the final memories of hundreds of Blacks who themselves were the victims of White lynch mobs and racists. The sun dial takes on a greater meaning when it is viewed in context of Black history. For the Blacks of Africville its meaning is clear: “You are not welcome here.”
Racism is so instilled in Canadian culture that Canadians fail to recognize it for what it is. An old Indian prophet once wrote that “a valley is clearer from an adjacent mountain top than from the valley itself” and such is the case in Canada where the struggle of the non-White Canadian is much clearer from the distance of time and history than from the day-to-day examination of the lives of individuals.
The history of Black Canadians has, for the most part, either been forgotten, deliberately destroyed, or conveniently ignored. Most historians have often dismissed it, or have viewed it as irrelevant. When it has been discussed, it has often been presented in relation to the cause and effects of American and New World Slavery. If the truth were known, Canadian Black history is as complex and intriguing as that of any European race or nation that has shaped the modern world. It is a history rich in its telling, one that evokes heroism, determination and dignity. It is realism, hidden by popular ignorance and modern theory. It is a legendary story supplanted by modern bias and myths.
Canada — today — five hundred years in the making, is in a historic and cultural sense, one of the most complex and successful nations in human history. The second largest nation in land area, its population numbers less than 32 million. It is a nation in the shadow of the United States, one that officially prides itself as a cultural mosaic of over two hundred cultures, living for the most part, at ease with one another. Yet, historically, it is a country whose existence is a direct result of the influences and efforts of four great peoples and races – the French, the English, the Native Americans, and the Blacks.
The creation of the Colored Hockey League and the role-played by the Baptist Churches and their leadership within the Maritimes cannot be truly appreciated unless it is seen in its true historic and religious context. With the publishing of Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection,” in 1859, creationists and bigots alike began to espouse the theory that Darwin’s thesis pertained only to Blacks and other races. Portraying Blacks as non-human, and only an evolutionary link between Apes and Man. By denigrating Blacks and other minorities, these proponents of White Supremacy found justification in their actions as well as explanation for the Biblical scripture.
Man is a distinct creation, in the image of God . . . of which the White is the highest, and the Negro the lowest race, with the browns, reds and yellows as intermediate races, in different stages of development.
With the growing popularity of White-based sports and team concepts, such mad science, and extremist religious beliefs gave fuel to the arguments and theories espousing that Blacks were neither suited physically or mentally for sport, and that at best, they could only be trained to mimic the actions of Whites. Such concepts received widespread legitimacy and promotion throughout North America at a time when Blacks and their leadership were attempting to make inroads in their quest for equality and social acceptance. Thus, by creating teams of Blacks, skilled in hockey, and led by respected Black religious leaders, the Colored League was not only challenging the traditional Canadian hockey status quo, but was also challenging both religious and scientific extremism as well. The league, by its very existence, gave Blacks hope, all-the-while setting itself up as a symbolic target for anyone who sought its failure or demise. In terms of sports history, the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes changed the way hockey was seen and played in early Canada.
The game of hockey permeates all levels of Canadian society. It is a sport that impacts on social status, ethical values, language, hero worship, and race. It embodies form and substance. It is a record of who Canadians are; what they aspire to do; and what they have achieved. For many, the sport is a source of wonder, beauty and passion. A cultural quest which helps to define and differentiate Canadians from other groups and sporting societies. Hockey is mind over body. In the end, when performed at its highest level and skill, it is a sport that defies the ages, and by doing so, overcomes all human limitations – achieving timelessness. Today there are no monuments to the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes. There is no reference to the league in any but a few books on hockey. There is no reference in the Hockey Hall of Fame of the impact that Blacks had in the development of the modern game of hockey. No reference to the Black origin of the slap shot. There is no reference to the Black origin of the offensive style of goal play exhibited by Franklyn. There is no reference to the Black origin of goalies going down on ice in order to stop the puck. It is as if the league had never existed. For hockey and its Black Heritage is today a sport whiter in history than a Canadian winter.
In Canadian history, as it is in winter, the landscape is that of bleached white. It is a world of seeming beauty, yet one without color. It is a sterile landscape, deadened by cold and time, blinding to all who are lost within its blanketed form. Yet, a Canadian winter is deceptive for one need only to scrape away the season’s covering to find its brown soil. For in Canadian history and hockey, as with the seasons, between the time of the last white winter snows and the first brown spring soils, there inevitably will always be a period we call Black Ice.