House passes bill to award Congressional Gold Medal to Willie O’Ree, the first Black NHL player
By Shawna Mizelle, CNN
The House has voted to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Willie O’Ree, the first Black player to compete in the National Hockey League.
The Willie O’Ree Congressional Gold Medal Act passed 426-0 on Wednesday. The bill, reintroduced by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina last year, unanimously passed the Senate in July. It will now go to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The vote to award O’Ree the nation’s highest civilian award that Congress can bestow recognizes “his contributions and commitment to hockey, inclusion, and recreational opportunity.” It comes a day after the Boston Bruins retired O’Ree’s number, 22.
O’Ree, 86, broke the NHL’s color barrier in 1958 with the Bruins, one of six teams at the time. He played 45 games with the Bruins, despite being legally blind in one eye — scoring four goals and recording 10 assists. According to the bill text, he was not aware he had broken the color barrier at the highest level of hockey until he read it in the newspaper the following day.
Known as “the Jackie Robinson of hockey,” O’Ree previously told CNN that he heard name calling from opposing players and from fans in the stands during every game he played in. “Besides being Black and being blind in my right eye, I was faced with four other things: racism, prejudice, bigotry and ignorance,” he said.
O’Ree serves as the NHL’s director of youth development and ambassador for NHL diversity, a position he has held for more than two decades. He is credited with paving “the way for future players of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds,” in his NHL biography.
Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York praised O’Ree in a tweet on Wednesday, referencing his number being retired, as an “inspiring man who broke the color-barrier in the NHL.”
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