Willie O'Ree

CTL-E-6921 · Person · other · 1935–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07793 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6921.

Willie O'Ree is a Canadian former professional ice hockey winger from Fredericton, New Brunswick, who became the first Black player in the National Hockey League. Born October 15, 1935, O'Ree was a prolific junior scorer who played much of his early career in New Brunswick and Quebec, including a 22-goal season with the Quebec Aces. Called up by the Boston Bruins to replace an injured player, he made his NHL debut on January 18, 1958, against the Montreal Canadiens at the Montreal Forum, in a 3–0 Boston win, breaking the league's colour barrier. He did so while blind in his right eye, the result of being struck by a puck in a junior game during the 1955–56 season, a fact he kept from the Bruins. O'Ree played 45 NHL games across the 1957–58 and 1960–61 seasons, recording four goals and ten assists, before a long minor-league career. He joined the NHL in 1998 as director of youth development, and in 2018 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builder category; the NHL also established the Willie O'Ree Community Hero Award in his honour that year.

The record

• Also known as: William Eldon O'Ree

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0210. Firsts disposition: ASSERTED — first Black player in the NHL (Boston Bruins debut, January 18, 1958), supported by the Hockey Hall of Fame's own induction release and by two NHL.com league accounts. A further first sometimes attached to O'Ree (first Black player to score an NHL goal, January 1, 1961) is carried by only one source in this set and is therefore NOT asserted in the description. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): O'Ree's 45 NHL games are among the most consequential short careers in sport — the barrier he crossed in 1958 was not crossed again until 1974. That he played those games blind in one eye, and hid it, measures both the man and the era that made the hiding necessary. Photo: CLEARED — WillieORee2019.jpg, Public domain.

Sources

• Hockey Hall of Fame, “Hockey Hall of Fame Announces 2018 Inductees” (press release), June 26, 2018; accessed 2026-11-03 (primary source · build store)
• NHL.com (NHL Public Relations), “O'Ree, first black NHL player, to be inducted into Hockey Hall of Fame,” June 26, 2018; accessed 2026-11-03 (primary source · build store)
• NHL.com, “Jan. 18: O'Ree first black player in NHL” (This Date in History), January 17, 2020; accessed 2026-11-03 (primary source · build store)
• NHL.com, “O'Ree named to Canada Sports Hall of Fame,” May 27, 2020; accessed 2026-11-03 (primary source · build store)
• San Diego Gulls, “Willie O'Ree Elected To Hockey Hall Of Fame,” June 26, 2018; accessed 2026-11-03 (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6921 · Combined Graph record U-07793 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 5 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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