Harris, Cecil. Breaking the Ice: The Black Experience in Professional Hockey. New York: Insomniac P, 2004.

Section 1- Vocabulary

1. Indefatigable- Capable of working a long time without tiring
   1. Jarome Iginla, who practices for five to six hours and then energetically performs in a game, can be described as indefatigable.
2. Siphoned- To draw off of or to pass of as if by siphon
   1. Alan Eagleson, the Player’s Association president, was accused of siphoning funds from player’s pensions.
3. Latent- Present but not visible or active
   1. After suspensions were handed out for the use of the N-bomb in 2003 in the NHL, many fans began to believe that while racism was not apparent, it was still latent.
4. Détente- A relaxation of strained relations or tensions
   1. As many of the original Black Hockey players aged, they began to feel détente towards the players who had verbally abused them during their playing years.
5. Progenitor- One that originates or precedes
   1. Many of the current black NHL players thank their progenitors for paving for the way for them in the league.
6. Incognito- Having one’s identity concealed
   1. The first black goalie was able to play relatively incognito, due to his head protection, which did not allow people to see his face.
7. Ribald- Marked by or inclined to coarseness and indecency
   1. The N-bomb was part of the ribald language that black players faced upon entering the league
8. Unheralded- To greet with a certain lack of enthusiasm
   1. Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black hockey player, did not receive the attention that Jackie Robinson did when he broke the color barrier. Rather, being called up from the minor leagues to fill a roster spot vacated due to injury, his arrival was unheralded
9. Contemporary- Living or occurring during the same time.
   1. Jarome Iginla and Anson Carter, who have played each other multiple times in the past decade as members of the different NHL teams are considered contemporaries.
10. Virtuosity- Great technical skill in the practice of fine arts
    1. Anson Carter’s virtuosity of great stickhandling left many defenders dumbfounded.
11. Solace- To make cheerful, to comfort, soothe
    1. Willie O’Ree could not find any solace after being demoted to the minors after a 38-goal season
12. Precipitous- Falling very quick, rapid
    1. The utterance of the N-bomb led to John Vanbiesbrouck’s precipitous fall from grace as a respected white hockey player.

Section 2- Biography

Cecil Harris wrote the biography Breaking the Ice. Harris is a black sports reporter who covers the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders in Newsday and had previously worked covering the NHL as a reporter for The Hockey News and The Sporting News. Harris faces discrimination during his coverage of hockey games, as many fans and some reporters find it unusual for a black person to cover ice hockey, typically a “white-man’s” game. Due to the hardships he faced, Harris decided to interview black ice hockey players to discover how racism affected them, and how they coped with the pressure.

Section 3- Relevance of select quotes (Choice 4)

Quote 1-

The theme of this biography is rising above challenges. Black Hockey players faced extreme prejudice. The racial slurs, chicken bones, cotton balls, and many other forms of racism stood in the way of many black hockey players. Harris, the author of the book, explains, “No amount of positive reinforcement can totally erase the pain of a black person subjected to a racial slur, particularly one uttered by someone in a position of authority, someone who could affect your quality of life. The slur is an attack on one’s personhood, an attempt to damage the psyche and wound the soul. And for a black in the overwhelmingly white world of hockey, no slur cuts deeper and instills more pain than “nigger” (p. 149 Cecil Harris). The significance of this quote is that it allows the reader to comprehend the struggles that blacks must deal with in hockey. In order for one to understand the theme of overcoming obstacles, one must grasp exactly what the impediments were. The author assumes that the average reader cannot fully recognize how much pain is caused by a derogatory term. Therefore, Harris must elaborate on why the N-Bomb hurts a black player so much. The slur tears at every fiber of their being, it means that the person who is uttering it believes they are better than the person it is being directed at, strictly because of the racial group that person was born into. It is imperative for this groundwork to be laid to order to appreciate how testing it is to break a color barrier, to be one of a few black men in a predominantly white sport.

Quote 2-

Almost all black hockey players faced bigotry while they played hockey. And almost all hockey players decided to not let it bother them. Willie O’Ree was one such player. Harris writes, “When O’Ree tells youngsters stories about his life…he does not tell them about the night racist spectators threw cotton balls at him… or the nights chicken bones were hurled at him…or…the nights he could neither eat nor sleep at the same establishments as him teammates…He doesn’t talk about the spectators who mistook a hockey game for a Ku Klux Klan rally and yelled “nigger” until they were hoarse, just to make sure he never got too comfortable…O’Ree would much rather expose youngsters to the joys of hockey, the importance of setting goals and doing the hard work necessary to achieve those goals” (p. 76 Harris). An ongoing theme in this book is rising above challenges. Here, Harris explains here that while O’Ree, the first black hockey player in the NHL, faced intense discrimination and racism, he never let it affect him. In fact, O’Ree used this racism as a motivational force. Be believed that the best way to get back at the bigots he faced was to try harder. Even as he was a child, he faced taunts from players and spectators. O’Ree utilized the anger he felt towards his aggressors as his motivation to become the first professional black hockey player. When addressing youth, O’Ree does not dwell on the hardships he faced, but rather focuses on the values and lessons he learned by playing hockey.

Quote 3-

Whenever O’Ree heard racist comments, it pushed him even harder to succeed. “I heard nigger so much on the ice, I thought it was my name…But it went in one ear and out the other. Nothing was going to keep me from getting to the NHL, and when I got there, no racial remarks were going to force me out” (p. 82 O’Ree). The importance of this quote is irrefutable. It clearly summarizes the theme of this book. O’Ree describes not only how often he faced racial slurs, but also the determination he had towards his goals. Even though O’Ree faced enormous challenges, not only physical but also emotional, he directed his energy towards overcoming these obstacles. For the reader to understand this book, he or she must understand the frequency of the racial remarks, along with the other acts of humiliation encountered, but also the attitudes that the black players needed to triumph over these trials.

Quote 4-

Having role models, albeit in other sports, made the transition into the NHL easier for some black hockey players. They looked up to how Robinson did not succumb to the racist pressures, and therefore they willed themselves not to as well. Georges Laraque declared, “I felt that if he [Jackie Robinson] did it, I should be able to do it too…I think that it became a mission for Jackie Robinson to make it in baseball, to shut all those people up, and it became my mission to make it in hockey- all the way to the NHL. All those people who were calling me “nigger,” they pushed me…Those people, they pushed me. They pushed me with their racist comments” (P. 106-107 Georges Laraque). Laraque, the fourth professional black hockey player, was the first black to make over a million dollars per year. Laraque made it his goal from a young age to make the NHL. He would not let his drive and determination be discouraged by racism. The intolerant spectators and opponents stood as impediments towards his objective, but Laraque was resolute to make the NHL, regardless of any discrimination. This exemplifies the theme, success in the face of difficulty.