{"id":27986,"date":"2016-03-17T08:42:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=27986"},"modified":"2016-03-17T08:46:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T12:46:44","slug":"soul-on-ice-film-screening-past-present-and-future-of-black-hockey-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2016\/03\/17\/soul-on-ice-film-screening-past-present-and-future-of-black-hockey-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Soul on Ice Film Screening: Past, Present and Future of Black Hockey Players"},"content":{"rendered":"Was anyone at the Soul on Ice<\/em> screening last week? The Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) partnered with Hart House to put together a free screening open to students and community members of Soul on Ice<\/em>, a unique documentary about the past, present and future of black hockey players.\r\n\r\n
\"Source:<\/a>
Source: physical.utoronto.ca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nI was a little hesitant because I\u2019ve never been a hockey fan, nor do I know much at all about hockey. The screening took place at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport in the Kimel Family Fieldhouse \u2013 it was my first time standing in this stunning space, and now I\u2019m eager to check out a Varsity game there in the future.\r\n\r\nYour MoveU team was there, directing people prior to the start of the film.\r\n\r\n\"IMG_1008\"<\/a>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTerry Gardiner, Assistant Manager of Diversity and Equity at KPE welcomed everyone and introduced the film, which was played on what I imagine is usually the scoreboard.\r\n\r\n\"IMG_1012\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nChris Rock kicked it off with what I found to be a funny quote. \u201cBlack people dominate sports in the United States \u2013 20 per cent of the population and 90 per cent of the Final Four\u2026 Basketball, baseball, football, golf, tennis, and as soon as they make a heated hockey rink we'll take that\u2026too.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhile revealing the history of black hockey players, Soul on Ice<\/em> followed the journey of Jaden Lindo, a black hockey player preparing for the NHL draft. Jaden said he\u2019d once been asked what it\u2019s like to be a black hockey player and he responded, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I\u2019m just a hockey player that happens to be black.\u201d Jaden and other black hockey players revealed that they\u2019re frequently asked why they don\u2019t play basketball. Not a question I imagine many white hockey players would get.\r\n\r\n
\"Jaden<\/a>
Jaden Lindo, ladies and gentlemen.
Source: soulonicemovie.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nTurns out, the Coloured Hockey League was the first organized coloured league, before the Negro Basketball League. Black hockey players aren\u2019t new to the sport by any definition. The Coloured Hockey League actually contributed to the way the game is currently played in the NHL. It was in that league that goalies were allowed to get down on the ice to block a shot on net. The NHL adopted this later on.\r\n\r\nThe film featured interviews with many black NHL players, past and present, as well as coaches, community members, and officials. Some names you may recognize are P.K. Subban (I sat next to his sisters at the screening!), Mike Marson, Val James, Wayne Simmonds, Devante Smith-Pelly, Joaquin Gage, and Grant Fuhr. They spoke of the challenges black hockey players faced. It was appalling!\r\n\r\nIt wasn\u2019t long ago that snipers were at hockey games to protect a black player from getting shot. The players would receive death threats! Fans, officials, even their own coaches and teammates referred to the black players with the N-word. \u201cSpook! Spook! Spook!\u201d was heard from the stands. Those featured in the film reflected on the bravery it took to be a black hockey player.\r\n\r\n
\"Mike<\/a>
Mike Marson explains the adversity he faced, largely in the form of death threats.
Source: soulonicemovie.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nWilliam O\u2019Ree (first black athlete to play in the NHL) expressed just how ridiculous that was, wondering, \u201cWhy a black man should have to be brave just to follow his chosen profession...\u201d Filmmaker Damon Kwame Mason revealed later that O\u2019Ree cried upon seeing the finished film in Washington, D.C.\r\n\r\nAnd what about Jaden Lindo? Despite injury and adversity, he was drafted to the Pittsburgh Penguins.\r\n\r\n
\"Willy<\/a>
Willy O'Ree
Source: soulonicemovie.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nFollowing the film, was a brief panel discussion featuring Kwame, Heather Lindo (mother of Jaden Lindo) and Darren Lowe (Varsity Blues Men\u2019s Hockey Head Coach, first black Olympian to play for Team Canada and<\/em> quite possibly, the first black university level hockey coach). The panel reflected on some of the issues portrayed in the film, what it takes to support an aspiring black hockey player, but also on the role of women, often seen as the backbone of those players.\r\n\r\nKwame summed up the theme of the night well, saying hockey is Canada\u2019s sport and the sport should reflect what our country looks like.\r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Was anyone at the Soul on Ice<\/em> screening last week? The Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KPE) partnered with Hart House to put together a free screening open to students and community members of Soul on Ice<\/em>, a unique documentary about the past, present and future of black hockey players.\r\n\r\n
\"Source:<\/a>
Source: physical.utoronto.ca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nI was a little hesitant because I\u2019ve never been a hockey fan, nor do I know much at all about hockey. The screening took place at the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport in the Kimel Family Fieldhouse \u2013 it was my first time standing in this stunning space, and now I\u2019m eager to check out a Varsity game there in the future.\r\n\r\nYour MoveU team was there, directing people prior to the start of the film.\r\n\r\n\"IMG_1008\"<\/a>\r\n\r\n
Continue reading “Soul on Ice Film Screening: Past, Present and Future of Black Hockey Players”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,7206,59,62,65,61,66,82,67],"tags":[25512,16197,16195,16198,16196,11000,12032,2112,1515,564,15653,276,1914,1976,16203,10788,16201,2116,16204,1734,16199,16200],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28031,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27986\/revisions\/28031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}