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Entries with the tag: willie+o'ree
Everybody Hates Chris… But Loves Willie
by Alanah McGinley on 03/25/08 at 04:14 PM ET
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From Thomas LaRocca at NHL.com:
“I was nervous,” O’Ree said of his taping. “I was more nervous than in my NHL debut. I had my lines all down pat and then they changed the script and then changed it again.
“This was my first acting appearance and it was fun; but I would much rather be on the ice playing hockey.”
Spoken like a true hockey player.
Also appearing in the episode was New Jersey Devils goaltender Kevin Weekes. He was also in the scene with O’Ree, helping the two main characters, Drew and Chris, with directions to see the New York Islanders play Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers in the early 1980s.
Thanks to Steve for giving me the heads up. This episode of Everybody Hates Chris airs on the CW network, March 30th. A preview is available below:
Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils, Hockey Related Stories | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: everybody+hates+chris, kevin+weekes, willie+o'ree,
O’Ree on Today’s NHL Hour
by Alanah McGinley on 01/17/08 at 03:49 PM ET
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NEW YORK (January 17, 2008) – In celebration of the 50th anniversary of his NHL debut, Willie O’Ree will be a guest on today’s edition of NHL Hour hosted by National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman on XM Satellite Radio.
On January 18, 1958, playing for the Boston Bruins against the Montreal Canadiens, O’Ree became the first black person to play in the NHL. O’Ree played 45 games with the Bruins from 1958-61. His professional career spanned 21 seasons, mostly in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Los Angeles Blades and the San Diego Gulls. For the past 10 years, O’Ree has served as the National Hockey League’s Director of Youth Development and hockey ambassador for NHL Diversity and has introduced the game to thousands of future players of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds.
NHL Hour broadcasts live Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET on NHL Home Ice, (XM channel 204) and NHL.com. The show will re-run on XM Satellite Radio and NHL.com, with archived shows available for download via a podcast on NHL.com.
*At showtime, listen live at this link
Filed in: NHL Media | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: gary+bettman, media, nhl+hour, nhl+radio, willie+o'ree,
A Look At Willie O’Ree
by Paul on 12/14/07 at 08:30 AM ET
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from Black Athlete,
Tough Willie O’Ree—whose older brother used to hit him into the boards to get him used to the greetings of NHL players—always had to be ready for a fight. Because there was always a fist, elbow, stick or—especially in New York, Chicago and Detroit—a slur in O’Ree’s face.
“I never wanted to be a fighter, but I wasn’t going to let anyone push me out of the league,” he says as we walk the quiet halls of the TD Banknorth Garden, the arena that replaced the original Boston Garden in 1995.
He never picked a fight because of a racial comment.
“I let them go in one ear and out the other—(otherwise) I’d be fighting all the time,” he says.
Update 5:19pm ET: At Willie O’Ree’s NHL.com blog, an interview with O’Ree and Snoop Dogg at a Ducks game this week.
Filed in: NHL Talk, Old School | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Snoop+Dogg, Willie+O'Ree,
O’Ree Still Has Goals
by Paul on 12/09/07 at 10:03 AM ET
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from Devon O’Neil of the Boston Globe,
By 1996, most of the sports world - and, for that matter, the rest of the world - had forgotten about Willie O’Ree. Which explains how he found himself working in San Diego at the historic Hotel del Coronado as a security guard, making about $9 an hour, a soft-spoken black man with gray wisps of hair from the Canadian province of New Brunswick, creeping through his 60s politely and privately.
Every so often, O’Ree would bump into someone who knew who he was. Like the time before he took the job at the hotel, when he was assigned to work security for Michael Jordan at a pro-am golf tournament. Jordan grinned when he saw O’Ree. He knew he’d been the first black man ever to take the ice in an NHL game, that he was, as it’s said, the “Jackie Robinson of hockey.”
read on (take some time out to read this lengthy story) & more hockey bits.
Filed in: NHL Talk, Old School | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Willie+O'Ree,
