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News and Press Archive
News and Recent Press
8/29/2010: Boxscore News Reaches Major Milestone
New York City 08/29/10. Stryker-Indigo New York announced today that Boxscore News, the online sports news and information site, has surpassed the 100,000 unique visitor mark since going online on May 10th. As of Friday, August 27th, 101,915 unique visitors from a total 172-countries, had visited Boxscore News. These individuals recorded a total of 148,180 pageviews.
Boxscore News ( www.boxscorenews.com ) is a Division of Stryker-Indigo. The site features the works of a number of leading historians associated with the Society Of North American Historians And Researchers (www.sonahhr.com)including historians George and Darril Fosty.
6/23/2010: HALIFAX: BLACK YOUTH HOCKEY INITIATIVE -APPLICATIONS BEING ACCEPTED!
HOCKEY NOVA SCOTIA SOLICITING APPLICATIONS FOR INNOVATIVE NEW PROGRAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, 23 June 2010 – Hockey Nova Scotia (HNS) is pleased and excited to announce the inception of an innovative new program and is currently looking for applicants to fill said program.
HNS along with the Black Ice Hockey and Sport Hall of Fame Society, Sport Nova Scotia Support4Sport and Dean Lee, a Mount Saint Vincent Graduate student, has developed the Black Youth Hockey Initiative.
The program is designed to attract children who historically have not participated in hockey and give them the opportunity to do so. The pilot program for Black youth will consist of a one-day introduction to hockey camp, a once-per-week 15 week hockey program during the 2010-2011 season and full set of gear, at no cost to the participant.
“This is a great opportunity to grow hockey and focus on children who have not been provided access to Canada’s Game. We are starting this on a small scale with one program but see this program extending to all youth, of all backgrounds, interested in a more recreational level of hockey in the province,” said Don Matheson, president of HNS.
HNS is currently looking to place 30 Black youth (male and female) between the ages of five and eight.
For more information, please visit the Hockey Nova Scotia website – www.hockeynovascotia.ca for an application form or contact Meridith MacDonald for further details - 902-454-9400.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Meridith MacDonald, coordinator communication and special events
Hockey Nova Scotia
902-454-9400
mmacdonald@hockeynovascotia.ca
5/16/2010: Box Score News Now Online!
For the latest George or Darril Fosty articles check out Box Score News at: http://www.boxscorenews.com
10/18/2009: COPPER AND BLUE: AN INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE AND DARRIL FOSTY
An Interview With George and Darril Fosty, the Authors of "Black Ice"
by Derek Zona on Oct 17, 2009 9:00 AM PDT in History
In August, I reviewed Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925 and told you all that "...The words of the leaders of these black communities resonated long after I was done reading..." They resonated so much that I reached out to the authors, George and Darril Fosty and asked if they would mind answering a few questions. The ensuing conversation is below the jump. We explored a couple of controversial topics and the authors were very forthcoming. During the interview, George mentioned that they are working on a follow-up to Black Ice - we eagerly await the results.
C& B: What was the catalyst that started you on this project?
GEORGE: We were researching the history of Hockey for our first book, Splendid is the Sun: The 5,000 Year History of Hockey when we came across a few obscure references to the Colored Hockey League. At the time we simply put the information to the side, believing that the story would either be incorporated into a footnote or as a small reference in the book.
C&B: This obviously took a monumental amount of research. Where did you start?
GEORGE: The first references to the league were discovered in 1996. We reviewed thousands of books and sources and found 3-references. From there we started to look at non-sports histories including early black histories and regional Canadian histories from the Maritimes and the Northeastern United States.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AT:
http://www.coppernblue.com/
3/6/2009: Reviews Black Ice: The Lost History of the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925
College Quarterly
Summer 2008 - Volume 11 Number 3
Reviews Black Ice: The Lost History of the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925
George Fosty and Darril Fosty
New York: Stryker-Indigo Publishing, 2004
Reviewed by James Satterfield
Having grown up in the American South, I became fascinated with learning about the plight of slaves brought to America. I traveled some of the paths taken by slaves on the Underground Railroad. As a young adult, I reread the story of Henry “Box” Brown and how he shipped himself from Virginia to Pennsylvania to escape slavery. The story left me with new questions about other slaves who achieved freedom in the North. I asked myself, with this new-found freedom, how did they negotiate their place in their new society, how difficult was it to adopt new cultural norms, and what did they do for fun. These questions, at least in part, have been answered by brothers and authors George and Darril Fosty’s book, Black Ice: The Lost History of the Coloured Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925.
It is well documented that sports in society can contribute to the defining of a community’s social structure, the development of sociological norms and, in some cases, has the capability to explain the history. The Fosty’s book is a prime example of how perception can sometimes pass as reality. When thinking of sports and history as they relate to people of colour, most think of Jackie Robinson breaking the Major League Baseball colour barrier in 1947, Willie O’Ree having his debut with the Boston Bruins in 1958, or the Negro Baseball League of the early twentieth century. However, what people do not think of are the coloured hockey leagues in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
To major hockey enthusiasts, this book might lack some of the detail when chronicling the Black Loyalist, the Maroon Colony, and the development of Africville, a community located on the shore of the Bedford Basin in Halifax. Conversely, for the beginner to intermediate historian, this book offers wonderful lessons in Canadian history; and, for hockey enthusiasts, Black Ice offers a window into a largely forgotten part of Canadian hockey.
As with most history books, Black Ice is not without controversy. The authors suggest that the contributions made by the Black hockey players largely went ignored. For example, they state that Black goaltender Henry “Braces” Franklyn was the first player to drop to his knees to tend goal. In addition, the authors also say that Joseph André “Boom Boom” Geoffrion was not the inventor of the slap shot, but rather that it was a Black man named Edward “Eddie” Martin, the captain of the all-Halifax Eurekas. Although there are written and oral histories to substantiate the authors’ claim, the manner in which Black Ice is written displays some antipathy to the historical misrepresentations of Black contributions to the sport. Depending on the reader, the presentation of the facts could be understood as a purposeful slighting of African Canadians’ place in history.
What this book does not provide is any great deal of information about individual players; however, what it lacks in specifics, it surely makes up by identifying the teams. There were team names such as the Africville Brown Bombers, the Coloured Magnets, and the New Glasgow Speed Boys, just to name a few. The Fostys make it obvious that the team names offered a new sense of pride to a group of young men who were not far removed from slavery. This idea leads to another important fact explored by the Fostys.
The authors bring to the reader’s attention the Coloured League’s unique organizing principle. The league used the Bible as its rule book, and sought to inspire Blacks to compete equally with their White brethren. Through Black Ice, the Fostys show how the game of hockey was the catalyst that brought teamwork, determination, leadership and a sense of community to its participants and supporters.
As with most good things, the Colored Hockey League came to an end. The Fostys have done a good job of detailing the beginnings of the league, describing its transitional periods and explaining its end. They also were able to highlight the social mechanisms that contributed to the disbanding of the league.
The book ends with a chapter called “The Death of Africville.” This chapter is particularly well done because it brings together all of the pride, hope and determination demonstrated by the men of the hockey league, and shows how social programs can sometimes cause the death of something beautiful. After reading Black Ice, I do not believe I’ll ever look at hockey in the same way.
James Satterfield teaches in the Eugene T. Moore School of Education at Clemson University in South Carolina. He can be reached at satter3@clemson.edu
3/2/2009: Journeys Into Hockey Radio Special: Black Ice
Journeys Into Hockey. Exploring hockey's offbeat, off the beaten path, overlooked and forgotten - with Eric Model
SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 2009
Black Ice: “The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes: 1895-1925″.
Comprised of the sons and grandsons of runaway American slaves, the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes helped pioneer the sport of ice hockey changing this winter game from the primitive “gentleman’s past-time” of the nineteenth century to the modern fast moving game of today. In an era when many believed blacks could not endure cold, possessed ankles too weak to effectively skate, etc. (”and lacked the intelligence for organized sport”), these men defied the defined myths.
We speak with George Fosty, one of the co-authors of “Black Ice”.
Aired on Xm Radio - Channel 204 in February, 2009.
At:
http://conversationsontheroad.com
8/19/2008: 2008 HERITAGE AWARD RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED!!!!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
08/19/08. New York City. The Society Of North American Hockey Historians And Researchers, in conjunction with the Black Hockey And Sports Hall Of Fame, announced today the 2008 recipients of The Heritage Award For Outstanding Hockey Research And Writing . A total of eight hockey books and ten authors are being recognized this year. This year’s recipients are:
1. Timothy Gassen - Red, White & Blues: A Personal History Of The Indianapolis Racers Hockey 1974-1979
2. Michael McKinley - Putting A Roof On Winter: Hockey's Rise From Sports To Spectacle
3. Andrew Podnieks - A Canadian Saturday Night: Hockey And The Culture
4. Brad Kurtzberg - Shorthanded: The Untold Story Of The Seals: Hockeys Most Colourful Team
5. James Mancuso and Fred Zalatan -The Clinton Comets: An EHL Dynasty
6. Todd Jones -The History Of Cambridge Hockey
7. Martin C. Jones - Homes Of British Ice Hockey
8. George and Darril Fosty -Black Ice: The Lost History Of The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925
In addition to the ten Heritage Awards for outstanding sports writing and research, the Society Of North American Hockey Historians And Researchers and the Black Hockey And Sports Hall Of Fame have commissioned a special Heritage Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to the game of ice hockey. The 2008 award is presented to:
Mr. Larry Kwong of Calgary, Alberta - In Recognition of the 60th Anniversary of being the first Asian to play in the National Hockey League
This is the third year of the Heritage Awards. The Awards will be presented individually or mailed to the recipients beginning in mid-September 2008.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2008 AWARD WINNERS !!
8/7/2008: 1839 Reference To Black Hockey In Canada Discovered
Carl Gidén and Patrick Houda of the Swedish Ice Hockey Historical and Statistical Society, SIHSS, with the assistance of Bill Fitsell of
the Society for International Hockey Research, SIHR have discovered and confirmed the earliest written account of black hockey being played in Canada. The discovery was made July 10th 2008 in
"The Echoes From the Backwood; Or Sketches Of Transatlantic Life"
written by Capt. R.G.A. Levinge. Quoting Volume II, chapter XIX; "Upper Canada - Niagara District", page 250:
"During the winter, the skating on Chippewa Creek was excellent and added not a little to our amusement. Large parties contested games of hockey on ice, some forty or fifty beeing ranged on each side. A ludicrous scene, too, was afforded by the instruction of a black corps in skating: from the peculiar formation of a negro´s foot, and the length of his heel, they were constantly falling forward; it was impossible to keep them on their skates, and down they came in whole sections. They might have done admirably on snow-shoes, but it was lamentable to witness the dreadful "headers" they suffered from the skates."
The "Black Corps"
December 11 1837, Niagara Ontario - A corps of "Africans" was raised out of the 400 black residents of Niagara; a company of 50 men was in arms by December 15. A second African company was later raised in Niagara, and the two joined together to form the "Coloured Corps" with a combined strength of about 130 men. The unit guarded the frontier from Chippewa to Drummondville during the winter 1837-38.
The Swedish Hockey Society is currently working with SONAHHR on efforts to locate a copy of the Boy's Own Book from 1810, London. The book, cited and quoted in the 1898 book, Hockey Historical And Practical, is believed to be the original source of the rules of Ice Hockey. To date, no copy of the 1810 book has ever been found.
8/7/2008: At Roxbury Film Festival, a difficult question: Can white filmmakers make black films?
From The Bay State Banner Newspaper, Boston, Massachusetts, August 7, 2008, p. 1
Last week’s 10th Annual Roxbury Film Festival featured dozens of films that dealt with the issue of racism — both on and off camera.
One such film was “Steam,” the festival’s sold-out closing night gala presentation. Starring Academy Award nominee Ruby Dee and co-starring Ally Sheedy, “Steam” follows the lives of three women whose sole connection is weekly meetings at their local health club’s sauna.
During a question-and-answer period following the screening, Dee, Sheedy and director Kyle Schickner fielded questions from the audience. One viewer said that while watching films, she often braces herself for stereotypical portrayals of race that leave her “hurt, embarrassed or angry.”
“I wait for the black woman in the red dress, I wait for the bulging eye of a child, I wait for watermelon mouth,” she said, “and you always see it.”
Addressing Schickner, who is white, she added, “But this film did not have not one second of that … and I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to really enjoy your movie.”
Schickner smiled.
“For me, that means so much because, quiet as it’s kept, I am not an 80-year-old black woman,” he said. “I am scared that I’m not going to get it right. That is a big fear, and hearing that is very important to me.”
Minority viewers may have their doubts about whether white writer-directors can encapsulate others’ experiences in a manner that is respectful and genuine, if not fully authentic. Schickner said he understands the concern.
“I get it,” he said. “I’m sure that when I walked up here, there was a bit of a wave of, ‘Oh, here we go …’”
Schickner was not the only white filmmaker to address such concerns at this year’s festival. In fact, one film dealt explicitly with them: Ryan Piotrowicz’s “The Project,” which tells the story of white filmmakers making a documentary about black youth in Brooklyn.
Piotrowicz explained that telling the story from the viewpoint of young, well-to-do white filmmakers, rather than the perspective of housing project inhabitants, allowed him to retain the subjects of the documentary’s principal characters without speaking on their behalf.
Though his film’s screening was both well attended and well received, Piotrowicz said “The Project” has faced its share of criticism at other festivals.
“There has been a small but very vocal minority of people who really had some really strong reactions against the film,” he said. Some detractors voiced displeasure with Piotrowicz’s portrayal of poverty, drug commerce and violence within black housing projects.
What’s interesting about those detractors, he said, is they’re race.
“The funny thing is, black people seem to agree that I engage with these issues with courage and concern, giving them the serious weight they deserve,” said Piotrowicz. “It’s only certain of these white so-called liberals who seem to have a problem with it.”
White people dealing with race and privilege is also at the forefront of “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North.”
The documentary follows Katrina Browne after she discovers that her ancestors, the DeWolfs, were the largest slave-trading family in American history.
Browne unites other DeWolf descendants from across the country, and together they visit Bristol, R.I., their ancestral hometown — founded largely on profits from the slave trade. From there, the group travels to former slave plantations in Cuba, where slaves made rum, to Ghana, where the African slaves were shipped off. Gradually, they begin to realize that their own privilege is connected to the historic legacy of slavery.
One of the documentary’s most poignant scenes features a black project co-producer, Juanita Brown, who is coerced into talking to the family.
“If you grew up where I grew up, you’d be pissed off, you know?” Brown says. “Anybody who’s alive or paying attention should be pissed off, and the fact that white people are not pissed off means that they are not paying attention.”
The history of slavery and its long-term effects are addressed in “Black Ice,” which received this year’s Best Documentary Short award. Recovering the nearly lost story of black involvement in the sport of hockey in the late 19th and early 20th century, the movie was directed and produced by white Canadian historians and brothers George Fosty and Darril Fosty.
George Fosty led a brief but animated Q&A session after the documentary’s screening. He was joined by Drakeford Levi, who serves on the executive board of the Black Ice Project, which seeks to increase involvement of people of color in ice hockey.
As Levi explained, George Fosty’s race has assisted with the Black Ice Project’s struggle to be taken seriously in the eyes of the hockey establishment, including the National Hockey League.
“It really helps that George is white,” Levi said. “Whenever we talk to [potential financiers], they always suspect that we have some sort of agenda. But what can they say about George, with his intense passion? What agenda could he have except for a commitment to the truth?”
Levi was not the only person at the festival to report encountering racism in the film industry.
Thinking back to meetings with Hollywood studio executives about “Steam,” Schickner recalled being asked to “cut out Ruby Dee’s character.” Nobody wants to see a movie about old women, Schickner said he was told, “especially African American, that was the subtext.”
Schickner also spoke about the privilege accorded to white filmmakers in the studio system.
“I would have friends — much more talented females and much more talented people of color and really much more talented women of color — that were writers, and I would get meetings easier,” he said.
While socially conscious filmmakers like Schickner, Piotrowicz and the Fosty brothers represent only a fraction of white writers and directors working in the film industry, their efforts are nonetheless encouraging.
“My feeling is we have enough films that star straight white men in the world,” said Schickner. “There are other stories to tell.”
Dee later added that while such films can be “true and noble,” they only make up “part of the story,” insisting that it’s up to the independent filmmakers like those at the Roxbury Film Festival to “make films that are not the norm about Africans.”
8/4/2008: CANADIAN FILM, BLACK ICE, WINS BEST DOCUMENTARY AT ROXBURY FILM FESTIVAL
Boston, Massachusetts. 08/03/08. The hockey documentary, Black Ice, produced and directed by Canadian historians and filmmakers George and Darril Fosty, has won the best short film documentary award at the 10th Annual Roxbury Film Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. http://roxburyfilmfestival.com/
The award, accepted by Warren Beatty of AAB Talent in Toronto, on behalf of the Fosty's and their Stryker-Indigo New York film crew, is by all accounts a major surprise given the caliber of the festival film competition, which included documentaries produced by Spike Lee and Danny Glover, and the fact that Black Ice is a Canadian hockey documentary produced on a budget of only $40,000.
Black Ice tells the story of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes an all-black ice hockey league that existed from 1895 -1925 in Nova Scotia, Canada. The film is based on the book of the same name written by the Fosty's in 2004. The book, Black Ice, is expected to be re-released and distributed across Canada by Nimbus Publishing beginning later this month.
8/4/2008: BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: BLACK ICE WINS BEST DOCUMENTARY AT ROXBURY FILM FESTIVAL
Boston, Massachusetts. 08/03/08. George and Darril Fosty's documentary, Black Ice, has won the best short documentary award at the 10th Annual Roxbury Film Festival in Boston, Massachusetts.
The award, accepted by Warren Beatty of AAB Talent in Toronto, on behalf of the Fosty's and their crew, came as a total surprise to everyone given the caliber of the film competition, which included documentaries produced by Spike Lee and Danny Glover, and the fact that Black Ice is a hockey documentary.
Black Ice tells the story of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes an all-black ice hockey league that existed from 1895 -1925 in Nova Scotia, Canada.
5/17/2008: Black Ice Documentary Debuts At Toronto Sports Film Festival.
New York City. 05/17/08. George and Darril Fosty's much anticipated Canadian documentary, Black Ice, debuted last night at the 1st Canadian Sports Film Festival In Toronto. The 40-minute documentary, part-one of a two-documentary set, chronicles the rise and fall of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes. The film was well attended and was presented by Warren Beatty of ABB Talent Toronto, a member of the Black Ice production team.
The film is scheduled to appear next at the Roxbury Film Festival in late July in Boston, Massachusetts. The second feature, Breaking The Ice, is currently in production and is expected to premiere in August at the 3rd Black Ice Hockey And Sports Hall Of Fame Conference in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Both films will be featured during the August event.
1/26/2007: Fosty's Black Ice a valuable contribution to hockey history
January 22/07. By John McGrouty at NHL.com
Author George Fosty's presentation at Tuesday's NHL Diversity Luncheon at the Fairmount Hotel in Dallas promises to be a lively and informative affair. The event is co-sponsored by the African American Museum of Dallas.
Fosty and his brother, Darril, spent six years researching their 2003 book, Splendid Is The Sun: The 5,000 Year History Of Hockey, co-authored by John Jelley.
Professional historians, the Fosty brothers researched over 6,000 sources of information and in the process kept stumbling over seemingly unrelated pieces of information from obscure, limited sources that hinted at a long history of hockey being played by blacks around Halifax, Nova Scotia, and other areas of Atlantic Canada, then known as the Maritimes. They pored through public records, old newspapers, church archives, family collections and other sources to piece together their 2004 book, Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925.
It's a fascinating account of the development of not only black hockey, but Canadian hockey, stemming from the winter activities of blacks around Halifax and their descendants.
"I was stunned at one point when I realized that an important historical account of early hockey, an 1815 newspaper report of hockey being played on the Northwest Arm, near Halifax, that the people who lived in that area were black," Fosty said.
Many, but not all of these black Canadians, escaped American slavery via the Underground Railroad. But other families descended from brave black soldiers who were rewarded with land grants in Nova Scotia.
Early on, blacks controlled a solid block of agricultural land near Halifax and controlled an important part of the city's produce industry. As Halifax grew over the next 150 years, the Fosty's assert that white politicians practiced consistent discriminatory policies to degrade blacks, their neighborhoods, schools and hospitals.
Black Ice tells the story of the development of black hockey in coordination with the actions taken against blacks and the deprivations foisted upon them. Greed, murder, arson, sex scandals and intrigue stand side-by-side with slap shots and kick saves in this well-researched tome. Black Ice is a tale told in the broader context of its times.
"The history of Black Canadians has, for the most part, either been forgotten, deliberately destroyed, or conveniently ignored," the Fostys assert in Black Ice. "Most historians have often dismissed it, or have viewed it as irrelevant."
But according to Black Ice, the contributions of blacks to hockey were anything but irrelevant, including their style of play in the late 19th Century that superceded the style being played contemporaneously by whites. Henry "Braces" Franklyn was the first "flopping" goalie and it would be more than 50 years before Jacques Plante popularized the style in the NHL. The slap shot was first seen in the Colored Hockey League and not again in the NHL for a half century.
It took longer than that for that acknowledgement to occur and we are indebted to the Fostys for their research. There were reasons, rooted in racism, that credit wasn't given earlier.
"Many believed that sports could raise the lower classes and non-White races to a higher level of civilization and social development. All was well, the theory held as long as White men continued to win at whatever sport they played. Hockey was no different," the Fostys wrote.
The book hits white readers like a cold shower. The Fostys pull no punches. In a recent conversation with the genial and learned George Fosty, I suggested that Darril must have done the writing. But this is the very point of Multiculturalism: Understanding the feelings of others. Here is a black man who is an esteemed historian, a published author, a success by all standards, red-hot with anger at the treatment directed at earlier generations of blacks and the remaining vestiges of racism.
"The Black man, since the earliest days of Canadian history has been one of the greatest defenders of Canada," the Fostys write. "And yet, his accomplishments have never been fully told nor recorded. It is as if the Black man had never existed. In fact, if it had not been for the Black man carrying a rifle, Canada herself would have never existed. From the earliest days of British North America and the landing of the Black Loyalist forces in Nova Scotia, through to the War of 1812, and beyond, Black regiments served with distinction along the borderlands separating the British and their Canadian counterparts from the Americans. During the American attack on Canada in 1775 and the subsequent siege of Quebec City, it was a Black Canadian regiment, who comprised part of the "undaunted fifty," who defeated the Americans beneath the Citadel of Quebec."
What? Fosty's not black?
"You're not the first person to read the book and make that assumption but we have a responsibility as historians to tell the true story," Fosty said. "I grew up in Western Canada of French and Ukrainian ancestry so I think I was aware, to a lesser degree than blacks, that I was a double minority. And, Canadians, in general, feel we are a minority in North America. That influences us as historians and reflects in our writing. Our parents were blue-collar workers. My father worked on the railroad and so did I when I was younger. We grew up staunch socialist NDPers. We've never written about the elites."
"But there has been a widespread expectation that we are black. I know when I make public appearances, people see the white man approach the microphone and expect I'm going to announce the meeting's been cancelled!"
In that sense, the Fostys are the desired end product of Multiculturalism: They get it, they empathize and if not angry, they were determined to set the record straight.
George Fosty formerly worked for the U.S. military as an historian and currently lives on Long Island and works in New York City. His resume is that of a true renaissance man, resembling more the early life experiences of authors in the 1930s. His hockey credentials are solid. He once insulted an opponent who had just speared him in the mouth, "Louthy thtickwork, you aimed for my front teeth and knocked out my thide teeth." He still remembers his coach's words at the bench, "Geez Fosty, if you weren't so stupid, I'd think you were just dumb."
Born in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, he grew up idolizing the heroes of Smithers, British Columbia, Jim and Joe Watson of the Philadelphia Flyers. He later lived in Terrace and Kamloops, B.C., where Darril played against Mark Recchi and George went to school with Doug Lidster.
Black Ice is highly recommended as an important contribution the history of hockey, as well as the history of the Maritimes and Canada. The research is "professional grade" and the writing is entertaining and assertive. George Fosty was told he doesn't make things easy for himself, spending thousands of hours in seven years to publish a book targeted at as narrow a market as could be imagined.
"When we uncovered the history of these people and what they accomplished in the face of continuing opposition, we knew we had an obligation to tell their story," he said.
Willie O'Ree, who became the first black NHL player in 1958, will also appear at the luncheon. O'Ree has long insisted that there were talented blacks before him, Herb Carnegie, Stan Maxwell, and others who were qualified to play in the NHL but were denied.
Under Commissioner Gary Bettman, the league has created the NHL Diversity Program, funded minority hockey programs and increased the number of minority players, including blacks and aboriginals. The NHL has acknowledged the mistakes of the past and is intensely committed to erasing racism in hockey. We would hate to think someone could write this kind of book about us.
Black Ice is dedicated to Maxwell and Duane A. Snipe, a black New York jazz musician and friend of the Fostys, who urged them to write this history. Both Maxwell and Snipe assisted in preparing this book before their deaths.
3/5/2006: San Francisco Bay Newspaper View Reviews Black Ice
Slave revolts, the Underground Railroad and the Baptist Church: The rise and fall of the Black Hockey League
by Jean Damu
When something comes up missing or misplaced, occasionally it’s not a bad idea to look for it in your neighbor’s basement. In the case of the missing history of Black hockey players, Canada’s basement is the most logical place to look.
Hockey, arguably the fastest and most exciting team sport to watch, has traditionally been considered a white man’s game. And why wouldn’t it? Hockey, adapted from a game played by the Mi’kmaq Indians, originated in Nova Scotia, Canada, a country even today with just a 2 percent Black population. And that’s up from one tenth of 1 percent just 30 years ago.
Today, 50 years after the formation of the National Hockey League that now has 30 teams blanketing Canada and the U.S., there are 31 Blacks on NHL teams that employ a total of 600 players. As small a percentage as those 31 players represent, it is larger than one would logically assume to exist, because by and large, with the exception of Wayne Gretzky, the superhero of hockey, most players remain faceless.
Black life was not always so constrained in Canada. Even though historians downplay Canada’s own sordid attempts at slavery, slavery did indeed exist there, though it was never economically as viable as it was in the more Southern colonies.
During the American revolution, thousands of formerly enslaved Blacks and freedmen fought on the side of the British loyalists, many in the Ethiopian Regiments and the Black Rangers, because they saw their struggle (rightly so as it turned out) as a fight against slavery.
At the war’s unsuccessful (for them) conclusion and the guaranteed continuance of Black bondage in America, thousands of these freedom fighters and their families, known as the Black United Loyalists, resettled in Nova Scotia and other parts of Canada.
Other Black immigrants arrived in Nova Scotia from Jamaica in 1796. In exchange for their freedom, Maroon rebellionists were exiled to Canada and settled near Halifax in a community that came to be known as Africville. Life was difficult for the exiled Jamaicans in Nova Scotia, many taking the opportunity four years later to organize the first back to Africa movement and resettling in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Those who remained, both Black Loyalists and Maroons, though leading marginalized lives, prospered throughout much of the 19th century. They participated in various industries and conscientiously helped to man the terminus of the Underground Railroad until the end of the Civil War. Then in times of relaxation Blacks gravitated toward the Baptist Church and played sports, the men mostly concentrating on baseball and hockey.
Much of the information in this article is taken from the book “Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925,” by George and Darrill Fosty. The Fosty brothers are Canadian documentary filmmakers and, like all Canadians, it seems, hockey freaks.
According to the Fostys, Canadians first began to embrace hockey as a national sport as early as 1863 with the building of the first indoor hockey rink, an idea of eminent good sense in frigid Canada that would not be duplicated by football promoters in the United States for another 100 years.
With the development of indoor rinks, skating clubs in Canada seriously took up hockey and naturally enough in no time at all soon realized they could make money charging admission to the games. But from the start, Blacks were forced to lead a separate existence in the world of hockey and always found it difficult to schedule rink time at the indoor arenas.
For Canadians in general and Black Canadians in particular, here is where God and organized hockey joined hands. From the Fosty brothers, we learn that some Black pastors of the Baptist Church in Nova Scotia took to the idea of promoting hockey clubs as a way to build their church memberships. Baptist congregations maintained outdoor skating rinks and were enthusiastic spectators.
The Cornwallis Street Baptist Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the church that also provided much of the inspiration that went into the creation of the Black hockey league, including the coded language of the Underground Railroad that was memorialized in the names of various Black hockey teams.
Some of these included the Dartmouth Jubilees (for the Trinidadian holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the British Empire), the Hammond Mossbacks (for the moss that grows on the north side of trees that helped freed slaves find their way north), the Frederickton Celestials (for the North Star that also guided those on the Underground Railroad) and, most intriguingly of all, the Africville SS or Sea Sides, but which the Fostys claim also stood for Slave Salvation. Other interesting team names were the Emeralds, the Monarchs and the Black Panthers.
While the social and political background of the Black hockey league is important and interesting, the real contributions made by the Black players were the athleticism and competitiveness they brought to the game. As best they could under the constraints of the skating technology of the day, Blacks speeded up the game, pushed the envelope of rules and brought the game beyond the “gentlemanly conduct” initially expected of players.
Many, many Blacks were outstanding players and were considered among Canada’s finest, but some were standouts even among standouts. Henry “Braces” Franklyn of the Dartmouth Jubilees was one. At approximately 3 feet 6 inches, Franklyn must rank as one of history’s smallest professional athletes.
As a goalie, he revolutionized the game by playing “on the ice.” Previously, goalies had defended by standing up. Possibly because he was so close to the ice anyway, Franklyn would get on his knees or lay on the ice to defend the goal. Today that’s standard play, but Franklyn was the first one.
Another was Eddie Martin of the Africville Sea Side and later the Halifax Eureka. It is thought that Martin originated the slap shot 50 years before it was legalized by the NHL.
The precarious existence of Canada’s Black hockey league was tied directly to the precarious economics of Canada’s Black communities in her maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Though the league prospered from 1895 through the early 1930s, there are no recoded games after 1935, when Canadian industrial concerns, notably railroads, began to buy up historically Black owned properties and displace residents.
The NHL would not sign its first Black player, Willie O’Ree
8/20/2005: Minneapolis' Insight News Praises Black Ice!!!
From Insight News....Thursday, March 31, 2005
The Colored Hockey League: when Blacks also ruled on the ice. by Dwight Hobbes
History, it’s said, is a fable agreed upon. Nothing so clearly bears this out as the extent to which history obscures the accomplishments and contributions of people of color. Fortunately, there are historians and scholars who invest their abilities in setting the record straight – not to mention- the time and determination it takes to write, shop and place a book manuscript. It gets harder to agree on a fable when the truth stares you in the face.
Accordingly, information has been unearthed that is of no small consequence to this Midwest Region in which hockey is so hallowed a sport. Quiet as it literally has been kept, hockey, originated by North American Indians, was not always the province of Whites and, in fact, owes a great deal of today’s style of play to yesterday’s Black hockey players. That’s right: just as Major League Baseball’s bigotry necessitated the Negro Baseball Leagues, racism fostered The Colored Hockey League which made Canadian sports history (and help shape it) only to be ignored by authorities and media sustaining a supremacist credo. For such documentation we can thank the talented industry of George and Darril Fosty, who wrote "Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925" (Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc. $29.95 US, $34.95 Canadian).
Dismantling a longstanding lie, the brothers Fosty prove that the National Hockey League is not "a White man’s" sport or, at least, not one that the White man came by honestly. He came by it through imitating Indians and ostracizing and exploiting African Canadians. And, in the process, spread such propaganda as "blacks could not endure the cold, possessed ankles too weak to effectively skate and lacked the intelligence for organized sport". Integral to the Fostys’ book is the social climate that produced such readily accepted bilge.
Against this background we profoundly appreciate – in as much as we can this far removed from their struggles – just what Black hockey players and Black people, period, went through. Racism north of the U. S. border was just a ruthless and cowardly, including Ku Klux Klan terrorism, as it was throughout the U.S. in the late 1800’s. And, just as they did here, Blacks persevered.
It is particularly telling that the Colored Hockey League truly was a community institution. Administrated by educated leadership, the CHL was headed by Baptist ministers and members of their congregations. It produced, among other star quality athletes, innovative goal tender for the Dartmouth Jubilees, Henry Franklyn. Franklyn, was the first recorded goalie to throw himself down on the ice and stop a shot. Today, no one can conceive of a goalie who doesn’t. He would be called shiftless and lazy. The press of the time refused to acknowledge either Franklyn or the rest of the league. When this didn’t stop the Colored Hockey League, systematic undermining of produce merchants at the Halifax Green Market, a key component of Black commerce, did the deed. After 1925, White Canadians were absolutely free to claim hockey as their own.
It gets to the point where you have to wonder at the sheer hatefulness of some folk. Seems as long as there have been White people there has been the determinedly willful ignorance by which they deny Black humanity and then turn around and try to claim that Blacks are less than human. Thankfully, the demand for accurate history is being met by a supply of such authors as George and Darril Fosty. As well, Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc has donated its entire Black History Research and Artifacts Collection to the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia in an attempt to augment the Centre's current collections and preserve the legacy of Black history in Canada. The collection, part of the Black Ice Project, containing hundreds of artifacts collected during seven years of efforts to identify and document the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, marks an attempt by Stryker-Indigo historians to create a repository of artifacts for a future Black Hockey Hall of Fame Collection in Nova Scotia.
8/20/2005: Kamloops This Week Reviews Black Ice
Taken From The Kamloops This Week Newspaper, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, October 3, 2004.
REVEALING BLACK ICE
By DANNA JOHNSON
They are historians and former residents of Kamloops - it is no wonder two books to their credit have something to do with hockey.
George and Darril Fosty have taken on an enormous task. The brothers intend to erase the stigma that plagues Canadian history.
They endeavour to make Canadian history interesting.
Their latest attempt is entitled Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925, and will be released in bookstores throughout North America on Oct. 10.
Black Ice is a spin-off from the book they wrote last year, Splendid is the Sun: The 5,000-Year History of Hockey.
The brothers founded their own publishing company in New York, Stryker-Indigo, because of what they saw as a lack of Canadian content in North America.
"There are a lot of unique Canadian stories that have yet to be told," George said, like the story Black Ice, which took seven years to produce.
They faced several roadblocks in completing the book.
"The idea was totally met with skepticism. It was very slow going trying to get anyone to pay attention to our idea and our story.
"Part of it is the lack of cultural understanding in terms of black society," George said.
The Fostys began their foray into the history of Canadian hockey based on childhood experiences, George said. He remembers picking up hockey cards, flipping them over and reading the short biographies on the back.
"Nobody has written a social history on hockey . . . the average book on hockey is very impersonal."
Personalizing Can adian history, creating a social history, is the only way to change perception of Canadian history, he said.
"Canadians have always thought American history is more interesting . . . when was the last time you read a good book on Newfoundland? It's so typical of us to think this way, we're so ignorant of ourselves.
"We keep telling ourselves that we're different from Americans but we don't really know why.
"We can't explain ourselves," simply because we haven't been given the tools, he said.
Black Ice can be bought at www.stryker indigo.com.
8/20/2005: Inside Hockey Reviews Black Ice !
From the Inside Hockey Website, New York City, October 8, 2004.
Black Ice
The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925
Reviewed by Bobby Bryde, the editor-in-chief of HockeyMeister.com.
Show of hands: How many knew a Colored Hockey League ever existed? It's just as I thought - not many. But thanks to the efforts of Darril and George Fosty and their new book, Black Ice, I can now safely raise my hand!
The Fosty Boys proved once again they fear neither asking questions nor ruffling a few feathers. Their first book, Splendid Is the Sun: The 5,000 Year History of Hockey, outraged many who maintain that Canada is the true birthplace of hockey; Black Ice exposes a shameful episode in Canadian history, sure to enlighten Canadians who believe that racism is found exclusively south of the 49th Parallel.
"To my knowledge this is the first book of its kind," said Dr. Henry Bishop, of the Black Cultural Centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. "It's so much more than about hockey. It's the untold story of blacks and their struggle in sports history.
"Black Ice will do a lot to encourage young blacks to play the game," said the Fine Arts major who has been at the Black Cultural Center for 21 years. "The book should generate some enthusiasm within the black community."
Splendid Is the Sun displayed the Fosty Boys passion for research, but Black Ice proved a much more difficult task.
"We had so much information available to us while writing Splendid Is the Sun," says co-author Darril Fosty, "and the only difficulty was fitting it into a cohesive storyline." Black Ice would present the Fosty's with a bigger challenge: "It's a new history," explained Darril, "and there was no real body of research out there."
"It was a fragmented history," said Darril's brother, George. "We had no sources. It was a forgotten history - we started with basically nothing."
It doesn't take the reader long to sense the Fosty Boys desire to reach back into the past and throw down the gloves with the bigots who conspired to keep the black hockey players in their place.
"We felt it was our responsibility to make judgments and draw conclusions," said Darril. "Some may ask 'who are we to criticize Canadian history?'"
That appears to be a fair question; however, I defy anyone to read the book and still accuse the authors of overstepping their bounds.
While Splendid Is the Sun appeals to a limited niche (those interested in hockey and/or history), Black Ice begs to be read by students and all intrigued by the social implications of hockey and its place in Canadian history. The subtitle of Black Ice reads: "The Greatest Hockey Story Ever Told!" Perhaps more appropriate would have been, Black Ice: "The Greatest Hockey Story Never Told!"
Sidebar
One final show of hands: Who amongst us didn't go to great (sometimes absurd) lengths to continue playing after daylight? Whether you painted the puck or ball with luminous paint, used glow-in-the-dark tape, or turned on the headlights of dad's car, many of us plead guilty!
Well, if a hockey anecdote could ever be called 'charming', this paragraph from Black Ice fits the bill...
For Stellarton hockey was enhanced by its surroundings. Coal was king. It was everywhere. In fact, when the locals played hockey on the ponds they would dig holes through the snow and ice down to the exposed coal line along the surface of the ground. Holes were dug along the boundaries of the ponds at approximately two-foot intervals running the length of the frozen playing area. These coal outcroppings were subsequently ignited with matches. The coal, because of its highly unusual flammable content, would produce a small bright flame, bright enough to illuminate the immediate areas adjacent to the streams and ponds, making it possible for night games to be played. As a result, decades before the invention of electricity, hockey was the first sport to be played at night!
8/20/2005: England's A to Z Encyclopaedia of Hockey Names Black Ice Feature Book Of The Month
Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc., New York. October 23, 2004. England's A to Z Encyclopaedia Of Hockey has named Black Ice its featured book of the month for the month of October. In recognizing Black Ice they write:
The full title of the book is BLACK ICE: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895 - 1925.
The book is released this month by the Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company of New York and has been written by Stryker-Indigo's founders George & Darril Fosty.
The flyer for BLACK ICE reads "Twenty-five years before the Negro Baseball Leagues in the United States, and twenty-two years before the birth of the National Hockey League, Black Canadians helped pioneer the sport of ice hockey ..... the Colored League would emerge as a premier force in Canadian hockey ..... Unfortunately their contributions were conveniently ignored, or simply stolen, as White teams and hockey officials, influenced by the Black league, sought to take self-credit for Black hockey innovations".
Like their first hockey book SPLENDID IS THE SUN : The 5,000 Year History of Hockey, this tale of the Colored Hockey League is sure to stir things up amongst hockey historians.
The A to Z will have had the chance to review a copy of BLACK ICE by the end of the month and will run a giveaway competition in November as George Fosty is kindly making a number of copies available.
To find out more about BLACK ICE visit www.stryker-indigo.com
8/20/2005: Benjamin Mchie of the African American Registry Praises Black Ice
Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc., New York. October 10, 2004. Stryker-Indigo announced today that it has received a glowing review of the book Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925 from Benjamin Mchie, President/Executive Director, The African American Registry. Of the book, he writes:
"Black Ice is a wonderful manuscript that continues the honest awareness of African influence on early North America. George and Darril Fosty’s book offers an impacting factual story of sports blended with the humanity of Black community in Canada two centuries ago. With the Canadian national pastime as a backdrop, Black Ice holds information that should be in classrooms, collections, and libraries everywhere. Easily read this contribution is inclusive, insightful, succinct information that inspires and challenges."
Check out The African American Registry at: www.aaregistry.com
8/20/2005: African American Registry Cites Black Ice And The Story Of The Maroons
October 23, 2004. Stryker-Indigo Publishing Company, Inc., New York. The African American Registry, based in Detroit, Michigan, has updated their online history site by incorporating the story of the Jamaican Maroons based on the research found in Black Ice: The Lost History Of The Colored Hockey League Of The Maritimes, 1895 - 1925. The Maroon section reads as follows:
Maroons sign treaty with England!
March 1
"Making Peace"
*On this date in 1738, escaped African slaves and British settlers in Central America agreed to a conflict truce.
The articles of pacification from the English with the “Maroons” of Trelawny Town, Jamaica occurred on this date. The Maroons were escaped African slaves with communities in North, Central, and South America. The term Maroon derives from the Spanish word Cimarron. This word was first put on runaway cattle before it came to signify escaped African slaves. The first known Maroon was a slave who escaped from a boat in 1502.
His experience to gain freedom created a constant surge of others all over the Americas who ran away from their captures. These Maroons joined together forming their own communities that served as stations for raids on White settlements. Their communities were generally found in remote areas protected by mountains, swamps or jungles, and often Maroons joined local Native Americans using their methods. Palisades often guarded locations and they had well-constructed defenses such as disguised paths and false routes that led to quicksand and booby traps. Maroon communities were called various Spanish and Portuguese terms, including palenques, quilombos, cumbes, ladeires, and mambises.
Prior to 1700, men who had been born in Africa generally led the Maroon population; many claimed they had been Kings in their homeland. After 1700, Maroon leaders were often Creoles familiar with the ways of Whites and with African methods. The leader of the Maroon community in Jamaica was Captain Cudjoe (Kojo). During the 18th century, the Maroons became more powerful and settled in (among other places) the mountains of Jamaica. Carving out a significant area of influence, their threat to the system of slavery was clear; hence, the White planters signed a treaty with the Maroons in 1738. This treaty was an unlikely concession during the eighteenth century, given the dominance of the British class across the Caribbean. The treaty did not exclusively serve White interest. Article three of the treaty stated that the Maroons were given 1,500 acres of crown land.
Article eight of the treaty stated: “that if any white man shall do any manner of injury to Cudjoe, his successors or any of his or their people, shall apply to any commanding officer or magistrate in the neighborhood for justice.” This showed some equity under the law between the Maroons and White plantation owners. In brief, the British were willing to divide themselves equally among the Maroons. In general, the articles of pacification also attempted to limit Maroon attacks against the system of slavery. Article thirteen required that the Maroons continue to help clear roads from Trelawny Town to Westmoreland and, if possible, from St. James to St. Elizabeth. This was biased because, as free men, the Maroons were not entitled to labor for the planters showing a White view that the Maroons were inferior to them.
Another bias in the treaty includes article fourteen, which affirms that two White men shall live with the Maroons “in order to maintain a friendly correspondence with the inhabitants of this island.” This was to encourage a friendly relationship between the two but gave Whites first-hand knowledge of the state of affairs in the Maroon community. Most important of all, the treaty also required the Maroons to act as a sort of police force for the planters, returning future runaways to the plantations, and drafting them to fight against future rebellions.
Overall this treaty not only recognized the Maroons and their needs, but also revealed that the British were fearful of the Maroons capabilities and ever-rising power.
Reference:
Black Ice
The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895-1925.
by George and Darril Fosty
Stryker-Indigo Publishing Co., Inc./NY
ISBN 0-9651168-1-7
11/1/2004: Stryker-Indigo Donates Research Memorabilia and Artifacts to The Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia
Stryker-Indigo has announced that it has donated its entire Black History Research and Artifacts Collection to the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia , in an attempt to augment the Centre's current collections and to preserve the legacy of Black history in Canada. The collection, part of the Black Ice Project, and containing hundreds of artifacts collected during seven-years of efforts to identify and record the lost history of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, marks the first attempt by Stryker-Indigo historians to recreate the Colored League legacy and to create a repository of artifacts for a future Black Hockey Hall of Fame Collection in Nova Scotia. Among the items donated were: Canadian ice skates dating to the early 1800's, a Manilla slave braclet once worn by a young child, 19th century newspapers, photos, and a large collection of early 1900s Halifax postcards showing images of the City of Halifax prior to the Halifax Explosion. Stryker-Indigo will continue to promote the history of Black Canadians and urges all Canadians and Americans to support the Black Cultural Centre as they work to preserve an important part of the North American historic past.
11/1/2004: From the African American Registry
“With the Canadian national pastime as a backdrop, Black Ice holds information that should be in classrooms, collections, and libraries everywhere. Easily read this contribution is inclusive, insightful, succinct information that inspires and challenges.”
Benjamin Mchie, President/Executive Director:The African American Registry
"The Largest Depository of Black American History on-line in the World."
10/2/2004: Review from Inside Hockey
"The Fosty Boys proved once again they fear neither asking questions nor ruffling a few feathers . . . Black Ice exposes a shameful episode in Canadian history, sure to enlighten Canadians who believe that racism is found exclusively south of the 49th Parallel."
Bobby Bride Inside Hockey
9/30/2004: "The Greatest Hockey Story Every Told!"
Dr. Henry Bishop
Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
9/30/2004: "Recommended Reading"
Stan Fischler on Foxsports.com
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