Color of Hockey: NFL veteran Jack, mom 1st Black ECHL team majority owners

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Myles Jack, who became a majority owner of the Allen Americans of the ECHL in October along with his mother, LaSonjia Jack. They are the first Black majority owners in the league’s history.

Myles Jack partially credits hockey with getting him back into the National Football League.

The 28-year-old linebacker retired in August after playing seven seasons for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers and made history in October when he and his mother, LaSonjia Jack, became majority owners of the Allen Americans of the ECHL, the first Black majority owners in the league.

Jack quickly became a hands-on boss who attended the Ottawa Senators ECHL affiliate’s home and road games, practices, occasionally worked out with players, and even put on a pair of skates for a lap -- albeit a slow one -- around a rink.

But then that competitive itch returned.

“Yeah, I would say so,” Jack said. “As a competitor, watching the hockey games, watching them hit each other, watching close games. It’s two different sports but the objective and team goals and the elements that make a winning team are all pretty much the same no matter what sport you’re in.”

About the same time, the Steelers came calling. Depleted at linebacker due to injuries, they asked Jack if he were interested in making a comeback. He signed a contract with Pittsburgh’s practice squad in November.

“To come back to the Steelers and just kind of get another peek at how they run things and how the coaches establish how everything runs is definitely something I would like to emulate in Allen, for sure,” he said.

Jack is now balancing being a player and an owner trying to keep up with the day-to-day doings in Allen, Texas, more than 1,200 miles away from Pittsburgh.

“Even just stuff like injury updates, players, trying to get sponsorships, working with people in the city, trying to meet up with other people from other teams to get their ideas, it’s a full-time job,” he said. “It’s two full-time jobs.”

Not that Jack minds being busy. He contemplated going to trade school to study becoming a plumber or electrician when the Steelers released him in March and before the Philadelphia Eagles signed him in early August (he was with the team for two weeks before he initially made his decision to retire and never played a game for Philadelphia). And he spent much of his short-lived NFL retirement behind the wheel of airplanes working toward a pilot’s license.

“I was, like, going five times a week,” said Jack, who lives in Jacksonville in the offseason. “I was trying to hurry up and get my pilot’s license so that way I could fly myself from Jacksonville to Allen while I was building up hours. I was trying to speed up the process so I could get up and go whenever need be.”

Jack said he had little exposure to hockey growing up or while playing football at UCLA. He attended a Jacksonville Icemen ECHL game while he was playing for the Jaguars and was mesmerized.

“I was literally on the glass, watching them hit, watching how fast they’re moving, guys jumping on the ice, jumping off the ice, the goalie catching the puck with one hand,” he said. “It was nonstop action, and I quickly caught a grasp of the game. I was, like, ‘What better sport to be a part of?’ And I feel like it’s growing, literally, every day.”

Jack and his mother, who goes by 'LJ,' struck up a friendship with Icemen and Zawyer Sports Consulting owner Andy Kaufmann and through retired NFL defensive end Reggie Hayward and his wife, Megan, obtained a one-percent interest in the Buffalo Sabres’ ECHL affiliate in 2021.

“I’m like what I call ‘Mama Shark Tank,’” LJ said. “When people have great ideas, they bounce it off me. If I think it’s a wonderful idea, I’ll get more information, have some meetings and then I’ll bring Myles in on, ‘Hey this looks pretty good’ and bring in our finance guy.

“I went to a meeting with Andy, and they sat down. and they explained to me about the Icemen. And I fell in love at the start of it. I’m originally from Evanston, Illinois, outside of Chicago, so I’m very familiar with hockey and ice skating, that’s what we did every weekend. So we said, ‘Yes, we’d like to be involved.’”

They added to their hockey portfolio in 2022 with a two-percent stake in the ECHL expansion Savannah Ghost Pirates, the Vegas Golden Knights’ farm team also owned by Kaufmann.

They also have a minority percentage of the Tahoe Knight Monsters, an ECHL expansion franchise co-owned by former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, and the Leeds United soccer team of League 1, along with U.S. Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps.

“We still love our Icemen, our Savannah Ghost Pirates, but this (Allen Americans) is our baby, and we’re rolling up our sleeves and we’re going to help everyone live the hockey dream,” LJ said.

The Jacks hope their ownership of the Americans inspires people of color in Allen and beyond to get involved in hockey as fans, players, coaches and even owners.

“Definitely one of my plans in Allen is to get more kids from underserved communities, anybody who doesn’t necessarily have the resources to get on the ice," Jack said, "to give them the opportunity to make a lane for themselves because hockey is going to be a bigger sport than it is right now in a couple of years as more people catch on.”