Color of Hockey: Rinks named after some of sport's Black heroes

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog for the past eight years. Douglas joined NHL.com in March 2019 and writes about people of color in the game. Today, he profiles rinks named after Black men and women.

To some, they are just ordinary buildings -- nondescript facilities that house ice sheets, scoreboards, benches and locker rooms.
But a few rinks among the more than 10,000 spread across the United States and Canada are much more. At least six rinks in North America are named after Black men and women, monuments to those who have left an imprint on hockey and in the communities that the facilities serve.
From the shores of Atlantic City to the riverbanks of Fredericton, New Brunswick, the rinks are a roll call of both recognizable and unheralded figures.
Willie O'Ree
, who became the NHL's first Black player when he debuted with the Boston Bruins on Jan. 18, 1958, has the distinction of having two rinks that bear his name. The city of Boston unveiled the Willie O'Ree Street Hockey Rink in November 2018 prior to his induction in the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builders category.
"I think it's great," O'Ree, the NHL's Diversity Ambassador, said at the rink's dedication ceremony. "I think any time you can erect a facility where you can bring boys and girls and get them together, different races and creeds, and get them out to enjoy the game … what more can you ask?"

In January 2008, O'Ree's hometown of Fredericton dedicated Willie O'Ree Place, a state-of-the-art facility with two ice sheets, 11 locker rooms, an indoor walking track and three meeting rooms.
"There are very few rinks in New Brunswick named after individuals," David Alward, consul general of Canada to New England and former premier of New Brunswick, said in a Zoom chat in June. "But one of the rinks is named after him because of the impact that he's had on our community and around the world."
Angela James
was enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010 and the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006. But the former player who was called the "Wayne Gretzky of women's hockey" said one of her biggest honors came when officials in North York, Ontario, renamed Flemingdon Arena the Angela James Arena in June 2009.

Angela James, 2010 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee
"That's right up there with everything else that's happened in my life," James said in 2013. "It meant a lot to me and my family. It was a gathering of my family and community. To see that while I'm living was great."

Angela James Arena
Herb Carnegie wasn't able to see the ceremony renaming North York Centennial Centre the Herbert H. Carnegie Centennial Centre in 2001. Glaucoma had already robbed the then-81 year-old hockey legend of his sight.
But Carnegie,
who many consider the best Black player who never played in the NHL
, basked in the glow of the ceremony. The highlight of the event was when former NHL goalie Ken Dryden, then president of the Toronto Maple Leafs, presented Carnegie with a Maple Leafs jersey with his name and number.

"He was delighted," Bernice Carnegie, his daughter, said of the ceremony. "It truly honored his contributions to hockey and his life in hockey which was a prominent part of his whole journey. To have a community say, 'We value who you are beyond even hockey was tremendous to him."
Carnegie, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was a dazzling center who played in the Quebec Provincial Hockey League, the Quebec Senior League and the Ontario Hockey Association Senior A League. He was the center of the "Black Aces," professional hockey's first all-Black line that featured his brother, Ossie, and Manny McIntyre. Carnegie won two scoring titles and three most valuable player awards in the QPHL from 1944-48. He attended the training camp with the New York Rangers in September 1948 and turned down three contract offers because they paid less than he was making in Quebec. The final offer would have required him to play the season at the Rangers' top minor league affiliate in New Haven, about two hours away from Madison Square Garden.

Herbert H. Carnegie Centennial Center
Bernice Carnegie said her father rejected the offers because he had a growing family and couldn't afford the pay cut. Carnegie was 92 when he died on March 9, 2012.
Atlantic City's majestic Boardwalk Hall hosts concerts, concerts, boxing matches, ice shows and housed an ECHL team from 2001 to 2005. Whenever the facility has ice, the surface becomes the Art Dorrington Ice Rink in honor of the first Black player to sign an NHL contract.
Dorrington signed with the in 1950, eight years before O'Ree debuted with the Bruins. But he never reached the NHL and settled into a minor league career in which he scored 320 points (163 goals, 157 assists) in 345 games in the Eastern Hockey League, Eastern Amateur Hockey League and International Hockey League.

He retired in Atlantic City, became a sheriff and created the Art Dorrington Ice Hockey Foundation in 1997. The nonprofit program gives the city's low-income children the chance to play the game. His mantra to the kids: "On The Ice - Off The Streets."
Dorrington said he was "overwhelmed and overjoyed" in January 2012 when Atlantic City Boardwalk and convention center officials named the rink after him. O'Ree, Dorrington's good friend, was present for the honor. Dorrington was 87 when he died on Dec. 29, 2017.

Art Dorrington Ice Rink
Laura Sims never scored a goal, took a face-off or blocked a shot. She was a community activist in Philadelphia who became a hockey and ice skating institution in the city. Sims was a major force in persuading city officials to build the Cobbs Creek Skate House in 1985 in a predominantly Black West Philadelphia neighborhood.
"Laura was a dedicated citizen, a concerned member of the community and was relentless in her efforts to build this skate park," then-Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said in a 2005 statement honoring the rink's 20th anniversary. "She was a true inspiration to those who knew her and those who know her story."
The rink was renamed the Laura Sims Skate House in Cobbs Creek Park in 1999, to honor Sims, who died on March 23, 1998. Then-President Bill Clinton sent a letter honoring Sims that was read at the rink renaming ceremony.

Laura Sims Skate House ribbon cutting ceremony
But time wasn't kind to the Sims rink. With Philadelphia in a budget crisis, the semi-enclosed facility fell into disrepair. As the fiscal woes worsened, government officials signaled that the city might not be able to open the seasonal rinks. The Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation took over Sims and other city-run rinks in 2008. The foundation, named after the late Philadelphia Flyers chairman, contributed $6.5 million, which was matched by state funds, to repair and fully enclose the Sims facility and three other rinks.
In late 2011, Sims began life anew with NHL-caliber boards, lighting and glass. It and the other rinks help Snider Hockey serve more than 3,000 kids in the area.
Photos courtesy: Tom Briglia, Bernice Carnegie and Ed Snider/Youth Hockey Foundation